Andy Ta Kong: Top mistakes to avoid when starting on your business

It’s common to make mistakes when building a venture from scratch. However, it’s also crucial to identify these errors early, so you can avoid the pitfalls and grow quickly. Andy Ta Kong has extensive experience building businesses toward long-term and sustainable success. These include Project Wifi and Alqen & BlackWater. Here, Andy shares the most prominent mistakes to avoid while you focus on building your startup into a successful entity.

Having the proper corporate structure:

While working on a startup with a close friend might sound quite tempting, it’s crucial not to let your emotions run wild. Paperwork is a must, no matter who the partner is. Having everything in writing gives more clarity and clears out the underlying unaddressed agendas. Filing for a proper legal structure and business registration time can save the startup from a lot of hassles. On the contrary, this might seem like a no-brainer, but many entrepreneurs pay little attention to this simple process which can negatively affect the startup in the long run.

Choosing partners you don’t know well: 

Startups are already hard in general when everything is going great; having a preexisting relationship will help overcome many future adversities. The best way to start your business is with someone you know, trust, and respect. On the contrary, if one decides to start working with a complete stranger, chances are high that the transparency levels of the communication won’t be in check, disrupting the whole startup later on.

Not getting to Market Soon Enough:

Intimidated by the prospect of launching will only delay the inevitable; moreover, launching is not a significant phenomenon for the users. Moving up the launches as soon as possible gives a better exposition to the users and gives an idea about which products are likely to be more in demand. No one remembers the launching date, so it’s better to eliminate the irrational fear associated with the concept of launching. The earlier one gets to showcase their products, the better. It’s not the best, but the first to market will become the category king.

Tracking and Measuring analytics:

Reaching a massive audience and making great sales will mean nothing if you aren’t analyzing your data. Analytics gives you the data on how your customers use and interact with your products. If you’re not using analytics, then there’s no way for you to measure your success truly.

Poor Prioritization: 
An actual startup’s first and foremost priority should be pushing out the products and analyzing the users’ feedback; sadly, many startups start on the wrong foot by prioritizing the other procedural tasks way too much instead of focusing on the practical factors or outcomes. Poor prioritization cuts down the efficiency of a startup to a great extent.

Neglecting transparent communication:

Not having transparent conversations with your co-founder can result in several complications. Many common issues can lead to tension between co-founders. These include problems like performance. Am I working as hard or harder than my business partners? The next is goals. Are my goals the same as my co-founders? Are we on the same page? Responsibilities: Who is handling clients versus operations? If you do not have transparent communication, resentment will build up and degrade your working relationship over time. This will adversely affect your startup in both the short and long run.

Building a business from the ground up is no trivial task. While minor mistakes and learnings are a natural process, Andy Ta Kong hopes that his advice will help startups avoid these common hindrances and embrace genuine long-term growth.