The fear of failure, rejection and shame can cripple anyone as an entrepreneur.  Of course, failure is possible, but it's not shameful, and you could utilise the following steps to ensure due diligence in starting your first business.

Any successful entrepreneur will tell you, failure and entrepreneurship are mutually exclusive. Ravi Govender, the Head of Small Enterprises at Standard Bank, says although statistics vary, on average about 50% of all startup businesses in South Africa fail within two years due to the inability and inexperience of their owners. 

Failure is part of the journey, and as an aspiring entrepreneur, you should wear it as a badge of honour as opposed to one of shame. Adversity always has and will always be a significant part of entrepreneurship. Without it, we fall into phases of stagnation and never truly find the motivation to push ourselves beyond our limitations. 

Anyone seeking to set sail on a new business journey needs to be ready for rough weather along their voyage.  Failure is not always a bad thing. Like anything else in life, failure provides precious experience and grants us opportunities to learn from our blunders and develop ourselves. As is the case with many first-time business owners, your first attempt might not always be your best one.  In fact, founders of failed startups have a 20% higher chance at success from their next business venture. 

How can entrepreneurs and founders do everything in their power to promote a successful and lucrative business? Here are some tips that could help you empower your future business efforts.

Create a business model and plan. 

Elon Musk didn't rise one day and say "Today I'll start a revolutionary electronic automobile company." He crafted a carefully constructed roadmap well before. In 2006, he quietly published his master plan before the triumphant launch of the first-generation Tesla Roadster. Musk, the founder of Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company and Neuralink meticulously developed a business model well before the establishment of any of these companies, as should anyone before launching a business.

Preparation. 

The vital key to starting any business is preparation.  Would-be founders first need to focus on the front end, i.e. marketing, word of mouth and sales and then consider the back end.  However, sometimes it's wise to consider recruiting someone to handle your back-end services and logistics. This is especially true if operating your back end is highly capital-intensive. 

Aspiring entrepreneurs need to focus on their strengths and not on logistics or administrative tasks. 

Consider preparation in the form of pre-sales and waitlist campaigns. In today's landscape, pre-sales have become a vital aspect and can increase your chances of future success. Many businesses generate significant demand well before any product launch. Should pre-marketing be one of yours or your company's strengths, we advise working on that to create demand. 

Start slow, maintain low overheads and ascertain proof of concept. 

Entrepreneurs have to look at things in the long-term constantly,  but more importantly, they need to start the actual process of development of their businesses. Start slow and steady, but start nonetheless. Develop a check-list for what needs to become operational and complete one task after the other. By taking things one day at a time, you're less likely to become overwhelmed and will benefit from a feeling of accomplishment as you steadily complete your goals. 

Test your proof concept. 

Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of dropping everything else they're working on to dive headfirst into new ventures. We advise against this, especially in the founding stages. There's no need to quit your day job to become an entrepreneur.  Your odds of success will be higher if you work out the glitches of your startup while maintaining other steady sources of income. 

Use your own funding in the beginning. 

When setting on your business journey, there are many ways to fund your business. That being said, it's vital that you make use of your own funding wherever possible. Both Richard Branson and Mark Cuban have stated that it is not necessary to have an enormous amount of capital to get started. 

Many proof of concepts have notably low capital expenditure requirements, and it's often wiser to use your own funding sources. Without some of your money in the pool, you'll continuously answer to investor demands as soon as your business launches, and this could ultimately lead to the failure of your business. 

Incorporate sound critical thinking to include opportunity costs.

A surefire way to efficiently develop your decision-making skills is to align all decisions with the perspective and framework of “opportunity cost”.  Anything can be aligned with the context of what is called "opportunity cost decision-making." 

So perhaps you're a financial services master, you should be not allocating the majority of your time and effort learning to code and develop websites. Of course, this should be common sense, but often aspiring business owners try to take on too much by themselves. If you're not a proficient web developer, it makes sense to hire or outsource talent to handle things for you. By putting your time and effort towards something you excel at, your company will thrive. 

Eliminate marketing mistakes. 

We cannot stress this enough, throwing cash at untested marketing tactics could lead to your businesses downfall.  Marketing mistakes can devour your revenue and testing new strategies always poses risks.  We're not saying avoid any innovative marketing tactics, but be cautious when considering new marketing campaigns. One mistake could notably affect your bottom line and set your company back by months, if not years. Always go with the tried and tested route. Yes, developing innovative marketing strategies are celebrated, but never abandon a proven approach for a leap of faith. 

Conclusion

No matter where you stand in your business process, you need to begin somewhere and plan accordingly. Take baby steps if need be, people don't plan on failing; they fail to plan. Approach everything one day at a time, and eventually, everything will fall into place. If you follow the guidelines mentioned above, you will assuredly have more success on your first venture than most entrepreneurs.