an enterprenuer should never
Answers
Answer:
Entrepreneurs should never:
Start a business solely for the money. To be a successful entrepreneur, one must love what he/she does. You don’t want to start a business only to realize you’re not passionate about it at some point down the line. For the purposes of the argument, think of a business as a baby. You should not agree to have a baby unless you’re willing to care for it and help it grow.
Start a business solely because you’re friends/family with someone. An entrepreneur should be in a business relationship first and foremost. It’s possible that a friend or family member may have similar business goals and may complement your skills, however, a business partnership should be started on the premise of the business, not a personal relationship. I personally started a company on Kickstarter with two best friends that successfully raised $236K. Today, two of us are no longer with the company as we left it to our former best friend. Once the money rolls into the bank account, you quickly realize that you’re in a business relationship first. Some people can get greedy and true colors of “friends” can come out. Start a business with the right people - people that have similar business goals and complement each other.
Be afraid or scared of risk. The game of business is risk-based. Don’t be afraid of it and realize that you will need to take risks, even as a large company in a mature market. In such a case, don’t take enough risks and risk failure due to a changing market. Just look at Toys R Us, Circuit City, RadioShack, etc. That’s the case with formerly successful large companies, so one can only imagine the risk involved for a small company entrepreneur. Test hypotheses, pivot your business model, talk to customers, learn, take risks, evolve, repeat.
Forget to calculate your finances. Know your runway, calculate your costs, revenues, taxes, etc. and understand your overall financial standing so that you know what you are capable of doing. Do not spend on a $50K marketing campaign when you have $10K in the bank and are in debt… unless you’re almost certain that the payoff will be worth it.
Rely solely on oneself. You do not know everything nor can you do everything. There’s only 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. In the beginning you may need to work alone, but understand the value of distributing and optimizing workload and cumulative brainpower.
Retain negative employees. As an entrepreneur, you likely don’t have salary money to waste (that’s in the case when employees are unproductive). Moreover, as an entrepreneur, you should not tolerate employees who are negatively impacting your business, workplace, or other employees. Inversely, don’t forget to acknowledge your top performers.
[Almost] never give up.
Those are my top few points but there a definitely many more!