Startup Mistakes To Avoid

by neilanderson | Jun 20, 2024

Make no mistake. Starting a business from scratch is really hard. And making some startup mistakes is inevitable.

However, experience, learning from fellow entrepreneurs, can be a great teacher. If entrepreneurship is your Plan B retirement strategy, here’s some mistakes I’ve made, that may help you avoid the startup graveyard:

1. I should have started living within my means right at day one of The Courage Group, Inc. Correction, below my means. You are going to need the money. Start learning to live on a lot less! Avoid the startup graveyard. Start your own business, the right way.

2. I should not have tried to start two different companies at the same time. Starting and bootstrapping one company is hard enough. Trying to do two at the same time, incredibly hard. I’m no Elon Musk.

3. I should have written a business plan for The Courage Group, even though I was not trying seeking investors or bank loans. I thought I knew everything. That didn’t need to waste my time. Wrong! Planning can lower the big bumps.

Mark Joerger, founder and president of E7 Success Strategies, spent a lot of time working on his business plan before he opened his energy-management company earlier this year. He got help from Neil Anderson, founder and president of the Courage Group Inc. in Richfield.

4. I should not have signed up for a shared virtual office for my service business. I thought a upscale, Oakbrook, Illinois, official business address would produce more new clients. Wrong! What really matters most with clients is the quality and value of your work. Not just a nice office. So I shut it down, stopped the financial bleeding. And just worked out of my apartment and local library.

5. I should not have tried living the same kind of lifestyle that I had once had. While working full-time at American Airlines/American Eagle and Galileo International. Going out to nightclubs, restaurants etc. Ouch financially!

6. I should not have borrowed any money from family. This goes back to downscaling, living below my means, and building up my savings, well below launching the business.

7. I should have worked part-time at FedEx very early on. They offer excellent full-time healthcare coverage, (and more) for part-time work. For you and/or family. Perfect for entrepreneurs! Save thousands of dollars in healthcare costs! Not to mention getting great exercise. No gym membership costs.

8. I should have been more incredibly laser focused on my new business early on, not wasting valuable time. Tip: here’s your mandatory, daily startup diet:

• Marketing
• Selling
• Executing

9. I should not have been taking vacations during the first two years of The Courage Group, Inc. Dumb! I should have kept my “eye on the ball.” And not the good times. Vacation dollars spent that could have been better used towards building the new business!

10. I should have saved more money before starting-up. But since I never imaged starting a business, I didn’t really save anything. I just blew it. Wrongly thinking that I would always have a nice, steady job and paycheck. That changed quickly, one early morning in Ft. Worth, when American Airlines/American Eagle Airlines said adios to me.

11. I should not have taken advice from people, that have always worked for someone else. I should have sought out advice earlier, from someone who actually started a business from scratch. Seek success when starting your own business.

12. I should have hired a trademark lawyer much sooner. I thought I could secure The Courage Group mark myself, save money. A costly error in valuable time and money. Trademark law was not one of my core competencies. And I should have raised my hand sooner to get help.Tip: When it comes to patents, trademarks, and copyrights, get a lawyer.

13. I should have exploited my chances of getting free publicity, earned media placements very  early on.  As an effective, low-cost means of attracting new sales leads, signing up new clients/customers.  Tip: When e-pitching the media, they don’t care about you or your business. They only care about the story.

14. I should have focused on providing more value to my clients vs. trying to compete on price only. Especially given the many, much more established and larger online, offline competitors to choose from. Not to mention AI, and do-it-yourselfers. These days. Now days, add value or lose the sale.

15. I should have pivoted much sooner, when I needed to, with my current business model. With enhancing my existing services. Plus, adding and removing unprofitable services.

16. I should have done a much better, more effective job of pre-qualifying new sales lead prospects. And should have used the power, productivity, cost and time savings of both email and the telephone. Compared to just automatically scheduling an in-person free consultation. This would have improved, accelerated my sales cycle. And separated the tire-kickers from the serious sales prospects.

17. I should not have spent so much time thinking about politics, current world events. Then taking the time to write and submit op-ed submissions to the Minneapolis Star/Tribune newspaper. A distraction, time-waster for The Courage Group, Inc. However, my mother really liked this one:

18. I should have set aside money on some traditional advertising for The Courage Group, Inc. Rather than just relying on referrals, speaking gigs etc. To generate a more steady stream of news sales leads. And  should have used the money that I blew on the good times, vacations, restaurants, and girlfriend for some targeted advertising.

19. See # 2 again. Neil, remind me: I should not have tried to start another company, at the same time launching The Courage Group, Inc. Limited and crucial funds spent needlessly. Not to mention the time, money, and effort involved. Ouch!

20. I should not have been looking for a full-time job, while building my new business. When times got tough, I thought about throwing in the towel. And was checking out LinkedIn daily, applying for jobs. A big time and effort waster!

Even after these and other startup mistakes that I’ve made, they weren’t final. And The Courage Group, Inc. is still standing. This despite the 9/11 economic impact, the great recession of 2007, COVID, and high inflation rates since 2020. What really helped was keeping my expenses extremely low. And avoiding debt.  Plus, the ability to pivot when needed. It can be done.

P.S. Some helpful entrepreneur advice I discovered from Dolly Parton, American singer-songwriter, musician, actress, philanthropist, and entrepreneur; “You can do anything you want as long as you keep up a good attitude and keep working at it. But the minute you give up, you’re screwed. So very true!

Copyright ©2024 The Courage Group®, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Reach Out—We’re Just an Email Away!