You’re seriously considering starting up a business in 2011 and after talking to an adviser at your local SBDC, you had the ‘holy bejesus’ scared out of you with all the stories of failed start-ups. Well, the adviser was right and here are the ten key’ screw ups’ to avoid as you decide to become an entrepreneur in 2011.
Do not by any means:
1. Borrow seed money from your mother’s retirement account.
2. Partner with your spouse who has less business savvy than you because you both think it is the right thing to do.
3. Design and print brochures before understanding who your target market is.
4. Sign a lease on what you think is a great space before finishing your financial analysis and getting a commitment for the money to pay for the build-out you’ll need.
5. Start the build out before getting a firm estimate of the cost and a loan commitment.
6. Forget to check for relatively small ($40.00) unpaid medical bills that are mistakes and that you don’t know about. They can drop your credit score more than 150 points and make you an ‘untouchable’ in your bankers eyes.
7. Go to the bank thinking they’ll lend you 100% of what you think you need.
8. Forget to write a thorough business plan complete with financial analysis.
9. Buy furniture on Craigslist and place it in storage that you’ll be paying for before you figure out whether you’ll be able to use it.
10 Pay $1,500 for a package of 5 web sites and spend another $2,000 to get the first one running and have them charge you $75 monthly for hosting. Try Godaddy or other cost effectively hosting sites.
Starting up a business does not have to be a disaster if you do it right. Avoid most of the above and you should be on your way to a relatively painless start-up