Startups

5 Reasons Why You Must Learn The Basics Before Launching Your Startup

Published

11 years ago

Apr 30, 2015

You’ve probably heard millions of times that one of the key things to launch a startup and succeed is to jump into the pool and just start doing things.

In other words, just go for it!

Usually every start up comes from a great idea, and if you reached the point where you decided to start your own company, it means that you are a real implementer, not just a dreamer.

However, you should be careful with this approach.

Even if this is the needed attitude, you should learn the basics before launching your startup.

Behind the word basics there is:

learn what your target customer wants
Learn the insides of your business
Know who your key suppliers are
Understand the key technical aspects of your business
Anticipate the main risks and opportunities

5 reasons why learning the basics is so important:

1. To avoid wasting a lot of money

Let’s explain this point with a simple example.

You want to sell very expensive women’s shoes through the internet, and for this purpose you hired an expensive web programmer who designed a beautiful website for you.

Your web is running great, then it’s time when you decide to invest an important quantity of money in promoting it.

Your main promotion channel is Facebook.

You start running ads on Facebook targeting young ladies, because young ladies always love nice shoes. You get plenty of Facebook likes and shares, but you don’t sell a single pair of shoes.

The problem is that the young ladies usually don’t have the money to pay for the shoes that you are selling.

Only women with a higher income, who are usually a bit older, could afford these expensive shoes.

This is a clear situation where you could waste a lot of money simply because you don’t know your target customer well enough.

” The secret to getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain

2. To grow your business safely

We hear a lot of stories about startups with great success in a very short time.

Even if it might look like these companies made miracles to succeed, each of them is built on a solid strategy.

If you don’t learn and anticipate your major milestones you will probably fail.

This is a common mistake when we talk about the legal implications of a company. Usually startups spend a lot of money, time, and effort because of poor planning.

For example, imagine your business is about selling apples. You start your business by investing on a terrain and planting apple trees.

Then, when you want to start selling your apples to big supermarkets, they don’t accept a single apple without a health certificate issued by the ministry of agriculture.

The reality is that you had never thought of such a certificate! More than likely you will lose all your first year sales.

So, try to plan well in advance for the key milestones of your project, with all their implications.

3. To avoid wasting a lot of time and energy

Speed is one of the most critical factors for startups to succeed.

The hard reality is that you are now really excited to be launching your new idea, but more than likely someone else on the other side of the world will have the same idea, or similar, and will be launching it too.

The sooner you put your product into the market, the better chances you have to gain a good position.

Learning all the implications of starting a company and anticipating the possible issues that will appear will help you create a launching and growing strategy and will save you lot of time and energy.

If you plan well in advance you will need to build your strategy with much less trial and error.

It does not mean that if you plan everything you will not have to try any other strategies to succeed. However, you can already discard a lot of non-working strategies by learning about them from the beginning.

4. To be able to think big

If you want to succeed by launching your start up you must have a set of beliefs. Many of these can be summarized in two words: Think Big.

The reason behind this is that you can only achieve something that you know it exists. The most obvious example: A man could not go to the moon if he didn’t know that the moon existed.

If you take a look at the most successful entrepreneurs you will realize that most of them have something in common.

They all think big and they are never afraid of looking beyond their limits.

It is really important to learn from the beginning of your project what you can achieve, even if this is a really challenging task.

Otherwise you’ll never think big enough to reach your target.

“You have to think anyway so why not think big.” – Donald Trump

5. To keep your motivation and engagement with your project

It’s a hard reality that many startups don’t succeed, even if the ideas behind them are really great.

One of the key elements to succeed is to really believe in your project and push for it until it works. The issue is that it’s really easy to lose motivation in the project if you don’t see quick results.

In many cases entrepreneurs don’t see these results as they expected because they haven’t learned the challenges before launching the company and they haven’t invested enough time to know what was coming.

In consequence they have to face many unexpected situations, losing the motivation to keep moving forward.

