18 things not to do, if you are a budding entrepreneur ( startup founder)

Based on my personal experience with different companies of all sizes, in the capacity of a customer or a potential customer, I learned a lot about the traps which every budding entrepreneur must avoid to get successful in their venture. So, here I am offering the list of 18 things which you shouldn’t do, if you are a budding entrepreneur.

1. Don’t compromise with principles and ideals- It is highly recommended to write down your principles and ideals. A vision document will help you to stay focused all the times. But the world is changing fast and you have to keep evolving to keep pace with the needs of the society. Be flexible without compromising your principles and ideals so that you can adapt to any situation and come out with flying colours.  
2. Do networking and learn from others- Don’t shy away from building your contacts with all the people who can provide you valuable insight about your business. Learn to know people from the Industry you are trying to carve a path for you. Meet and Know people who can be a potential employee, co-founder, customer, adviser, brand ambassador, promoter, Investor and so on. Do something good for the society. Invest in your learning and share your knowledge- go to seminars, network with like minded people online on LinkedIn, Twitter, Quora, etc or offline at Workshops, Conferences, Fairs, etc.
3. Don’t ignore your competitors- Keep a tab on what your competitors’ are doing.  You can learn from their success and failures. But, don’t try to copy them or you will end up being an inferior version of your competitor. Beat the competition by offering better products and services at a lesser price. Focus on the strengths and weaknesses of all the other players and carve a market for yourself where you can capitalize on the weaknesses of your competitors.
4. Don’t lose your loyal customers and employees- At the end of the day, business is all about people. (Learn from the mistakes of Flipkart), Rather than following benchmarks create benchmarks. Give more than one reason for your employees and customers to be loyal. Although, even by following the best practices, you cannot avoid attrition, but by being conscious about the needs of your employees and customers, you can manage the attrition within manageable limits.  You can recognize your employees and regular customers by giving them special privileges, doesn’t matter, how small it may be. They will appreciate your efforts and will be your lifelong admirer.
5. Don’t be afraid to try something new- It may be scary to take the road less travelled but it will yield outstanding results. Explore the possibilities and expand the market itself rather than fighting for one’s share in a smaller pie. You will always get an early mover advantage and by doing so you will do more good for yourself, your competitor, the customers and the nation at large.
6. Don’t forget to learn from your mistakes-   When we do new things, sometimes we succeed and sometimes we fail. We should neither get arrogant about our success nor should we get disappointed by our failures. You will gradually realize that the seeds of success are hidden in your failures. So, you must learn from your failures and keep trying till you are not getting success. . Failures are learning opportunities. Never get disappointed with Failure, learn from them and evolve yourself and transform your company.
7. Don’t get too excited about booking profit or getting acquired- At the outset, focus on building your company step by step. Don’t try to be a one-stop solution provider, all of a sudden. Money should be the by-product of your hard work and dedication. It can be anything but not the ultimate goal if you truly want to be successful. You must put your best efforts on building trust, and reputation.  Cheer someone without any reason. I was reading an article on Yourstory where Mr. Gaurav Munjal (CEO of Flat.To) asked his readers to go and fill their address at the end of the article if they want a book “Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone” as a gift. I did that without any expectation and was delighted to get that book with a personal message from him. Such kindness is amazing and really wins people. In this life, I will definitely do something that will pleasantly surprise him.
8. Don’t ignore your Family – You have to make a fine balance between your career and your family. At your deathbed, you will cherish more about the meaningful relationships that you cultivated. So, like you have planned to focus on growing your company. In the similar fashion, you must focus on taking your relationship with your parents, wife, children, relatives and friends to the next level. Sometimes, while truly enjoying what you do, you unknowingly offend your loved one by ignoring them; if you want to be a long term player then don’t be overenthusiastic. Balance your passion, aggression, risk taking ability, family, friends and employees. Always starve to be a better human being with each passing moment.
9. Don't ignore your USP- Where the market needs meet your passion then that is the right opportunity for you to bank on. It is very important to identify your USP and build your business around it.  You have to communicate about your USP to your customers so that they give you a preference over other established players while buying products or services.
10.  Don’t ignore the importance of mentor- You are here to play a Test Match and not a 20-20 Match. Getting a mentor will be a tough task but it will prove to be a game changer because the mentor will bring his/her specialties and experience with them. Also, be a mentor yourself for your employees.  Not only this, you can hire interns and train them. This will provide you better talent at affordable price and the trainee will gain from the experience of working on a live project. It will also help you appreciate your mentor more like a son understands his father after becoming a father himself.
