Every business fluctuates through good and bad periods, but when should you signal an SOS? Understanding the characteristics of a failing company could save your business from sinking.

As a founder, you should ask yourself, “What is the final, desired outcome of my company?”

There are two key factors to consider in order to be great startup advice from outside experts: Pick the right team, and always know what you want before you ask.

The goal of many startup companies is to become a scalable business. Unfortunately, there is some confusion about what it really means to scale up.

If you have the curse of the entrepreneur, then you are familiar with the insatiable need to launch something – to create something and get it out there.

A big company bench can allow you to scale rapidly, but excess payroll costs can also drag you down…fast. On the other hand, you can’t be too timid or slow, the market waits for no person. So how do you handle this dilemma?

1. Growing old while building a startup company will mature both you and the business.

Customer Discovery is not a static operation. It is a continuous flow. The more you know about who will use your product, the greater the likelihood of success.

There are many ways for a startup to fail. Some factors, like regulatory changes or input cost increases, are beyond the founder’s control. However, there are three significant actions that entrepreneurs are often guilty of that can kill your company as fast as anything.

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”– George Bernard Shaw