Entrepreneurs are a different breed of individual. The time, effort, and resources are never able to be fully calculated. So why do companies get lazy when it comes to execution after investing so much? This edition of the Thoughts A Brewin' Newsletter will discuss one of the most common statements I receive from clients: Company A is doing X, so I want to do X.
While it's crucial to stay informed about industry trends and competitors, blindly following what other companies are doing can be a recipe for mediocrity or even government scrutiny and subsequent failure. Startups should embrace their individuality, leverage their unique strengths, and focus on innovation rather than imitation. The motto for any company should be guided by charting their own course in doing it right as opposed to doing it quickly and sloppily or trying to recreate the "success" of another. The amount of times Company A has later been sued or shut down because of what they were doing is, unsurprisingly, quite frequent.
By charting their own course, entrepreneurs can position their startups for long-term success and build a respectable brand and customer base as opposed to swimming in a pool risk thinking they'll never be the ones caught in the crosshairs. There's a way to balance risk with compliance as opposed to making it a zero-sum game.
Every decision comes with a correlated amount of risk. The manner by which a company navigates that risk is the main question. There's no such thing as zero risk in the world of entrepreneurship. Success is bred through risk taking. But there's a difference between being business savvy and using the laws and regulations to your advantage and simply not telling the truth or hoping to not get caught. Too many companies, especially in the startup phase, seek to work in the latter categorization because the initial costs may be high or the effort to adjust from a well-thought-out business model no longer seems as initially enticing.
As an attorney, I ordinarily seek to steer clear of telling entrepreneurs how to run their businesses, but oftentimes the two worlds overlap substantially. You may have a brilliant business idea, but it could be entirely illegal. It's my job to raise issues that you, as an entrepreneur, have never even considered so that a more sustainable model can be implemented for long-term success. The way of doing business is more than a great idea. It's critically important to understand the market you are seeking to enter and to understand the business environment in the locale you are operating. Our corporate group at Thompson Burton knows how to do it right to bring your goals to a compliant reality.
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