So you have a great idea, hooray! it’s time to start a business. Here are some easy mistakes to avoid:

Don’t form a partnership based on a word of mouth agreement. This becomes more true and important the more money is involved. Easy tip: If it’s not in writing, it doesn’t matter. Business plans, they work motherfuckers.

Also, you should be aware that almost all businesses fail for two reasons
1. Lack of capital.
2. Lack of business skills.

If you have a ton of capital (savings or loans) but no business skills, you’d actually be better off just burning the money. If you don’t have money but do have business skills and a viable business model you will be able to get the money together from investors. There are four critical business skills, without them you will fail and it will be miserable the whole time.

1. Sales
2. Accounting
3. Investment
4. Leadership

I would definitely like to improve this post by adding the top three books on each of the four skills. Any that you would recommend?