The biggest, most easily avoidable failure entrepreneurs make

While your venture may be new, businesses aren’t! What I mean is, that there are thing connected to your entrepreneurship only you can do. Yet, there are already plenty of solutions for business problems out there.

The blockchain media entrepreneur, Justin Wu, took a different path to success, which seems to have worked well for him. I interviewed Justin for the Reach or Miss podcast, and was surprised by the path he took.

Usually, the young entrepreneurs I talk with start reach entrepreneurship (with or without fundraising) at an early phase of their career path:

They have the capabilities
then
They have an idea
then
They dream of change, wealth, and respect
then
They become entrepreneurs
then
They build or plan a product
then
They create a vision
then
They develop their solution

Finally, they start their business journey, trying to make their venture a success

Justin took a different path: He had the capabilities, started his business journey, became an influencer and a well-known expert in his field, recognized the market opportunities, and then, based on his knowledge, experience, and reputation, became a Blockchain entrepreneur.

Justin’s story is different, he is a fascinating entrepreneur and I highly encourage you to listen to my interview with him on the Reach or Miss podcast here:

Justin Wu interview – The REACH OR MISS Podcast

However, that isn’t the reason I’ve chosen to write about Justin today. I started writing this post because of Justin’s answer to my question: What was your biggest, most significant failure as an entrepreneur?

His answer:

• We tried to keep everything in house and tried to build everything ourselves. We could have opened a lot more doors more easily within each of the potential regions that we went to; we learned this about 6 months into the business.
• In this space, collaboration is key.Don’t go into new industries or communities alone, trying to do it all yourself. You really want to spend time in that region or industry and start meeting and talking with people first. Try to map who’s who in the space, which will open up a lot of other doors.

I chose to write about Justin’s answer because of a long discussion I had last week with a brilliant CEO entrepreneur I’m currently working with.

Read the story about this startup here: If I got one hundred bucks every time I heard an entrepreneur say they know how to get customers…

Being an entrepreneur means, usually, doing many things on your own. There are a lot of decisions an entrepreneur needs to make. Yet, there is one major issue, which I believe is crucial to talk about:

While your venture may be new, businesses aren’t! What I mean is, that there are thing connected to your entrepreneurship only you can do. Yet, there are already plenty of solutions for business problems out there. An often-fatal mistake of new business owners is not taking advantage of the available options and solutions that can help you accomplish your goals without the need to invent solutions from scratch.

The four main fields that have the best outsource potentials:

• Import, export, and shipment
• Sales and merchandise
• Production
• IT

Hiring experts in these four fields dramatically reduces your risk, increases efficiency, and cuts expenses.

I’d love to hear about whether you established your own solutions in these four fields or if you hired experts; what worked best for you and what didn’t?