The document outlines 13 common mistakes that new entrepreneurs often make, emphasizing the importance of learning from errors to strengthen their businesses. Key mistakes include disregarding advice from experienced individuals, misallocating funds, not planning for setbacks, and failing to understand one's business model. The collective insights from members of the Young Entrepreneur Council highlight the need for resilience, adaptability, and a willingness to learn from criticism and market feedback.

1. 13 Common
Entrepreneurial Mistakes
Newbies Must Know

2. Making mistakes as you go into business is a part of every entrepreneur's experience. How
you recover from these errors is what matters. The process of getting back on course can
make your business stronger, especially if you learn from your mistakes.
Getting distracted or disregarding sage advice, for instance, can leave you in a hole, as can
not properly preparing for the bumps in the road. You need confidence in order to keep
moving forward, while at the same time cannot be so confident that you blind yourself to
problems. As a result, doing research and listening to your market, as well as understanding
your niche, is crucial.
To help you avoid trouble, 13 members of Young Entrepreneur Council, below, shared the
biggest mistake they made as a new entrepreneur in hopes that they can save you from
making the same error. Here is what they said to avoid:

3. Disregarding Other Business
People’s Advice
One of the biggest mistakes
I've made was minimizing
the advice of elder business
people because I dismissed
it as "outdated" or
"irrelevant." Technical
knowledge in one’s field is
absolutely necessary, and
although things may be
extremely different today
than they were 20-30 years
ago, knowledge is
knowledge.

4. One of the biggest mistakes I've
made as an entrepreneur was
spending time on things that were
distracting me from moving my
business forward. T-shirts and
business cards in the early days were
fun, but they got me absolutely
nowhere closer to finding customers
or creating real enterprise value.
Focus on what matters: creating
products or offering services that
people want and actually pay for.
Getting Distracted

5. Misallocating Your Funds
Raising money is hard. I spent
my first round of funding too
quickly. I was overconfident that
my app was going to take off
right away because I was so
blindly optimistic. I believed in
what I was doing so much, I
didn't foresee failure early on.
My advice to entrepreneurs is to
plan for unexpected bumps in
the road, so you are better
prepared for the success that
lies ahead.

6. Know your business model
from the very start. Establish
your price and have a crystal-
clear understanding of your
unit economics: cost of goods,
marketing expenses and
margins. It's extremely difficult
to increase your product prices
without losing customers. It can
make or break your business.
Failing to Truly Understand Your
Business

7. Doing It All by Yourself
The biggest mistake I
have ever made is to
think I can do it all by
myself. We need to
delegate, and when
possible, we need to
hire professionals in
each field to help you
succeed.

8. My biggest mistake was not trusting
in my abilities sooner. As a Latina
female, I was discouraged to pursue
my entrepreneurial endeavors by
media, bosses, co-workers and at
times, even friends. One boss even
went so far to say, “You should focus
first on having a family.” If you are a
female, and especially if you are a
minority, you have to cut out the
noise and trust that yes, you’ve got
this!
Letting Others Bring You
Down

9. Not Being Prepared For Things To
Go Wrong
You always have to plan
for things to go wrong,
because they will! The
only thing that stays
consistent is your
dedication to the end
result. But everything
else, be prepared for it to
go a little — or a lot —
differently than expected.
Be resilient.

10. Not Trusting Yourself
The biggest mistake I ever
made as an entrepreneur is
not trusting myself earlier
on in my career. I wish,
desperately, that I started
my companies in my early
20s. In the modern world,
starting a business and
validating an idea is easier
than ever, so take
advantage of it.

11. Understanding All Aspects of Your
Niche
When I left investment banking
to launch my first startup, the
App Store had only launched two
years prior. At this time, I had
limited, early-stage company
experience, and quickly learned
that tech development was a
completely different world. My
company failed because I didn't
understand the app dev process.
You need to know all aspects of a
business, especially those in
which you are weak.

12. Taking Criticism Personally
A startup feels like a founder's
baby. I would take every
setback or criticism personally
and react poorly. Companies
are not babies or people.
Most startups die … but from
failure comes future success.
My advice to a newbie is that
they need to strike a balance
between their passion and
business reality — take
criticism and failure in stride,
and stay humble.

13. Thinking Your Idea Is Perfect
I assumed that my idea and
business plan were perfect,
and that customers and
employees would be banging
down my door to work with
me. Instead, the market dealt
me a big serving of humble
pie. I made four major pivots
in three years, until we finally
got the model and messaging
right. The lesson: Be flexible,
be open and listen to what the
market is telling you.

14. Doing What Looks Good Instead
of What Works
I cold called and followed up with
a company for five months until
they gave me an opportunity. The
day I presented how my services
could benefit them, I blew it.
How? Because I didn't prepare as
I typically do. When you have a
major opportunity, keep doing
what put you in that position to
begin with. Oh yeah, and never
blow a six-figure deal like I did, by
doing what looked good, instead
of what works.

15. Focusing too Much on Your
Team’s Existing Skills
In the early years, I focused too
heavily on existing skill sets when
building our team. This didn't
always work out, as some of our
early hires had the skills but
didn't have "star potential," they
were capped out. I now look
more for the skills, but even
more so for people who have
"star potential" and can develop
into the leaders of our company,
and even take my job one day.
This drives scalability.