11. Don’t try for Customer Satisfaction- No, I am not telling you to ignore your customers. In fact, I want you to delight your customers with your impeccable products and services. If they are delighted, then they will act as your brand ambassador. You must keep your Prices reasonable and engage your customers in the some of the decisions of the company through their feedbacks. It will give you an idea about the expectations of your customers.  Must read what this E-commerce company did to cheer up an unhappy customer.
12. Don’t expect everyone to respond positively about your initiatives- Enjoy the process of building and growing your business. Never let anything prevent you from the joy of living the life you chose for yourself. There may be difficult times but life is all about challenges and opportunities. Always remember that the journey is as beautiful as the destination. Learn to face apathy, neglect, failures, negative criticism and sudden attention when you get limelight.
13. Don’t let anyone steal your ideas- Learn about laws regarding copyright, patents and Intellectual Property rights. It is recommended to take expert advice for these things. Ignorance about these may spoil your hard work. You have to be tight-lipped about the key moves you are planning to make. So, protect your ideas from getting copied, launched and patented.
14. Don’t offer the same wine in different bottle- Aspire to create something which solves a current problem.  Don’t hope for immediate success; build your product & services- Day and Night. After all, Rome was not build in a day. Keep patience and keep working towards your goals. Keep doing your best and learn from your mistakes to improve the product or service you have to offer. Answer the question, why should people buy from you?
15. Don’t spend on Marketing- Rely only on word of mouth publicity at first, create a blog/social media profile and keep posting interesting articles which may or may not be promotional. Engage your audiences; no one will enjoy getting only promotional updates. If you can get the attention of your readers then they will do the rest. Also, get your website and app ready as soon as possible. Because, unless and until it is done no one takes you seriously. Once you have made substantial progress then launch a teaser on YouTube. Content is King. Good things will get free publicity and someday any influencer can promote it to larger audience and then there will be no looking back.
16. Don’t run behind big investors- It is a temptation to get investors early on. But getting them onboard very early may prove fatal as they are not here for love or passion like you. They want quick money and you may lose your freedom. So, it is very important to choose your investors wisely. It is recommended to build something good on your own first with your personal fund and here a co-founder is required. They will bring in with them an additional support system. Rely on your family and friend to generate first round of funding as they will not interfere in whatever you do. The timing of bringing in investors decides a lot about the trajectory of a company. Let your judgment prevails and you chose investor who don’t interfere with what you are doing. I am literally talking about sleeping partners, in a partnership, who are not keen to take up active roles in the company. For them, it will be like investing in Share Market where they can’t do much. So, those kinds of investors are preferred.
17. Don’t ignore your health- Don’t work 18 hours every day. It can be an exception but it should not be a norm. Bring discipline in your life else you will burn out. We are human; in fact, even sophisticated machines need rest and get wear and tear if not used with proper care. Nobody generally gives this advice to an entrepreneur but it is truly important for them. I have seen companies lose order when the founder got some prolonged illness after a heart attack. He lost goodwill and reliability as everyone thought that the Founder has stopped responding to calls and emails because he was unable to fulfill his contractual obligation. I have felt that many a times, customers don’t understand that such tragedy can also occur.  People may sympathize later but they will not give you jobs knowing that you are a one man army with a terrible heart condition. It’s so because, unfortunately, everyone is busy achieving their own targets and they don’t want to mess it up as we work in a eco-system where failure of one company has a knock on effect on the overall project.
18. Don’t ignore your moral and social responsibility- Do something selflessly for the society, country and the marginalized. Nothing can give you more satisfaction than bringing a smile on the face of people who are neglected and marginalized. If you can do something for them once in a while then you will feel more complete and blessed. Just few days ago, I was discussing with a Founder of a company and eventually came to know that he had brought 50 raincoats for all the people who work for him on a salary less than 20K. It was a nice gesture and he told that people were really nostalgic on getting this special treatment. His maid was so touched that she almost broke down telling that even her son has never brought any rain coat for her.  Another founder has taken the initiative to solve the problem of the illiterate people in villages by education them about all the government schemes available for them. This is a wonderful thing that he is doing for many years but he never spoke about this with us. But one day, when he realized that I am inclined towards volunteering then he shared this with me, I was just touched by his humble act.