One mistake in business planning can because of your startup failure. Focus on these common mistakes to avoid when starting a business for success.

Only with a convincing business plan, founders have the chance to receive financial support. If the document is full of mistakes, the grant is gone. 

Irrespective of whether authors are applying for the state start-up grant, a bank loan or money from private investors, a convincing business plan is compulsory. (If you need to know what the importance of a business plan in entrepreneurship, please read this article)

At the moment we live in the bubble of the entrepreneurship, the term entrepreneur has happened to be a name of fashion. Most of the time the enthusiasm of the entrepreneur is not enough for a business idea to succeed before you launch. The business idea should have to be tested if the idea is viable in the market.

This is where another word comes into play that surely you have also heard, minimum viable product. It's about doing a trial and error exercise that will guide you and help you decide if it's worth developing that business idea or not.
Also read: 7 Steps To Writing An Effective Business Plan

In any case, if you have let go and decided to put it into operation and finally see that the project is not giving you the expected results, I think you should review these 5 mistakes that you may be committing:

The following mistake should be avoided in any case.

1) You haven't identified a real market need

Your idea will become a product or service that must respond to the needs of your client. So you have to know that customer that you want to direct. You must discover what motivates you to buy, how you like to buy, what price you are willing to buy for the service you are going to offer.

At the same time, you must analyze your market, how it will grow, its risks, what your competitors are doing.

2) You haven't tested your product through a minimally viable product.

A first step that the entrepreneur should give is to launch a viable minimum product. This concept refers to launching your product with the minimum functionalities necessary, without frills, in such a way that allows you to go defining and adapting to the market and the customer according to their needs.

The functions of the minimum viable product are as follows:

• It will free you from creating a product that nobody wants to buy.
• You will maximize the learning of your future clients.
• You will get proof of whether you must iterate (change) or persevere (to follow) before it is too late

Also read: How to Write a Business Plan Step by Step Guide

3) You have given an incorrect value to your product or service

To set the prices of your product, you don't just have to look at the costs of production. There are factors beyond time, inputs, labor, etc., which are determinants to fix the price of the product. You also have to focus on perceived value.

Remember that there is a direct relationship between the value perceived by the customer of your product and the one that will be willing to pay for it. Given this, knowing how to handle the value perceived by the client should be one of the points of your strategy.

4) You haven't identified the critical processes in the company

Being clear about the essential and secondary processes in your business and who are responsible for doing so will allow you to maintain some organization and a proper division of workloads.

In your business plan, you will have to set the objectives and policies of each of these processes as well as procedures for monitoring, measuring and improving them. Some processes are vital to your business and leading a proper control of your indicators can be crucial.

5) Not knowing how to love customers

When starting a business, you should not only sell a brand, but also an experience to your consumers. Often entrepreneurs are so focused on the idea of their product that they ignore that "infatuation" of their customers.

To get them to fall in love, you will have to select the appropriate channels and contents, as well as the strategies to stimulate the attraction, conversion, and retention.


Tip: Ask a start-up adviser to check your business plan together with you! The costs are manageable, and you can be sure that you have a viable and sustainable plan of activities.