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6 Mistakes Every Entrepreneur Should Avoid
Becoming a successful entrepreneur in a business terrain such as Nigeria is a venture fraught with peculiar challenges.
Considering the many little details that naturally go into setting up a business and nurturing it to a path of profitability and sustainability, many entrepreneurs can be forgiven for getting lost along the way.
However, ask any successful entrepreneur and you will discover that mistakes are a luxury an entrepreneur cannot afford.
These useful tips from the Research and Development Unit of Yudala – Nigeria’s pioneer online and offline e-commerce outfit – will guide you from making these costly mistakes that may mar your entrepreneurial journey.
Thinking you can do it all alone
As an entrepreneur, it is understandable to think that no one can sell your idea or product better or more passionately than yourself.
While this mindset may serve you well at the outset, this may significantly hamper your speed or lead to mental and physical fatigue/burnout, especially as you scale up.
Even if your Intelligence Quotient (IQ) rivals that of Albert Einstein, you will benefit from relying on the expertise and input of other knowledgeable hands, employees, consultants or partners. These reliable external influences can help provide the much-needed new perspective or fresh strategy that will help take your business to the next level.
This is also important for entrepreneurs who, out of force of habit, get stuck in a particular way of doing things simply because it works, without realizing that there might be a smarter, more efficient way to achieve better results.
Refusal to take pains before pleasure
This is a flaw that is predominantly rife among the new generation of entrepreneurs. Many have had their sterling entrepreneurial dreams cut short simply because they were not ready to start small and take pains before pleasure.
Entrepreneurship is a difficult, arduous journey; one that certainly requires steely discipline and in most cases, gradual growth.
Sadly, it is common these days to see many budding entrepreneurs embrace a flamboyant lifestyle at the first signs of success. If you choose to buy that expensive car or fly Business Class from the moment you close your first big deal, you may be making a mistake that could truncate your success.
For long-term and sustainable success, every entrepreneur must be ready to take the business through a structured incubation period in order to survive in a highly competitive knowledge-driven economy. This demands not only moral and financial discipline but a determination to make huge sacrifices.
Not allowing technology lead
The world has gone digital. In fact, we are approaching the Fourth Industrial Revolution, also described as Industry 4.0: an age in which a range of new technologies are expectedly fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds in addition to impacting all disciplines, economies and industries.
This is an age marked by emerging technology breakthroughs in a number of fields, including robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, quantum computing, biotechnology, The Internet of Things, 3D printing and autonomous vehicles.
Whatever the nature of your business, you will be struggling against an overwhelming tide if your business is not technology-driven.
The 21st Century entrepreneur is one that is not only technology-smart but willing to continually find new ways to automate his business. You definitely cannot keep up with competition if you don’t make the most of technology.
With the growing utility of the smartphone and other tech-gadgets, a number of opportunities have emerged, presenting refreshingly new ways for consuming goods and services. For smart entrepreneurs, these technology-enabled platforms also lower business costs and the barriers to create and sustain wealth.
Allowing sentiments cloud business decisions:
Sentiments or emotions have no place in business. The best and most successful entrepreneurs all have one thing in common: they are renowned for their bloody-mindedness when it comes to taking business decisions.
The ability to make effective business decisions is one that could spell the difference between brilliant success and dismal failure for every entrepreneur.
This is especially considering the fact that, as a business leader, you are bound to make loads of decisions every day that have a direct impact on your business, employees, customers or the marketplace.
These include hiring or manpower requirements as your success heavily depends on the competence of your employees; expansion plans, operational or financial decisions. Such sensitive decisions are best treated as they ought to: from the perspective of its impact and benefit to the business.
Poor marketing
Even if you operate in a niche market, the peculiarities of contemporary society and fickle attention span of potential consumers means that you must properly market your product, solution or idea for it to get accepted.
Unconsciously, many new entrepreneurs often make this mistake of erroneously believing that their products/ideas are so novel or unique that they can get away with a meagre effort at marketing.
For these ones, it is worth restating that the days of the maxim: “If you build it, they will come,” seems to be long gone. If you desire success as an entrepreneur, then you must admit the fact that your business must effectively invest in marketing. In addition to the word of mouth/free referrals that will come from constantly delivering great service, your business stands a better chance if you work out efficient marketing strategies that will necessarily accommodate content marketing, digital marketing, point-of-sales, promotional marketing, SEO, PR and paid advertising, among others.
Underestimating the importance of customer service
It is easy for entrepreneurs to forget one of the major reasons they remain in business: the customer. This mistake often creeps in when a business begins to acquire more patrons and success seems more within reach.
That is when the tendency to treat customers with levity begins to rear its ugly head, often with dire consequences for the unsuspecting business owner.
With access to the internet on the rise and social media coming to play a more important role in the swift dissemination of news and other information, you will be making a grave mistake underestimating the importance of keeping the least customer happy.
Your business can quickly go from being the darling of your patrons to trending on social media for the wrong reasons. Instructively, the vituperations of a disgruntled customer can erode months of goodwill you have built up.
Also, you must bear in mind that negative news spreads faster than good news. To avoid this pitfall, it is important to ensure that the channels of communication with the customer are kept open.
Feedback is essential and you can ask your customers to provide these through your interactions with them. This way, you can keep your fingers on the pulse of the customer, identify areas of weaknesses and understand the customer’s expectations.
Southeast Asia cybercrime networks are expanding operations into Africa as crackdowns intensify in the subregion, according to a recent report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The massive, unintended geographic shift triggered by intense pressure from international task forces in Myanmar and Cambodia,have seen highly sophisticated criminal networks now establishing footholds in major tech hubs across Kenya and Nigeria, transforming local technical talent into accomplices for industrial-scale digital theft as reported by https://streamlinefeed.co.ke/
This strategic migration represents a critical evolution in the $17 billion crypto scam economy.
