Some people were born to be entrepreneurs, and they spend most of their lives investing in various enterprises. Some fail, and some take off, and that’s all part of being an inverter. However, there are some investments that can sink you completely, destroying all your savings leaving you with nothing to start afresh with. The following are some of the investment pitfalls that you should avoid at all costs.
1. Underestimating the Market
Many people make the mistake of expecting a smooth ride from the moment they set the ball rolling only to be shocked by the market. Things are never the same as they used to be; the current market is very unpredictable and can leave you hanging within a day.
Never approach any business with this kind of attitude as that will affect your ability to prepare for any unexpected turn of events. The biggest mistake you can ever make as an entrepreneur is underestimating the market. Always have a contingency plan with every investment you make since businesses are like gambling; anything can happen.
2. Taking Too Much or Too Little Risk
Entrepreneurship is a double-edged knife; both sides can destroy you with equal measure. Sometimes, investors overestimate the market and end up biting more than they can chew, and by the time they realize their mistake, things are already out of hand beyond salvation. This could lead to massive losses of capital, the likes of which one can never recover from.
At the same time, underestimating the market may mislead you into playing too safe and, in the process, pass up an opportunity to really make it, conceding that initiative to someone else. Getting the right timing is complicated; you just have to rely on your intuition.
3. Making Emotional Decisions
Your love or disdain for a product or a service should not play any part in your decisions making; when going for the kill, simply ask yourself one question, will this make me money or not? Emotional investments are like castles built on sand; they have no solid foundation as they are made without proper research, and this is the worst thing you can ever do as an entrepreneur.
The other emotions you should be wary of are fear and greed; fear will stop you from taking a worthwhile risk, and greed will lead you into flashing your investment down the drain because you got blinded by what you could make without weighing the risks properly.
4. Taking on Too Much
The specialization will save you a lot of headaches in the business environment because it gives you the time and space to focus on a single thing in a refined way. Take the pond business; for example, you can either choose to focus on their construction or focus on providing pond cleaning services and products like a koi pond filter and the likes, click here to find out more. Trying to combine both will only increase your expenditure as you will be forced to set up an entire construction unit for making ponds, and that may be too much for a startup.
5. Going All in Alone
It doesn’t matter how good you are or the many qualifications under your belt; the ability to take advice from others will take you places you can never reach if you chose to go alone. People with good advice don’t have to be better than you, the business world is vast, and every person who has attempted running a venture of any kind has a unique perspective that they can offer you to help you along the way. Disregarding people like this will only lead to the same walls they may have encountered, and you will be lost on what to do when that happens. Always be ready to take advice from everyone you interact with.
6. Impatience
The hunger to see results as quickly as you can is the number one reason why many businesses have failed within the first year. Being impatient will blind you from figuring out what is needed to be done to get things running. There are many variables outside your control in the first 12 months of a startup, you have a competition to deal with, and since you are new in the game, not many people know you yet. Expecting to start clearing the shelves immediately will only add to your misery because the disappointments that usually follow will stop you from thinking clearly.
7. Hiring the Wrong People
You cannot handle a business alone; even the smallest of them require an extra pair of hands to get things going smoothly. However, this could also lead to failure if you happen to hire the wrong person for the job. Having an unqualified person who doesn’t understand what they are supposed to do or one that pilfers things from the business is the fastest way to running the business to the ground.
Conclusion
If you feel like the investment is your calling, you have to prepare yourself psychologically for anything since it is one of the most unpredictable environments you can ever encounter. Therefore, take your time and conduct proper research in advance to better prepare yourself for that unpredictability. Remember, always have a contingency plan to fall back on because you may do everything right and still fail to achieve what you want. Exercise patience and a measured form of caution as you embark on this journey.
