By | Aleksandr Volodarsky | www.allbusiness.com
Building a startup is not simple. Building a successful startup is even harder.
I started my business five years ago. In 2020, I achieved $2.7 million in annual revenue; my goal for 2021 is $10 million. Building my startup took hard work, dedication, sleepless nights, money—and, of course, some failure before I succeeded.
In five years, I’ve made a bunch of mistakes that delayed our growth, and I wish someone would have shown me an article like this one. So now, I’m happy to share my knowledge and experience to help you get through the startup process and make fewer mistakes when building a startup than I did.
15 things every entrepreneur should know before building a startup
1. Leave your comfort zone
We started making sales and getting traction early, which allowed me to hire a team. However, when you experience success, you can either become comfortable and lose your fire, or you can continue working to get to the next higher level.
It turned out I was the first type; we ended up not growing and we stagnated for over a year. We had been doing the same things for so long I couldn’t remember the last time feeling happy about achieving something significant. My work life was good, but it sometimes also felt boring doing the same routine.