by Lewis Robinson
The hard and ugly truth is that 90% of startups fail. According to Forbes, 9 out of 10 startups will fail after a few years of inception. As an entrepreneur, your desire should be to be among the 10% that succeed. The desire for growth and a going concern requires hard work. You will have to work hard and smart to survive the competition in the crowded market.
Several reasons will cause any startup business to fail. As a founder, you need to identify these causes and work towards ensuring that they don’t bring your business to its knees. Starting up a business takes sweat, blood, and tears and it is only right that you ensure it does not fail.
You will need to employ several strategies to grow your business. One such strategy is the growth strategy, and below are some of the things you need to do that will make you survive the competition in any crowded market:
Make products that are perfect for the market and devise new ways of selling.
Many startups will fail because they introduced a product that the market does not need. Ensure that you create a product whose demand is high. Then work on how to sell your product. Come up with innovative ways of creating brand awareness. If you realize that a marketing strategy is not achieving much, try new strategies.
Don’t ignore anything.
You need to treat your business as a system. A system has sub-systems, and they have to work in synergy to ensure that the entire system works well. These sub-systems are human resource, back-office, and administration, marketing, selling, and fulfillment. Don’t ignore the small aspects of the business processes. They may be boring, and you may want to delegate them to your team but remember that you are the leader hence you will have to show leadership. All these sub-systems have to work efficiently for the system not to crumble. Identify the bottlenecks and rectify them. Your accounting should be up to date and correct. Only qualified personnel should do your small business bookkeeping functions.
Have a versatile team and train them when needed.
Versatility is not only the ability to possess more than one skill or talent, but it also involves the mindset. Any startup business should have a versatile team that possesses the capacity to adjust to different situations. Your team should always be ready to adopt new marketing strategies, new product improvements and even changing industries. They should expect the unexpected even folding up and starting from scratch. Ensure that you train and equip them with the necessary skills that you feel will help them help you grow your business to greater heights. That way you can delegate less important work while you concentrate on the main managerial activities and still afford some peace of mind.
Endeavor to serve your customers better.
Excellent services should be your number one priority. Satisfied customers will always come back or better still refer more clients to your business. To serve your customers better, identify their needs. This can be done by tracking information on a digital business platform. Communicate these requirements to your team and then devise ways of fulfilling these requirements. There are many customer service skills that your employees need to have, including patience, perception, and persuasion. Once you meet their needs, you will gain customer loyalty. Did you know that attracting a new customer will cost you 6-10 times more than keeping an existing customer? Work on ensuring that you retain your customers. This strategy will propel you to greater heights in your business.
Have a proper funding mechanism.
Lack of sufficient financial resources is another reason why startups fail. As a business grows, it will require more capital. Growth is good, but it can be an avenue of failure if it does not have a proper financial back-up. Ensure that you reach out to funding institutions that can help you fund your growing business. That way you will sustain your growth.
As an entrepreneur, your main desire should be to gain a competitive advantage over your competitors. Ensure that you do things right. Work on growing your business by creating products that customers need, don’t overlook the small aspects of your operational processes, have a highly accomplished team, build customer loyalty by serving them better and always seek for new ways of sustaining your business growth by proper funding. If you do these, the sky is the limit for your business.