This happens, most of the time, with one of the following things: a legal aspect, a technology aspect, a customer satisfaction point, or a supplier that does not deliver.

Expect what you will have to face and go for it!

Do you share this point of view or you just think that the secret is to just do the things and correct the mistakes along the way?

Related Topics:basics Business Entrepreneurship Investing launch learn motivation risks startup Success

Up Next

Startups Or Corporate? Take Your Pick

Don't Miss

4 Steps On How To Become A Leader That Talented People Beg To Work For

Fernando Vilas

Fernando Vilas is founder and CEO of Quisapit, a website that connects motivated students with the best teachers around the world. Get a full E-Course from Quisapit.

Click to comment

Startups

How an LLC Can Help Shield Your Personal Assets

Published

1 week ago

Aug 1, 2026

Addicted2Success Editor

Image Credit: Addicted2success

You are a freelance designer, and your client sued you over a trademark mistake. If you believe that your personal savings are safe, then you may be wrong. You are operating as a default sole proprietor. You and your business are the exact same person. As a result, your personal bank account, your car, and even your home are legally up for grabs.

However, if you start an LLC, you can build a legal shield between your business liabilities and your personal life. These days, you can easily form an LLC online.

How Does This Legal Shield Work

When you start an LLC, your business gets a distinct legal identity. Now, your LLC can open its own bank accounts, sign contracts, take out loans, buy equipment, and be held responsible for its own actions. You are not liable. This boundary between you and your business is called the “corporate veil.”

Visualizing the Separation

Inside the Shield (Business Assets)

Everything your company owns is included in this shield. If your business faces a debt collector or a lawsuit, only your business assets are at risk, such as:

Money in the business bank account
Inventory and raw materials
Office equipment, computers, and company vehicles
Business intellectual property

Outside the Shield (Your Personal Assets)

You don’t have to worry about your personal assets, such as:

Your personal checking and savings accounts
Your home and personal real estate
Your family vehicles
Your retirement funds (401k, IRA) and personal investments

What LLC Protection Covers

Business Debts and Contracts

When your LLC signs a commercial lease, hires a contractor, or buys inventory on credit, these are the obligations of the LLC. Your creditors will come after the assets of the LLC if your business can’t pay.

Lawsuits

If your business is sued over a contract dispute, faulty service, or an operational issue, lawsuits will be filed against your business. All your personal assets are safe.

What LLC Protection Does Not Cover

Personal Torts

The term “tort” refers to an act that causes harm or injury to someone else. The LLC shields you from the mistakes of your employees and general business liabilities. However, it never protects you from your own personal actions. For example, if you personally commit fraud, you can be sued personally.

Personal Guarantees

Vendors often hesitate to lend money to new, growing businesses. Such businesses don’t have long credit histories. Lenders often require you to sign a personal guarantee.

How Owners Accidentally Destroy Their Protection

The legal shield provided by forming an LLC only works when you run your business properly. The corporate veil can be pierced when a court decides that your LLC is not legitimate and strips away your protection in a lawsuit. This usually happens when you make one of the following three mistakes.

Commingling Funds

Many small business owners often mix their personal money with their business money. You are commingling funds when you use your business debit card to buy your personal groceries or you deposit a client’s payment directly into your personal checking account. The legal wall crumbles when you don’t treat your business and personal finances as completely separate.

Missing an Operating Agreement

An operating agreement is the legal document that outlines:

How your LLC is run
Who owns what percentage
How profits are handled

If the creditor’s lawyer finds out that an operating agreement is missing, they may argue that your LLC is just a shell.

Falling Out of “Good Standing”

When you start an LLC, you must file annual reports and pay franchise taxes to keep it active. The state will place your business in “Administrative Dissolution” or bad standing if you miss any of these deadlines. You could lose your limited liability protection if you operate a business under an inactive or dissolved LLC.

