5 Startup mistakes you can avoid

By: LegalZoom Staff

Hindsight may be 20/20 but who doesn’t want to avoid making mistakes when possible? In business, mistakes can cost you money, customers, and even your hard-earned brand. However, there are missteps that can easily be avoided with the right preparation and awareness.

Waiting too long to delegate

As a leader, your role is to inspire your team with your long term vision, innovation, and planning. In the nascent stages of your company, you wear many functional hats, and perform many roles. As the business grows, you need people to manage different areas and specialists who’ll add their expertise to your management team. Bring on team members with skills that are different than yours and give them the tools they require to execute. The ability to successfully manage is different than the ability to lead. Relinquish the management role to someone who has proven experience so you can focus on exploring new opportunities.

Not learning from failures

Failures in a growing startup are par for the course, no matter the business. Every failure is an opportunity to learn and grow, and when things veer off-track, be nimble and open to pivoting if necessary. When you remove fear of failure, teams are free to move forward, innovate, experiment, and flex their creative muscle. Minimize people’s natural aversion to risk and instill a culture of continuous learning in which the lessons learned are used to improve the business.

Not protecting your intellectual property

You’ve worked hard to build out your business so it’s crucial you protect intangible assets like your name, logo and, if you’re a designer or inventor, your creation. Everyone starts small, but protecting your intellectual property is important when planning long-term. The theft of intellectual property is a rampant problem, and patent, trademark, and copyright protection are your best bet against what could amount to a significant financial loss.

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