Mistakes That Most Entrepreneurs Commonly Do

Entrepreneurs are naturally born as intelligent, talented, and creative people. However, in their entrepreneurial journey, these business owners don’t always choose the right decisions all of the time. In 2019, the Entrepreneur Asia Pacific reached out to Mark Cuban to find out the specific destructive decisions that most entrepreneurs make. Cuban is a longtime investor on ABC’s hit TV show Shark Tank wherein he encountered his fair share of entrepreneurs who’ve made some serious missteps. Here’s what he said:

1. Not understanding business basics.

Cuban mentions what drives him crazy is when entrepreneurs lack the basics. This includes entrepreneurs not being able to distinguish the difference between a product and a feature. As he said, before an entrepreneur begins looking for investment money, starts producing a product, even before research and development, they need to have this fundamental understanding.

In other words, if a competitor sells only dark chocolates, and your chocolates are dark and milk, you’ve merely created a feature. Products or services solve problems and people want to purchase them. Features are characteristics that add value to products.

2. Thinking competition equals validation.

Transforming nothing into something is not an easy task. Convincing people that you’re providing a valuable service and to buy your products sometimes requires a lot more. Cuban says it’s a big mistake to think that a big competitor moving into your market validates your business.

3. Pegging your success on one ‘star’ employee.

Too often, business owners believe that “their next hire will solve their biggest problem,” Cuban says. Hiring the best marketer in the industry doesn’t mean you’ll magically figure out how to sell your stuff and everyone will live happily ever after, he says.

Reference: 

Fell, J. (2019). Mark Cuban Says These are the Dumbest Things Entrepreneurs Do. Entrepreneur Asia Pacific. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/337115