Startups

Move Fast without Breaking People: Product Safety Lessons for Ambitious Startups

Published

4 weeks ago

Jul 15, 2026

Addicted2Success Editor

Image Credit: Addicted2success

Fast growth can hide product risks until customers get hurt, especially when safety comes late in development. A software bug can be patched, but a chair, charger, or smart device can cause a burn, fall, cut, or crash.

For founders moving from a prototype to mass sales, the cases handled by Michael Kelly Injury Lawyers in Boston show why launch goals should not push testing, warnings, and foreseeable risks aside. A product claim can involve the design, how a unit was made, user instructions, or several firms in the supply chain.

Why Minimum Viable Should Never Mean Minimally Safe

A minimum viable product should test whether people want an idea, not how much danger they will accept. Teams can delay colors or premium finishes, but not guards, safe heat limits, sound wiring, or clear instructions.

Set Safety Rules Before the Build

The product brief should define who will use the item, where, and what could happen during setup, cleaning, storage, wear, or mistakes. It should also consider what a child, guest, tired worker, or first-time buyer might do.

Shared rules help teams move faster. Designers know which guards must remain. Engineers know which parts cannot fail. Suppliers know what cannot change without review.

Test How People Really Use It

A neat demo is not the real world. Users place products on wet counters, soft rugs, or rough ground. They skip a guide, use the wrong cable, or handle an item in unexpected ways.

Testing should cover misuse without predicting every extreme act. When a risk can be reduced through a guard, lock, stop switch, or clear signal, that design change is often greater than a warning alone.

How Design and Manufacturing Risks Differ

Some risks are built into the design. Others arise when production fails to match the approved plan. Teams need to identify the source before choosing a correction.

Design Problems Start with the Plan

A design problem can affect every unit. A base may tip, a blade may sit too close to a hand, a control may activate too easily, or a battery space may trap heat.

Final inspection cannot repair a flawed plan. The team may need a new shape, shield, limit, material, or control, followed by testing before more units ship.

Manufacturing Problems Break the Plan

A manufacturing problem occurs when a unit or batch does not match the approved design. A fastener may be missing, a weld may be weak, a wire may be damaged, or the wrong component may enter production.

Good records help define the scope. The team should know who made each part, which batch used it, what checks occurred, and where units went. Fast trace work can keep one fault from becoming a wider crisis.

When Customer Feedback Signals More Than Dissatisfaction

Support teams hear about delays, difficult setups, strange sounds, and refunds. Most reports are routine. Yet heat, smoke, sparks, breakage, sharp edges, sudden movement, falls, or failed guards require review.

Treat Complaints as Safety Data

One report may lack key facts, but similar reports can reveal a pattern. Staff should record the model, batch, date, use, photographs, and outcome, then alert someone who can pause sales or order testing.

Teams should not blame unusual use before asking whether another reasonable buyer could make the same choice. A support ticket can be the first sign of a hazard that lab testing missed.

Preserve the Product and the Record

After an injury, the product can help explain what failed. A repair, disposal, or undocumented test can remove evidence. The same applies to old labels, manuals, test files, customer messages, and design notes.

Startups should keep relevant items safely, record who examines them, and preserve earlier versions of instructions and warnings. This history can show what changed and why.

Why Warnings Must Reflect Real Use

A warning works only when a user notices it at the right time. Dense text at the back of a manual may not help during setup. The message should name the hazard, explain the harm, and state what reduces the risk.

Placement matters too. A charging risk belongs near the port. A weight limit belongs where weight is added. Even so, warnings should not replace a safer design when the hazard can reasonably be removed.

How Founders Can Preserve Speed without Cutting Safeguards

A delayed launch, redesign, or recall can feel like defeat. In practice, early action can prevent harm, protect trust, and give the team better facts for the next version. The strongest startups move quickly because their systems protect people.

When a product injures someone, legal guidance can help preserve the item, collect design and manufacturing records, identify responsible companies, and examine whether a defect or unsafe choice caused the harm.