How To Run Your Business Without Making Those 3 Basic Mistakes?

When you decide to run your own business you should not do the following things:

· You should not re-mortgage your house or go to the bank or venture capitalists for a start-up loan.
Usually when people start out in business they have a very specific picture of how it will look. There is an office, a receptionist, carpets, desks, computers, headed stationery, cool business cards, a nice marketing budget ... and so on. The most important question is not: “Where will I find the start up capital?” The most important question is how are you going to get, and satisfy, your first 100 customers? Filing cabinets and pictures on the wall do not make you money. Customers make you money. If you have chosen your business well – narrow, cheap, unoriginal and early – you should need much money to get your first 100 customers.

· You should not invite your mate or spouse to join you as a partner.
If you have a good business idea, keep it to yourself. Why? Two reasons: You need 100% ownership, always and forever and nothing less will do.
Going into business with a friend or spouse will not only kill the business, it will probably kill the friendship or marriage as well, so you are left doubly bereaved.
This is one of the most common reasons for business failure. It happens time and time again. For one thing, being mates is a whole different game from being business partners. If you want to be rich, you have to embrace this mindset. And it will ruin your friendship (or marriage). Although you are totally equal as partners, however, inequalities show up very quickly in the harsh and unforgiving light of business. By all means, you can employ them and pay them well. You don’t need to make them joint owners of your wealth machine.

· You should not spend weeks writing up a detailed business plan
The only reason you would do this is if you went to the bank for a loan and we decided that it is not on. But some people do it anyway. They seem to feel it will help clearing things, work out in advance strategies for dealing with unforeseen circumstances etc. It is a waste of time. Why? Because analysing the market and the competition, projecting sales, cash flow, and profit and loss, is all guesswork. It is imagined response to imagined events. Your business plan should be five words long. Ready? “Get and keep more customers.”