Starting a business is thrilling, until you realise half the world is queuing up to charge you for advice, networking, or a jazzy logo. If you’re a startup founder, congratulations, you’ve just become a prime target for every coach, consultant, club and “community” with a subscription fee. So before your bank account evaporates, here are the 10 most common startup mistakes, and the friendly folk who profit from each one.
1. Paying to Join Networking Groups Where No One Buys Anything
Ah yes, the weekly breakfast networking club. £40 a month to sip lukewarm coffee with Geoff from Geoff’s PR and Barbara who sells cushions shaped like llamas. Everyone is pitching, no one is buying, and Geoff’s always “just about to refer you”. (Don’t hold your breath).
2. Hiring Social Media “Experts” Who Just Post Inspirational Quotes
You wanted customers. What you got was “Believe in yourself” on a pastel background and your logo slapped onto a photo of a beach. Engagement, three likes (two of which are from your mum). Many of these “gurus” have only ever marketed themselves to other people trying to market themselves. In particular, watch out for the ones that get AI to generate content and don’t even bother to personalise it …
3. Joining the Chamber of Commerce, So They Can Pay Their Own Wages
Chambers love to welcome you with open arms, and an invoice. You’ll get a badge, a generic directory listing, and invites to events where people try to sell you HR software. They’ll proudly offer “business support”, which usually translates to letting you use their printer and sending you a PDF guide last updated in 2019.
4. Paying Coaches to Help You Find Your Inner CEO, Before You’ve Made £1
There’s a booming industry built on convincing broke founders they need mindset work before they’ve sold a single thing. If someone with no actual business asks you what your “why” is, politely excuse yourself. Don’t ever let anyone put you off based on their unique perspectives on life. (You may have enough of those kind of comments from people in the pub).
5. Spending £5k on a Website Instead of Figuring Out If Anyone Wants What You’re Selling
Many startups commission beautifully designed websites with scroll effects, custom fonts, and a pop-up contact form no one uses. Meanwhile, they’ve yet to discover if anyone even wants their eco-friendly dog yoga mats. You don’t need a website, you need customers. And when you do need a website, make sure it’s done by someone who understands the business. Lots of people can create you a business page (in fact, your kids can probably do that for you, with the help of a few utube videos), but if you want a page that “works” for your business, you will need someone who knows the business and isn’t looking to rip you off (Get in touch as we can recommend some really good people).
6. Believing That Every Business Plan Must Be 47 Pages Long With Pie Charts
Unless you’re pitching for investment, your “business plan” should fit on a napkin. The people telling you to make it 47 pages long are the same ones selling you “business plan templates” for £199. Save your cash, start trading, adjust as you learn. And never ever let some “consultant” get to devise the corporate structure with himself as your new CEO.
7. Registering With Every Startup Accelerator and Scheme That Promises ‘Support’
Free coffee and a lanyard are not support. Many startup programmes exist mainly to justify the salaries of the people running them. Look for mentors with scars, not certificates.
8. Thinking You Need to Be on Every Social Media Platform at Once
TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Threads, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, no wonder your product never gets launched. You don’t need a “multi-platform strategy”. You need to be where your customers are, and then go talk to them.
9. Spending Too Much Time on Your Logo and Not Enough on Your Offer
People obsess over logos as if a shade of teal is the difference between bankruptcy and unicorn status. Trust us, no one cares. Your customers want value, not your thoughts on geometric fonts/leave the choice to your web developer.
10. Believing the People Selling You Things Know What They’re Doing
Here’s the truth, many consultants, coaches and “strategists” left their job last year and now sell advice about something they’ve never actually done. Check their accounts at Companies House, because only the ones who are decent will have annual accounts in the black. Give the rest a miss, because if they can’t even run their own business, why are you trusting them with yours?
Final Thought
Startups fail for all sorts of reasons, but spending money on things you don’t need, because someone persuasive told you to, is a fast track to disaster. Ask yourself, is this helping me sell, build or learn something essential? If not, it can wait.
Remember, half the people offering to help you are just trying to get you to pay their gas bill. Build carefully, spend wisely, and for the love of profit, don’t buy another flaming mindset/social media training/how to use LinkedIn course.
Photo by Kenny Eliason
