Pitfalls to Avoid When Starting a Business

By Soko Directory Team / Published February 2, 2016 | 9:28 am

For your business to succeed, you have to run it well and to run the business well you must know the things not to do just as much as you should watch out for things to do. Look out for the following pitfalls to avoid when starting a business.

Not having a business plan.

Having a business plan is key to your success in business. The plan should acts as a road map with the objectives set for your business and establishes the process and measures to be taken in meeting those objectives.

Not bothering with digital marketing.

As a business person you should have a presence online to help you reach your audience. This includes having a website and social media pages on relevant platforms so as to promote your products and services to the ever increasing number of people using the web.

Doing what you love

Don’t do what you love; do what you are good at and what people will pay you (well) for.

Not doing market research

You should test your products and services first before launching to the market. This will let you know what to offer to people around you or to targeted audiences.

Ignoring the competition

Competition in any industry is healthy as it encourages quality improvement and gives incentive to companies to cater towards giving the most value to their customers or risk losing them to the competition. It also determines what rates to charge for your products and services in a fair and competitive manner.

Not knowing your own strengths and weakness

If our strengths and weaknesses don’t fit well with the business models we want to engage in, this might lead to poor results. For example, you should be friendly to people or customers and with good skills, especially for the retailers.

Not understanding what you are actually selling

When you want your business to be successful you need to know what you are actually selling.

If starting a business in future, understand that starting a business is a process not an event. If you take your time to do the thinking and research you will hugely increase the likelihood of your new business succeeding.

Article by Marion Inziani.

About Soko Directory Team

Soko Directory is a Financial and Markets digital portal that tracks brands, listed firms on the NSE, SMEs and trend setters in the markets eco-system.Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/SokoDirectory and on Twitter: twitter.com/SokoDirectory

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