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small-bizXpress

Articles and opinions on small business and entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurial death-traps

Tuesday, April 12, 2005



Entrepreneurs face all kinds of potential adversity -- some kinds can kill them, some kinds merely set them back a little. Some kinds are unpredictable, others much more so. The saddest failures are the conceivably predictable, lethal ones, the ones that could and should have been avoided.

As senseless as small business deaths are which fall prey to the many-times-tripped death traps, they can be damnably difficult to avoid. Many of them appear in the form of beautiful, well-worn paths which logic, greed and even common sense might suggest taking. How tragic that they take entrepreneurs over cliffs time and time again.

To compound the challenge of avoiding such a demise, none of these paths is assuredly fatal. The important point is that they can be, and have been for many others. Each should be avoided or tempered if at all possible.

Here are some entrepreneurial death-traps:

  • "Mousetrap" Teams
  • Inadequate Pricing
  • Insufficient start-up capital
  • Failure to Look at the Downside
  • Failure to Look at Industry Norms
  • Lack of focus
  • Bringing on the Vulture
  • First Class from the Start
  • Inappropriate Distribution Path to Market
  • Emotional Litigation
  • Product Never "Ready" for Market
  • Low Barrier to Entry Growth Industry
  • Inadequate Market Research
  • Failure to Segment Market
  • No Reason for Customer to Change
  • Payback Can't Be Calculated
  • Failure to Admit a Mistake
  • Step Function Growth
  • Betting the Ranch
  • Ignoring the Handwriting on the Wall
  • Spiraling costs
  • Silliness phase

Read full article: Entrepreneurial death-traps
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