[FollowtheDream]

I must admit that there are definitely some useful information on this thread. I am 24 years old, and I just opened my first start-up business a few months back. I am definitely running into a few of these "mistakes" which I am slowly learning to overcome. A few mistakes that I personally made was the lack of focus on a targeted marketing plan, and the miscalculation on future expected growth.

Having a mentor is extremely important since my mentor advised me that creating a successful business will take a lot of time, effort, patience, dedication, and a clear plan and vision.

[phppoddotcom]

A mistake that people often do when running a start-up is implementing a new technology when they have no certain idea of developing it or when it is still early for the technology to be implemented.

[florie]

Trying to do it all by yourself and not asking for help is also one of the reason why people find it hard to start a business. I mean, you can always have skilled people working for you for costs that is right on the budget.

You just have to have the proper resources and people and your business will be up and running in no time.

___________________________________
Agents of Value Virtual Personal Assistant

[Scunizzo]

Thank you everyone for your feedback! We've just posted the final results in our blog:

YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog » The Top 20 Startup Mistakes - Entrepreneur Poll Results

Enjoy!

[pugsley]

I think maybe you left one out, start a business in a market that you have a passion for or at least get a lot of enjoyment in doing, Then first do the research to make sure there is a market to support that business before you just jump in.

Pugsley

[fundfindr]

This is a great topic and I'd like to add my two cents coming from the funding arena given that finding working capital can be a huge challenge (and make or break) for many new ventures.

Having now seen hundreds of young entrepreneurs "pitch" their ideas, I am amazed at how poorly some of the pitches are constructed. Guy Kawasaki is renowned for teaching the Art of the Pitch so I'd refer most people to him and his books/sites if they really want to dive in.

But if there was one single thing that I would say is consistently wrong with many pitches (and thus attempts to find money) - it's that too many entrepreneurs talk PRODUCT instead of talking MARKET.

The market is the opportunity, the pain that the product solves, the real potential of the business. The product and all its bells and whistles is a moot point if one doesn't identify the pain and how it is solved.

Identify the pain, find the business model for the solution, and then practice, practice, practice before you pitch.

Kevin McLeod
Development Director
fundfindr

[warrensway]

Sales ... single biggest problem. If people were able to correctly seek out potential customers they wouldn't have as many problems. The lack of sales knowledge is the biggest problem I see.

[JBHitman]

I dont know. From what ive learned i think its breaking out of the old ways of thinking. I have worked for a company from the ground up and I'm thinking the biggest shocker for us is the immense difference in how others have worked in the past. Marketing, Demographics, Page Ranking are a much bigger change than anything else

[fundfindr]

Originally Posted by JBHitman

I dont know. From what ive learned i think its breaking out of the old ways of thinking. I have worked for a company from the ground up and I'm thinking the biggest shocker for us is the immense difference in how others have worked in the past. Marketing, Demographics, Page Ranking are a much bigger change than anything else

JB, I totally agree with you for web-related businesses. I also work on some projects that are constantly trying to find the balance between the old-school business savy of the past with the new-school approach of leveraging technology. Quite the challenge but more related to the later stages of business where the decision making revolves around a team and not a single entrepreneur.