Marketing and Management Update

Eighteen Business Killers October 19, 2006

Posted by Tim Raines in: business, marketing, management , trackback

Marketing and Management Update Though writing about the mistakes that kill startup businesses, Paul Graham could easily be talking about any small-to-medium-size business. There’s a lot of insight here, gleaned from years of experience and the post is definitely worth a read, though it does lean to the computers and programming world (while you’re reading, substitute “programmers” with “employees” and “users” with “customers” and the advice will work for just about any business).

Here’s the eighteen mistakes:

Single Founder

Bad Location

Marginal Niche

Derivative Idea

Obstinacy

Hiring Bad Programmers

Choosing the Wrong Platform

Slowness in Launching

Launching Too Early

Having No Specific User in Mind

Raising Too Little Money

Spending Too Much

Raising Too Much Money

Poor Investor Management

Sacrificing Users to (Supposed) Profit

Not Wanting to Get Your Hands Dirty

Fights Between Founders

A Half-Hearted Effort