It's no secret that starting a business, or running a business, brings its unique challenges everyday.  Throw in the fact, according to Forbes, that only 20% of businesses make it past their first 18 months and you get a melting pot of stress, anxiety, and possibly a grim outlook for the future.  So what main issues can you as a leader avoid to ultimately reach success?  

1) Lack of structure.  This can come in several forms, mainly that a business struggles to create a proper structure where all team members have clear job descriptions and responsibilities.  This has several negative consequences, you as a leader working 60+ hours a week, lack of traction within the business, hiring and retainment of employees, and keeping up with rapid growth are several main culprits.  This can be solved by creating clearly defined roles and expectations that people can be held accountable to.  As the business grows and people cannot hit their expectations due to lack of time then it's time to hire more.  And for each new position the same strategy of creating a clearly defined role can be reimplemented, over and over again. 

2) Lack of leadership and vision.  Many business have good ideas and simply fail for not being properly run.  Many businesses lack a vision of their future and then setting proper goals to make the vision a reality.  Does the business have a 10 year plan, 3 year plan, one year plan?  If not, how can they possibly meet their desired success?  As a leader, how can you manage the business in a way to reach unclear targets?  The main responsibility of a leader is to clearly define targets and lead towards those targets.  Many leaders only work in there business, not on the business.  Many leaders create the ceiling for their companies success because they feel they need to have a hand in all operations of the business.  This not only adds an incredible amount of unproductive hours to a leaders schedule but stalls the growth of a company.  Leaders need to guide employees in the pursuit to hit goals and targets and most importantly continually remind the team what the vision is and why it's important.

3) Not paying attention to the customer and always looking for the next shiny object.  Many people start business thinking people will "want" what they have to offer.  Businesses need to do market research and discover what customers actually want, and not just guess.  Businesses are selling futures, not just a product.  The service you are providing or the product your are selling should be helping the customer reach their desired future.  Listen to customer and market feedback and tweak products as needed.  On the opposite side of that, if you believe your company needs to continually add new products and services your may be creating stagnate growth and mediocre products.  This can easily be seen in smaller companies where your have an employee who has to change their business hat several times a day to sell or provide service for several products.  It's better to specialize in a specific service or product than be mediocre in many products.

Here are a few pitfalls to avoid when starting or running your business.  It can be very easy to fall down the rabbit hole of despair and feel like their is no way out.  But realizing you are making common mistakes and avoiding these pitfalls can help you and your company succeed where others have previously failed.