Top 10 Startup Mistakes from
Maliah’s Kitchen
Pedro Perry is the pen name of Peter
Akume. He is a multi - genre writer
and the author of Metal Fall: Beyond
Retrieval. He is a freelance screenwriter,
poet, and a member of AIESEC Nigeria.
Find him on Twitter: @pert_perry.
© Business Expert Press 978-1-94819-838-7 (2018)
www.businessexpertpress.com
Pedro Perry
Abstract: A lot of startup founders fail due to startup
mistakes but there is no perfect startup, mistakes will
happen. This article uses a short story to outline deadly
startup mistakes to avoid. It explains that with the
wrong mindset your business is bound to flop. This is
why ­successful startups results from brilliant minds. It is
hoped that this article will enlighten entrepreneurs and
aspiring startup founders about mistakes that will make
starting up unsuccessful.
Keywords: Business ideas, Business plan, Business
strategy, Cofounders, Entrepreneurs, Hiring, Ideas,
Startup.
Introduction
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a startup is
a fledgling business enterprise. Every startup always
starts out as an idea, this idea could be good or bad, but
you have to transform that idea from fantasy to reality.
What does it take to start a small business? A unique
concept? Finance? A fabulous team? Of course. All of
these are required; however, it is not about making it.
It is about maintaining it. As an entrepreneur, I know
about mistakes. Mistake is like death, it is inevitable.
There’s no one in this world who hasn’t failed before;
along the way, mistakes are going to occur, but you must
learn from them because if you do not, they will ruin
your startup instead of raising it.
Every year, millions of entrepreneurs take a leap of
faith at their dream venture, but the truth is that 9 out of 10
startups fail. This is unfortunate, but that should not dis-
courage you from pursuing your dream. As an ­optimistic
business owner, you need to face r­ eality and the reality
is mistakes do occur. Want to start your own business?
Well, how do you ensure you triumph in a ­competitive
marketplace? There are dozens of c­haracteristics of
great startups. However, my goal is not to throw light
on these characteristics, but rather to narrate out 10
startup mistakes. Here I have written a very short story
for you; it is written in a very readable format, and in
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 Top 10 Startup Mistakes from Maliah’s Kitchen
such a way that anyone can understand the
main l­essons. My aim is to have you learn
from this short story; it is not written for
the purpose of e ­ ntertainment, it is a work
of fiction about a young entrepreneur who
started a b ­ usiness with the wrong mindset,
thus made lots of m ­ istakes. Along the line
I will highlight the key startup mistakes
made by this entrepreneur; although it is a
work of fiction, believe me, these mistakes
do occur in the business universe.
Fifty-one years old Melvin Richard L ­ ezly
was the Chief Executive Officer and Founder
of LezLO Hotels. He was an ­ American
billionaire and philanthropist, a widower
­ I passed that phase a long time ago,” he
who had two children; Maliah ­ Lezly and
­Aubrey Lezly. LezLO Hotels was the ­largest
in the state of Nevada, it was Melvin’s flagship
brand and amongst the biggest in the world.
Aside from hotels, he also had ­restaurants
and bakeries, his brand a­ wareness was solid
and business was ­ booming, but a family
member felt the ­restaurants weren’t doing
well. Who was this? It was his 25-year-old
daughter, ­
­ Maliah. ­Maliah was a graduate
from L ­ ondon Business School with a first
class ­degree in ­business administration. She
was a ­perfectionist with a proud attitude, a
lady who believed that she was always right.
Well, her brother Aubrey, a gentle young
adult, was only 17 years of age, so he had no
say in the family business.
One morning, at the family mansion,
Maliah confidently walked up to her father
who was standing close to a swimming
pool and she said to him: “Father, I have
decided. . .,” her words caught his attention
as he turned around, he inquired briskly,
“Decided on what, precisely ?”
“I have decided that it is high time I start
my own company,” she disclosed. Not
­surprised, he smiled and said: “Well, I saw
this coming.”
“No, father, do not take it the wrong
way,” she added.
“Not at all, my dear. You have been part
of the LezLO brand for five years, I just
don’t understand and want to know your
reason for leaving.”
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“’It is complicated, Father.”
“Can you break it down at least?”, He
asked.
And after a pause, she returned:
“­Alright, I will, it is very simple. I feel our
company. . .”
“No, it’s not our company, it is my
­company,” corrected Melvin.
“Okay. . . I feel your company lacks the
keys to a successful enterprise,” she said.
“What do you mean? Maliah, I have been
running this business for fifteen years now
and I can boldly say that the revenue is
solid. The LezLO brand is not a startup,
stated.
