Thinking of Starting a Business? Avoid These 2 Common Mistakes.

If you’re on the verge of launching a new business, this will help you navigate the uncertainty of starting from scratch.

You want to build a business. You have the vague outline of an idea, but the thought of fleshing it out is overwhelming.

You know the world can benefit hugely from your idea, but don’t have the right tools to set your plan into action.

Maybe you’ve already started working on your idea, but then life got in the way and you didn’t get a chance to devote your hundred percent to it.

If you resonate with any of these, this article is just for you.

Did you know, building a kickass product is only one part of the process? As data by Fortune magazine suggests, nine out of 10 startups fail in spite of having a product the market needs.

In addition to that, entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey. The stress, anxiety, and mental health issues arising out of this loneliness are rarely talked about. A UCSF study found that entrepreneurs are more prone to mental health conditions compared to the general population. As a report by Harvard Business Review suggests, anxiety, self-doubt, depression, and loneliness are rampant among entrepreneurs.

Having a community of like-minded people building together could be a powerful tool to ward off these feelings of loneliness. Communities like Day Zero are doing just that. Founded by Andrew Hutton, Day Zero is a community for aspiring founders and serial entrepreneurs who are exploring and launching new businesses. Day Zero provides not just the community, but the structure and guidance to take the steps needed to get a new idea off the ground.

Together, you can embark on this journey with a community to make your dreams come true. This post discusses the two biggest mistakes most people make while starting their entrepreneurial journey and how Day Zero is helping them overcome these.

Mistake One: Not Getting Past the Idea Stage

It’s fun to think up ideas. It’s interesting to read success stories and visualize your own. It fills you with an adrenaline rush to browse through books, listen to podcasts, rummage through Twitter and lap up all the inspiration you can get.

But, it’s hard to act.

As Ted Levitt, a former editor of Harvard Business Review puts it, creative ideas are easy to come by, but ideas alone are not enough.

Ideas don’t automatically lead to actual innovation.

Generating ideas is only the first step. It’s their actual implementation that leaves so many early-stage entrepreneurs stumped.

“Ideas have a short shelf life; act on them before the expiration date.” — John C. Maxwell

Core of the problem

After seeing hundreds of founders go through this roadblock in the early stages of their companies, Andrew Hutton, the founder of Day Zero, concluded that not getting past the “ideation” stage might be due to the following reasons:

1. Not enough knowledge of how to proceed.
2. Knowing the process, but being daunted by the implications of all the effort that needs to be put into the new start-up.

Proposed solution

To avoid staying at the starting line and not pushing forward, here’s what you can do:

1. Learn from the stories of successful entrepreneurs and reverse-engineer their methods to apply to your own business.
2. Get advice and personalized feedback directly from successful entrepreneurs in your niche.
3. Have a community of like-minded people around to test your ideas before you execute them.

The Day Zero playbook is a combination of methodologies that actually work. It combines insights from experts, founders, investors, and folks who have actually tasted success. They host closed-door brainstorms and briefings so you don’t have to bang your head against the wall trying to figure out what steps work and how you can use them in your own start-up.

But even before you apply that, you can leverage the power of their community to derive motivation. It can be the right environment to test, nurture, and gather the courage to implement your idea.

Mistake Two: Building in Isolation

When you have a great idea, it’s natural to think of it as the one idea that will change the world. Such a mindset might force you to hold it too preciously to yourself, and not share with anyone or even involve other people in your team.

This mindset can be a major obstacle between you and your dream. Being part of a community of like-minded people is an incredible asset. As Nicole Falcon writes in Business News Daily, “A strong professional network can help you achieve things that you’d never accomplish on your own, from solutions to seemingly impossible problems, to word-of-mouth recommendations that grow your customer base.”

Core of the problem

The fear of other people “copying” the idea can be a major reason why so many entrepreneurs refuse to share their vision with anyone else. This leads them to work on assumptions on what might succeed. Without statistics and feedback to back them up, assumptions are meaningless.

The important thing to understand here is that ideas can’t be copyrighted. Even if someone does steal your idea, you can still implement the same in a different manner and build your business to overshadow all competition. This is a remote possibility either way, and the benefits of being part of a community far outweigh the risks.

Proposed solution

Day Zero solves this issue by bringing together a community of founders, investors, operators, experts, and mentors, who collectively take ideas and create, refine, iterate, launch, build and grow new businesses. This lays the ground for:

• A safe and open space to share and micro-iterate all your ideas step-by-step.
• Refine your ideas based on expert feedback, and add features to further improve your product or service.
• Find potential collaborators, co-founders, mentors, and investors.

When you’re a member of a like-minded community, you’re no longer alone. You don’t have to worry about your idea being stolen, and can work with the team and help each other reach amazing heights.

Final Words

Being a founder is not easy.

Traditionally, most major businesses grew in start-up hubs — an exclusive community of entrepreneurs who feed off each other’s talents and grow together. When you’re surrounded by people who have already achieved what you dream to, you no longer have to spend years building your own community to tap into.

Times have changed now, and it’s no longer mandatory for an entrepreneur to be residing in a start-up hub to be successful. Thanks to Day Zero, you can now be part of an inclusive, open-access, and global community that will make the process of starting your company easier.

You can learn from the best, micro-iterate each step, and build powerful connections that will help you for several years down the line.

If you’re excited about exploring Day Zero, you can sign up now and join this new inclusive community of founders!