Being a human, we all make mistakes, which is totally acceptable as long as you are learning from them. No one is perfect, especially when you are going to embark on a new startup journey, you are more likely to encounter a lot of hurdles and challenges on your way to success. In a nutshell, the journey to a successful and well-established startup is not going to be a straight path but a bumpy ride filled with unexpected tests and trials.

If you are an aspiring entrepreneur on the cusp of starting a new business- this article is going to walk you through the common mistakes that every entrepreneur should pay heed to.

1. Not Maintaining a Daily Task Sheet

Building a startup from scratch requires a lot of efforts. If you have not maintained a daily ‘To Do Sheet’ from the very beginning, you are surely going to end up in a mess sooner or later. To avoid the potential confusion, make a daily task sheet and update your day to day and upcoming task regularly. This practice will keep you organized and eliminate the odds of any confusion in the future.

2. Starting off without Market Research

Launching your startup without conducting market research is nothing but a shot in the dark. Having a rough idea of your audience is not enough for succeeding in your business. You need to know for whom you are developing this business and who are going to be the end-users for your products/services. For instance, if you have an ecommerce business of sustainable clothing in the USA, you need to conduct thorough research on US-based ethical and sustainable clothing brands; who are their audience, how have they branded themselves and what marketing strategies they follow. It’s always recommended to hire professionals for the R&D- however, if you have a tight budget, you can conduct a survey on social media or through emails.

3. Not Hiring Even When You Need It Most

Majority of entrepreneurs avoid hiring new employees as they fear to pay more in the beginning. They think that they can manage it all on their own and there is no need to hire someone until they start getting some profit from their investments. Well, if you also think this way you are definitely under a wrong impression. Limiting hiring will delay your growth as it is going to take you even more time to be stable. Reach out for help before it’s too late, trust us, it is not going to harm you until or unless you are hiring someone who will be of no use.

4. Not Getting Things On Papers

Startuppers usually hire people who are their acquaintances, friends, or family-therefore they often neglect the need for a contract at the time of hiring. No matter how good relationships you have with the people you are going to have on-board, you should never avoid an agreement/legal contract before any hiring, or else you will be ended up in great trouble at the end of the day.

5. Cutting Corners with Branding and Design

If you want your business to be successful, you will have to love and respect your startup, and if you respect your startup, you wouldn’t want to cut corners with it. We understand that you could be on a budget, besides you may have an array of tasks lined up. But still, there are things that you just can’t compromise with. Identify those things and just avoid saving those extra bucks with them. For example, your company logo is one of the most crucial branding assets and something you must not compromise on. Therefore, it is always recommended to hire a professional logo designer who knows the art to design a perfect and modern logo for your startup that you can use as your most crucial branding asset for years to come.

6.  Not Handling Money Carefully

Mishandling of money is one of the most horrible mistakes that could cause your startup to go down the drain sooner or later. If you think that money could fix any sort of issues, then you have been under the wrong impression all this while. Money simply can’t solve everything; some mistakes are irrevocable, no matter how much money you spend to handle the situation; it only gets worst. Let’s face the music, if you have fundamental issues in your business model or your product/service and have nothing unique or beneficial to offer, raising the limit of financial expenses is not going to help you at all. On the contrary, this may lead to financial mismanagement, which is one of the most common causes behind the startup's failure.

7. Setting Unrealistic Goals

No matter how efficient a team you have hired or how much money you have put into a project, still you should not set unrealistic goals. Unrealistic goals do nothing but set a culture of failure. When you set impracticable goals, you get an excuse for your failure. On the contrary, when you set specific and measurable goals, you can easily track the progress and evaluate your success. Identify key indicators that will give you a warning when you are off the track. Also, take your employee’s opinion if they find these goals feasible to continue with.

These were the 7 most common causes behind startup failures, on a positive note, these can be your 7 valuable lessons to learn what should you steer clear of if you really want to turn your startup into an established business.