Three Start-Up Mistakes & How To Avoid Them

Article Contributed by Simon Dell

In late 2014, I set out on the startup life with four business partners, building a retail promotion app driven by beacon technology, which included a proprietary solution for security tags instore . The challenge was harder because I was still running my marketing agency ­ TwoCents at the same time as managing director, and every investor or experienced entrepreneur you ever speak to, tells you that you can’t (successfully) do two things at once.

Whether you disagree with that supposition or not, being involved with an established business versus a brand new business has delivered some lessons that I would have initially thought I was too ‘mature’ a business owner to need to learn.

These are three of those lessons.

Ambiguous Goals

Many start­ups talk about ‘pivoting’ ­ the moment where you set off on a slightly different direction than you originally intended when a new opportunity presents itself. And whilst this is a realistic part of the life of a start­up, this doesn’t negate the need for strong and realistic goals for the business.

We were hindered with ambiguous business goals at the start, based on equal ambiguity of resources available. But what should have happened was for the business to set simple step­by­step goals that were easy to achieve. This would have meant more work and almost micromanagement of the process, but would have avoided problems further down the line.

Wrong Platforms

Our startup is based on a iPhone and Android app and a web­based platform that retailers can access to upload special promotions and deals. An early mistake was not enough research into the right platforms on which to build our technology.

We initially targeted a cross­platform tool called Xamarin but it was in too early stage of development and after months of work, meant we had to go back to the drawing board and start again. That cost time and money and had we spent a little longer looking at platforms we would have seen some of the early teething problems Xamarin had, would have meant it wasn’t the platform for us.

Spending Too Quickly

Despite my experience in running a company, it’s easy to get caught up in spending to solve problems quicker. Decisions got rushed and so did spending. It’s vital to plan for the long­term? if you think your business will be looking for capital raising in twelves months time, or will be starting to generate revenue then, then see if you can make your money last eighteen months. If you leave it too tight, you’ll find yourself struggling to pay staff and with a business that’s about to collapse. Fix a per month budget that works for the entire business and then with additional expenditure, make sure you have it planned into a detailed cash­flow projection.

The early mistakes we made have been fixed and whilst we’re still in a cautious and nervous part of our growth, those mistakes have actually helped shape strategy moving forward.

The learnings have also shaped how I move forward with the more established agency business, creating a need to focus on recurring revenue rather than projects, something I had known for years, but had never faced up to.

About the Author

Originally hailing from London and moving to Brisbane in 2003, Simon Dell has been the director and owner of TwoCents since it launched in September 2009. His background is in the alcohol industry and has included time working for both Heineken Australia, Coors UK and Lion Nathan. His role within TwoCents is to help develop and implement strategic and creative marketing plans for clients, support Art Direction, as well as training companies and speaking around Australia on social media, branding and marketing.