Many entrepreneurs give up just before their businesses start to take off. The business environment is often harsh and fiercely competitive. With the emergence of the internet, the world has become much smaller. Now, competition is no longer bounded to Singapore itself. Local entrepreneurs are competing with big companies from the region and the world as well.

Since entrepreneurship is hardly taught in schools, we often need to learn from mistakes, or even painful experience. These experiences are sometimes learnt from a real life business startup.

While the best lessons are often learnt from the most painful experience, its very important not to fall into debt. Getting funding for your startup is never easy. But, resort to borrowing from loan sharks or high interest loans is the worst thing that entrepreneurs can think of.

No matter how harsh your situation is, always strive to cut down on cost and stay out of debt.

Here, there are certain pitfalls that we need to avoid:

• Lack of control over your business - A good example will be a technology startup. If you are not technologically inclined, you are probably not in control. Not understanding about business operation may severely limit your control over the business. If you rely on your partners alone while you do not understand anything about the core technology of your business, you are probably not in control.

• Giving up too fast - Startups normally need to sustain for at least 6 months to start making profit. Too often, entrepreneurs give up too fast. We often need time to fine tune business operations, establish contacts and partnership to grow the business.

• Not having a competitive advantage - This may have been discussed in previous articles. Essentially, your business needs to be different from others. Offering customers additional services that is not easily achieved by your competitors.

• Having little leverage - Entrepreneurship is about leverage. David Beckham can earn millions because his matches can reach the whole world. Entrepreneurs often fail to realize that Singapore is still a small market after all. While we are not suggesting that you forgo the local market, you should be very clear with how many people can be your customers in Singapore.

Of course, the discussion can never end. Most likely, we need real life experiences and go through the process of business startup to learn better. We sincerely hope you can be successful one day.

Article by Byon Ong, Singapore Business Resources for Entrepreneurs

January 2006

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