“90% of New StartUps Fail”. As bitter as this may sound, it remains a reality.
Several factors have been listed by many as the reason why this continues to exist. Before we add our two cents to the subject matter, let’s take a close look into what a startup is.
Too many times, the term ‘startup’ has been used interchangeably with ‘small business’. However, these two are different even though they share a little similarity; they both are small and meet the definition of the small and medium-sized business, and that’s where it ends.
So What Exactly is a Startup?
According to Wikipedia, a Startup is a company or project begun by an entrepreneur. Failory, on the other hand, defines a startup as a business experiment with potential.
Regardless of the definitions, all startups have these features in common.
- Innovation
- Growth
- Risk
- Problem Solving
- Flexibility
- Scalability
- Work Team
Now that we have a clear understanding of what a Startup is,
What Mistakes Do They Make That You Should Avoid?
- Ignoring Customers
Some Startups invest a lot of time into building products for themselves without putting the users into consideration. Ignoring customers is a tried and trusted way to fail. Not getting input from prospective users through feedback only opens up the door for continuous churning out of products that won’t make it in the market thus, leading to a waste of efforts.
2. Not Researching The Market
Tackling problems that are interesting to solve rather than those that serve a market need is a mistake startups make. They fail to solve a market problem that could be universally served with a scalable solution.
3. Creating User-Unfriendly Product
No matter the problem a product is meant to solve, if it is not user-friendly, it is as good as useless in the market. No one will pay attention to a product that would add to their stress other than solving them seamlessly.
4. Poor Marketing
Knowing your target audience and knowing how to get their attention and convert them to leads and ultimately customers is one of the most important skills of a successful business. But an inability to market is a common failure especially among startups who like to build a product but don’t relish the idea of promoting the product.
5. Not Validating The Business Idea
Most Startups launch a little early than they should have without validating the grand product idea they have. They end up creating products without prior research of the problem they want to solve, who their target market is, the market size, competitions etc.
We wouldn’t want your new startup to be listed as one of the 90% of startups that never succeed. Take the right step, do the needful and grow your startup successfully.
Download our free ebook on Idea Validation to find out how you can get it right.
