5 Things entrepreneurs should stop doing

I’d like to start with clarifying something important, entrepreneurs work hard…very hard. Making decisions, taking responsibility, make mistakes, and more, most people tend to talk about what to do but this time I’m going to share 5 things entrepreneurs should stop doing… Including myself :)

Photo by Nadine Shaabana on Unsplash

1. Stop being busy all the time — some people think that being a CEO requires you to be involved in everything, but actually when they do that. they just interfere and delay processes. Make sure you surround yourself with smart, talented, and highly motivated people and start delegating!
   I strongly recommended taking a decision on what are the critical places that your presence and involvement are important and obviously be there.
2. Stop hiding behind fairy tales — Some entrepreneurs prefer to highlight the things that look and sound good and hide the rest, or even worse, ignore the truth. A good example I can share is taken from military navigation experience, when you’re tired and feeling lost, not sure if you know where are you located but not willing to accept or admit it, some people tend to force the map on what they actually see in front of them…they see a tiny hill on their right side while expecting a high mountain, they know its a hill, but since they feel lost, this hill is considered a mountain. If we take it to the business world, “We are about to close a deal with a very big customer!” — amazing, are you sure that the customer agrees with that? is it really close to being signed?
3. Stop being so secretive about your idea — You’re probably worried about someone stealing your idea. Let’s talk about that for a second, how many times you heard about something like that? You’ll find it very difficult to get real feedback while being secretive, especially from your target audience, being too mysterious would make it challenging and will most likely end up with a lack of understanding, the same goes with potential investors. Talk about your idea, as much as you can, the more you talk about it the more questions, thoughts, and other creative ideas will pop up and turn your idea to be more solid.
   The people you are worried about them, for trying to steal your idea, they are probably so busy with their own ideas…
4. Stop using lack of funds as an excuse — With today's technology and social media, you don’t have to spend millions on validating product-market fit. You haven’t started with product development just because you want to complete the funding round? while you work on raising capital, try to develop a temporary product or some kind of prototype with a low budget, in most cases, it will help you a lot with the capital-raising process. You haven’t started any sales because you want to complete the funding round? Ask Richard Branson and many others on bootstrapping and founding a company without a single investor. I know, lots of excuses…but there are many solutions out there.
5. Stop solving easy problems first — Don’t get me wrong, easy or small problems are important, you’ll have to solve them eventually but it’s all about priority. For example, it’s so easy to fix typos on your website, but it's way more challenging and difficult to improve the conversion rate.
   I agree, solving easy problems is very tempting. By dealing with easy tasks we keep “pushing” the hard problems away and might never get to work on them. The big bonus you get by solving big problems first is that suddenly the difficult part is now behind you!

Feel free to comment and share other things entrepreneurs should stop doing.