This Post is Part of a New Series – “The Shark Tank Survival Guide“

You have developed an idea. You have conducted market research and sold your product in test markets, it’s time to take things to the next level.

Through all of this exertion you finally realize the fruits of all your labor you have your own business! Regardless of whether you sell a product or offer a service, forming your business has taken certain key components.

Your time, effort, dedication and most importantly capital have all been infused into getting your business up and running.

Aside from your valuable time and effort, you’ve invested precious money into marketing your business. This includes creating a website to bring your company up to speed with the accessibility that customers expect in 2015.

Then, it happens…

…you miraculously get a once in a lifetime opportunity to present your company on a national stage to a group of highly acclaimed investors. Suddenly the harsh reality of your business’s shortcomings come to light.

It’s not Going Well

You’re bombarded with questions about:

• Product Viability
• Creating A Market Through Education
• Past, Current & Projected Sales Estimates
• Overall Marketing Strategy
• Your Cost Per Acquisition

While your business is being scrutinized by the Sharks, people watching on television have decided to get online to learn more about your company. Only instead of finding out more about your business or availing themselves of your services, they’re met with an error page or a page that simply won’t load.

For the viewers lucky enough to access your website (a high percentage of them using smartphones or tablets) find your site improperly formatted. Because of the lack of usability, those using portable devices are likely to quickly exit your site.

On top of access issues, you’ve made another dire oversight. Amidst all of this site traffic, you haven’t been keeping track of visitors and have missed out on a multitude of valuable marketing opportunities.

As a result you haven’t generated leads from the droves of new visitors.

To make a bad situation worse, you don’t have the proper social sharing buttons or open graph tags. This means that the people who did access your site and were interested couldn’t share your content with others.

This is your Super Bowl moment, and you’re throwing it all away.

Luckily for you, this was just a bad dream, and you can avoid this nightmare entirely!

Just like you must crawl before you walk, you must be aware of these potential pitfalls before they come back to bite you.