FEATURED ARTICLE — November 14th, 2018

5 Toxic Pieces of Advice That All Entrepreneurs Should Ignore

By Henry Cazalet

Making the momentous decision to start your own business is a life changing move.

There’s much at stake and so much to do. 

There are multiple hats to wear and balls to juggle. Everything is urgent and everything is high priority.

To help maintain calm and order, many entrepreneurs look for reassurance and guidance from the plentiful supply of wise gurus that have already built successful businesses and who are all too eager to dispense their wisdom to an eager audience.

Their pearls of wisdom will help them steer clear of the pitfalls that are awaiting them on the road to building their new business.

Except, this is not always the case. 

Many of these ‘entrepreneurial gems’ are trotted out with little or no thought and are often just plain misleading or flat wrong.

Here, we investigate 5 toxic start-up clichés that new entrepreneurs should avoid at all costs.

We need a high-status office in the center of town to show our customers and investors that we’re a player

This advice is way off the mark. 

Office landlords are the only ones who are going to be impressed by this decision. The vanity of an impressive office soon wears thin as the relentless rent requests keep rolling in, month after month.

The space you can afford is likely to be tiny and the contract terms could cripple you for years.

Worse than the financial strain that an expensive office will bring, is the fact that potential investors and customers might question your judgment.

Wasting resources on an extravagant office, when you should be concentrating on developing your product or customer base, could come across as poor decision making.

A more sensible strategy is to rent modest office space with flexible... Read More