“You still don’t understand my point, the
company is worth $15 billion dollars but
I am thinking of how we can expand.”
“Now I understand, this is all about
greed, right?”
“No, it is about expansion.”
“Maliah, you can’t start a business with
the mindset of getting filthy rich overnight.
It doesn’t work that way,” he warned.
“Look who is talking,” she laughed.
“Experience has taught me a lot . . . . .”
“Father,” she rudely interrupted.
“I don’t need your advice, I can do this,
stop trying to discourage me. This is my plan,
I want to start a restaurant,” she told him.
“But my restaurants are moving
smoothly, I don’t get it,” he wondered.
“I know, but you see I don’t like the
way you handle things, especially with
the r­estaurant. I agree, the hotels are
­moving well. The bakery is okay but the
­restaurants are not. And that’s what I want
to do. I want to start a restaurant in order
to prove to you that I can maintain food
­startups better than you do. My idea will
yield more profit than yours. I assure you,
in six months I can yield double profit of
what your r­ estaurants make annually,” she
confidently told him.
“Okay,” smiled Melvin.
“Absolutely,” replied Maliah.
“So why do you want to leave the
­company then?” her father asked.
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 Top 10 Startup Mistakes from Maliah’s Kitchen
“I am not leaving the company. I am
only pulling out from the restaurants,” she
explained.
“Oh, now I understand, but I hope
you know don’t have the skills to run a
restaurant. That is not your field,” her
­ be in an enormous debt.” But she ignored
­father added.
“I can do all things, father. I am smart,
innovative and intelligent, trust me,” she
said.
“Okay, all the best,” smiled her father.
Obviously, her purpose of starting up was
not compendious.
Without a concise purpose, a startup
­cannot thrive. This is one mistake some
­entrepreneurs make. You should not start
a business with the wrong mindset. Some
have the intentions of making money,
some begin because they want to compete
with another company. There are dozens of
reasons why entrepreneurs decide to start
a business. I just want you to ensure your
purpose is good. Having a precise purpose
adds more value to your startup. It can also
give your brand a better chance of becom-
ing a success. Remember people buy why
you do it, not what you do.
Let’s Continue Our Story
A month later, Maliah Melvin had written
down her business plan and according to
her, her business strategy was perfect. It
was on a Thursday, she sat down inside a
café as she glanced through the business
plan for a restaurant she named MALIAH’S
KITCHEN. She went through the execu-
tive summary page, company’s description
page, and going through all the pages, her
fingers then made a stop at the last page,
the Appendix. Then she smiled and mut-
tered: “Dad, I am going to prove you wrong.
Maliah, you can do this right? Yes, I can do
this.” She was confident; for sure, confi-
dence is a good sign but the problem is she
didn’t have an original idea.
Melvin attempted giving her money to
start her restaurant but she declined his
o­ffer and instead took a loan from a bank,
a loan of $10 million. The day she took
© Business Expert Press 978-1-94819-838-7 (2018)
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this loan, the bank manager asked; “Miss
Maliah, your father is very successful,
­
you can get this money from him, there’s
no need for a loan. Because if you don’t
­succeed with your startup, you’re going to
him because she believed her business
model was in order.
Melvin’s World, which was the name
of her father’s restaurants, he had about
eight in the state of Nevada, they were all
5,000 square feet restaurants with a seating
­capacity of 200 seats. And they were the
most popular in Nevada. However, M ­ aliah’s
plan was to drive all the a­ ttention to hers
so she thought that in order to achieve
this, she would open 16 restaurants, that’s
double of Melvin’s World. A startup is a
­
startup whether your aim is to compete
with another person; the moment you
­register your company as a new enterprise
it becomes a startup. Maliah’s problem was
she didn’t view her restaurant as a startup,
she saw it as a giant already even before it
started.
I am not trying to say thinking big is bad,
what I want to say is be humble. Yes. Be
humble. Pride will only destroy your business.
When Mark Zuckerberg started ­Facebook,
the truth is he never knew it would ­become
the largest social network on Earth. Most
entrepreneurs who succeed are those who
do not expect too much. Expecting too
much will only lead to disappointments
and we all know this is true.
A week later, Maliah Melvin had bought
16 buildings, now it was time to do the
remodeling. Her friends were curious,
­
­people wanted to know why all of a ­sudden
she wants to go solo. There was this day,
­Paparazzi’s clouded Melvin as he was ­coming
out from his car and they asked: “Mr.  M
­ elvin,
why is your daughter trying to ­compete with
you? Is it due to a family feud?”
“No, not at all, she just want to startup,”
he told them.
“But the location is bad, there are lots of
powerful restaurants here, how does she
intend to stand out?” they inquired but
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