4 of the most important pitfalls in starting a business failure, how do you avoid it?

I used to say entrepreneurship is like baseball, even &http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/37954.html ">nbsp; the world's most powerful player, 10 strikes also have 6 times to touch the nose down, And you're the new guy who just started getting the bat. So as an entrepreneur, your goal is not to avoid failure, but to recognize that you are bound to fail, and then learn how to take lessons from failure and get your hit rate higher than once.

But even so, it's like playing a hit with a bat, and some of the pitfalls of entrepreneurial failure can be avoided. These can be said to be a necessary basic concept of entrepreneurship, many predecessors have experienced, you learn is good, do not have to try it once. Yesterday I just read a elad Gil reign Ways startups fail"(the reason for the failure of the 4 new team), I think it's written very well, according to the Convention, the original text is not long, I encourage you to read. The following is the version I have compiled after I joined my own experience:

Trap One: The money burns out

The reason why most startups fail is not to raise money for the venture, but to start spending blindly after raising it, moving to a new home, a brain hire engineer, and everyone's one of the most upscale MacBook Pro pen power. Before you find out, your company has only 6 months of cash level left, but you have not found Product/market fit, what to do? Have to go with the venture to reach for money, I ask you, who will give you the money?

How to avoid it?

business-only spend money on the most efficient, productive place (I say again, the precise point is efficiency, not stingy) Product/market fit first-most of the time to find PMF is not needed (a lot of money) if the start of the venture will collapse tomorrow-even if you get some money, You want to think that you'll never get more hack everything-management, marketing, personnel, operations, all things, all go to want how to spend the money more efficient trap two: Team split

Every entrepreneurial team will quarrel, but the way to solve it is very different. If everyone is the case, the final conclusion quickly, that's okay. It would be very bad if it were noisy and uncomfortable, and even the company became two parties.

How to avoid it?

Clear division of labor-the common founder of the world to have a clear division of labor, one thing to have a general manager (Direct responsible individual), on this matter, we all have to listen to his words to understand the decision must be wrong-some people once their opinions are not adopted, Fall into a kind of optimistic play mentality, waiting to see each other embarrassing. This is no good for the team, no one knows what will succeed and what will fail. If this decision fails in the end, the reason is often different from what you predict. All people are in the same boat, if the team decides a direction, then everyone must do their best to make this thing successful, failure is everyone's responsibility, everyone's learning opportunities. Come straight to the point of communication-the team is so small, just a few of you, to form the habit of saying anything, if even such a small team have communication obstacles, then you are doomed to failure. Trap three: The market is not

Many startups fail because they choose a wrong market. Most of them are too early, less people need such things.

How to avoid it?

focus on looking for Product/market FIT-PMF is the focus of the harsh needs, rather than the product itself is not cool, the design dazzle, do not make a mistake. Choose a big/grow/multi-gold market-do not make a mistake, big is not necessarily hundreds of millions of people, if there are 300~500 million people have such a demand, and everyone has a high willingness to pay, it is also a great market. Timely pivot-The symptom is not right, hurry Pivot! Trap four: Find an investor who doesn't understand and love the

Believe me, the scariest investor in the world is not the stupid investors who don't know and want to meddle. They'll ask you to hire a little more staff, intervene in product decision-making, nothing called you to open the Board, do the report, and even want to expel you, find "professional person" in "Management", God!

How to avoid it?

only with "people you need" money-before you find PMF, you don't really need the money, so if you're taking money with this person, it's just that you need him to be your supporter and help you find PMF. Do your homework-before taking the money, talk to someone and make sure that the investor brings value, not destruction. More than half-you need to be able to pivot quickly before you find PMF, and it's a bad structure to get investors halfway through.


board-before finding PMF, the board actually had little function.

The above is the four most important traps that will cause failure, and how to avoid, provide you with reference. But to put it bluntly, it is also very simple, is to find product/market fit, please do not do anything, concentrate on looking for PMF, that's right!

(Image via Pierre J., CC license)

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