3 Tips for Preventing Delays in Your New Startup

Whenever you embark on a new start up project, it’s natural that you will want to generate the greatest possible amount of momentum in order to “hit the ground running,” and to continue moving forward at a good pace.

Of course, there are many different obstacles that are likely to arise during the course of any business venture, and there are certainly a broad number of things that can happen to create delays in your new start-up in one way or another.

Here are a handful of tips for preventing delays in your new start-up.

Pay attention to detail upfront

Whatever the particular project or endeavour you’re working on in your start-up, it’s more or less a universal rule that paying attention to details up front can frequently save you a lot of trouble and delay further down the line.

When planning shipping, for example, taking a moment to identify the best freight class shipping calculator to use, in order to help you move ahead in a cost-effective manner, might be a great step to take.

It’s certainly the case that you should be proactive in your business and shouldn’t spend an inordinate amount of time “at the drawing board,” but you should nonetheless pay attention to the details and “fine print” when you are taking action.

An old dictum meant to encourage good craftsmanship advises to “measure twice and cut once.” And simply avoiding the most obvious mistakes or oversights in the first place, is a good way of reducing substantial future delays.

Learn through action rather than through theory

As a bit of a counterpart the previous point; while it is certainly important to pay attention to detail when taking action, it is also important to realise that you will learn the most by taking action, rather than through trying to get the theory perfect in the abstract.

A lot of delay in entrepreneurial ventures comes from the fact that people are reluctant to move from the planning stage to the execution stage.

Ultimately, though, it’s only executing on your plans and making headway on your projects that actually advances your business whatsoever.

Have clear and simple goals and targets

A lot of delay in any entrepreneurial venture is likely to arise from overly ambitious targets and projects – the kinds of things which involve you trying to tick every possible box you can.

Not only are your time, attention, and financial resources limited, however, but having too many projects that you are supposedly working on at any one time can also make it very difficult to decide where those limited resources should be applied at any given moment.

So; have clear and simple aspirations and targets instead of complex ones. That’s not to say that “simple” equals “easy,” or that you can’t pursue a variety of goals and aspirations over time. But you should have a clear and straightforward idea of what you’re trying to accomplish at any given moment.

This is a contributed post.