Transnational scam syndicates are organized criminal networks that run industrial-scale online fraud using trapped or trafficked labor.
The UNODC has documented this diversification, noting that African nations are increasingly targeted as operational bases due to robust internet infrastructure and a surplus of unemployed tech workers.
In response, local authorities are engaged in a frantic game of catch-up against well-funded foreign cartels.
Recall that in 2025, UNODC, described the shift as part of a broader trend in which crime “spreads like a cancer,” into regions with weaker enforcement and limited digital safeguards.
The report pointed to the rapid proliferation of online fraud operations, including cryptocurrency scams and phishing schemes, moving from countries like Myanmar and Cambodia into new footholds in Africa—particularly Nigeria.
A recent case publicized June 12, 2025 by the WeChat public account West Africa Chinese Voice illustrates the trend: Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested 177 Chinese nationals in Lagos and Abuja between December 2024 and January 2025.
The suspects were allegedly running scam centers under the guise of corporate offices, where local Nigerians were trained to carry out online investment frauds—many following the “pig-butchering” model, which builds trust with victims before luring them into fraudulent crypto investments.
Authorities seized hundreds of SIM cards, high-performance computers, and prewritten scam scripts during the raids
Ugochukwu Eze, a 47 year-old man, was on Thursday arraigned before a Federal High Court in Lagos for allegedly hacking into the server of SunTrust Bank to steal a total of N800m.
Ugochukwu also known as Amazon, was arraigned before the court by the operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS).
DSS accused Ugochukwu of fraudulently hacking into the server of SunTrust Bank to remove and divert the sum of N800 million into several accounts in other financial institutions.
M. Bajela,prosecuting counsel, DSS, in the charges filed before the court alleged that the defendant and others now at large, between 2023 and 2026, conspired among themselves and unlawfully and seriously hindered the function of Suntrust Bank Plc’s computer system server and in the process fraudulently diverted over N800 million belonging to the bank.
Ugochukwu was also accused of concealing and transferring various sums of money traced to the unlawful cyber-attacks to some account in some financial institutions.
The offences alleged to have been committed by the defendant according to the prosecutor contravened sections 5; 6(1) and 8 of Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act, 2024. And Sections 10, 20 and 18(2)(D) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
The defendant pleaded not guilty to the allegations.
Based on his plea of not guilty, the prosecutor asked the court for a trial date, and prayed the court to remand the defendant in the facility of the correctional services pending the time trial will commence.
However, E. Afrogha, defendant’s lawyer, told the court that she has filed her client’s bail application. adding that her client has been in the DSS custody for over a month.
But the prosecution counsel told the court that he has not been served with the bail application, not withstanding that his witnesses are available.
Based on the counsels’ submissions, Justice Friday Ogazi, presiding judge, adjourned the matter to August 24,2026 for hearing of the bail application.
The judge also ordered that the defendant be remanded in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCS) pending the hearing of the bail application.
One of the counts against the defendant reads: “That you UGOCHUKWU EZE (AKA AMAZON) (M) (47 YEARS) sometime between 2023 and 2026 in Lagos, and other places within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, unlawfully seriously hindered the function of SunTrust Bank Plc’s computer system, and in the process fraudulently diverted over N800, 000,000.00 (Eight Hundred Million Naira) belonging to the said SunTrust Bank thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 8 of the cybercrime (prohibition, prevention etc.) Act, 2024.”
Liquid Intelligent Technologies is using light-beam technology developed by Google spinout Taara to supply data centres and large enterprise networks in Lagos, addressing the high costs and delays of laying underground fibre in dense urban corridors.
The deployment includes nearly 12 live optical links serving banks, hotels, and utilities across commercial districts, proving optical technology can supplement traditional physical infrastructure where trenching cables is impractical.
High-capacity bandwidth is being distributed directly from points of presence at Africa Data Centres and other Lagos facilities to enterprises beyond the reach of fibre cables.
This reduces network downtime in areas where physical cable cuts take days to repair. The rollout follows a two-year deployment by Liquid to strengthen network resilience for local internet service providers.
Nigeria remains one of the largest economies on the continent, with Lagos acting as its primary commercial hub. Expanding network infrastructure across dense urban environments requires operators to blend multiple technologies.
Using focused beams of light transmitted through the air, the technology allows operators to establish links within days rather than weeks, complementing existing physical networks.
Liquid is now assessing expansion into Abuja, Ibadan, and Kano.
“For Liquid, deployment speed has been one of the most significant advantages,” said Eugene Uka, acting chief executive officer of Liquid Intelligent Technologies Nigeria.
He added: “Traditional fibre deployments are not always a possibility, especially across difficult terrains. Taara links can often be installed and activated within hours, allowing Liquid to fulfil its mission to create a digitally connected future that leaves no African behind.”
Bhavesh Mistry, regional lead for Taara in Africa, commented: “As demand for connectivity continues to grow, operators need more flexibility in how they expand and reinforce their networks.
“Fibre remains an essential part of modern communications infrastructure, and will for some time, but there are many situations where deploying fibre quickly or cost-effectively can be difficult. Wireless optical communication gives operators another tool to extend capacity, reach customers faster, and build more resilient networks without compromising performance.”
The Taara Lightbridge system delivers up to 20 gigabits per second of capacity across distances up to 20 kilometres using invisible light beams.
The platform avoids trenching, spectrum licensing, or extensive civil engineering work. Taara claims its system is active in more than 20 countries with telecommunications operators, including T-Mobile, Airtel, Digicel, Liquid, and SoftBank.
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