Reasons Why Most Of The Startups Fail And How You Can Save Yours?

Starting a new business is just the beginning but making a startup successful is a completely different scenario altogether. If you are reading this article, you might be an aspiring entrepreneur with big dreams and creative ideas. This article does not aim at creating any negative emotions for all you wonderful new entrepreneurs out there, this article aims at making you cautious about some crucial aspects that could go wrong and how you can have control over them.

Why do startups fail to become the next big thing?

Here are the reasons…

#1 Doing It All By Yourself!

The idea of being the solo founder of the company is absolutely fine but doing everything by yourself can get you in trouble. It is important to know that your startup will be capable of withstanding any situation if it is run by a team; this gives space to you as an entrepreneur as well. You can create magic with perfect teamwork and right collaborations.

If you start moving forward with the idea of setting up your startup all by yourself, then you might find yourself stuck on a complicated pathway. There are many nuances / departments in a business that need timely planning, dedication, hard work and effort, this is why you need many thinking minds to run a business.

The solution is either to have 1 or more co-founders for your startup and if you are not comfortable doing that, then make sure that you have a variety of people as your team members who are capable of executing different tasks.

#2 Having A Complicated Business Plan

Some young entrepreneurs and startup owners end up complicating the whole business model with lots of presentations, unclear plans and unrealistic assumptions. It is important to start from the ground level and never to take anything for granted. Every part of your business plan needs realistic planning. Irrespective of the size of the business, big or small, the business model is the most vital aspect. Your business plan is the first building block of your startup that requires all your attention. You will need your business plan to talk to your bank for capital or you might have to discuss it with partners or investors; therefore, it is important to create a business plan that simplifies your business model by discussing every aspect clearly instead of complicating it with unnecessary details.

Think about the objective of your startup. Plan various phases of your startup carefully, take your time but make sure that your plan is perfect. You can hire professional help for creating a good business model for your startup. If you have a plan ready, try to get feedback for it from the potential investors or from anyone else whom you trust with discussing your business plan. Seek for constructive criticism and make changes in your plan if required before it is finalized. A good habit is to review the plan frequently before it is finalized so that you will know if there is any scope for improvement.

#3 Waiting Too Long Before Launching Your Product/Service

At times, startups underestimate the power of reaching to a threshold. Some startups wait for a long period of time for launching their products/services with an aim to attain perfection.

If you put in a lot of time and resources in establishing the perfect product/service development and if you keep waiting for the product to get perfect, you are just losing out on time.

It is true that you might want to launch the perfect product/service and there is nothing wrong with this idea but you have to take the fact into consideration that there are some improvements which you will come to know only after launching the product. For instance, if you are planning to launch a web hosting company, once you launch your web hosting packages, you might then know that your customers are interested in SEO and web development services as well along with web hosting, then you can work on creating packages that include these services as well.

The point is – you will come to know about some improvements only after the launch of your product or service so once you think that your product is ready to be launched, launch it and see how it performs.

By waiting to reach perfection, you are missing out on important customer feedback and this is holding you back from crafting a masterpiece. The first version of your product might not be perfect but launch it anyway and be open to receiving feedback about it.

#4 Ignoring User Feedback After Product Launch

‘User Feedback’ good or bad is the key to a successful business. If you are not giving importance to your users right now, your startup will definitely not make it!

You have to dig deep into user feedback to make it big!

Once you launch the first version of your product or service, it is highly important to check user feedback, analyze it and take it seriously. Accept negative feedback as well. Not paying attention to user feedback will surely have a negative impact on your startup.

If you have some user complaints coming frequently, analyze them and dig deep into the root cause of these complaints. Be open to your readers, customers, viewers about the changes you are making or the steps you are implementing about solving their issues. Take this up as an opportunity to create good long term relationships with your users; this will also help you to create a great product or service according to the requirements of your users.

If you get any good comments or reviews about your products, you can feature them on your website or request the customer to write a testimonial for you on some review website or social media website. Let your customers know that their feedback is important and valued.

#5 Hiring The Wrong Staff

You sure would like to save more money but hiring cheap labor won’t do you any good and it definitely won’t last long term. Small scale companies and startups end up choosing cheap laborers instead of skilled and expert employees. It’s not wrong to hire people at a low pay scale but then you also have to be sure that they are capable for the tasks that they have to execute.

The implementation of your organization’s goals, the success rates of your projects and the service quality offered completely depends on the efforts put in by your employees. If you make any compromises in hiring skilled and competent staff members for reducing the production cost, you are putting your startup in the wrong hands. If you tread this path, within some time you will have to face many user complaints and financial losses.

Take time and plan the recruitment strategy of your company. Always choose a skilled employee, you might end up paying a little more but ultimately your customers will be happy and you will get more business in the long run. Plan and determine the skill set and strengths required for every role in your organization and hire and train the employees accordingly.

#6 Lack Of Direction

Given the same resources and opportunities, why do you think two companies belonging to the same industry perform differently? Some companies fail and the others succeed; the simple reason behind this fact is the lack of direction and focus.

Lack of direction and lack of planning ahead of time are the most crucial reasons why most of the startups fail. Not having the right direction will surely spoil your business in the long run.

If you are making any decision about your company, make sure to evaluate all the aspects of that decision. You must have an idea about what that decision is going to bring for you. A common example to this scenario includes spending a lot of money over social media promotions and PRs before you even design the right product for your customers just for creating a hype.

As a startup it is vital for you to be sure of your decisions and your path rather than getting confused about different directions. Your focus should be on two most vital aspects of your business – your product/service and your customers. Do not spend a lot of time, money and resources on the things that are not needed.

#7 Failed Geographical Expansion

Although we are living in a digital world where teams can collaborate online, location is still an important factor in many different ways. It is important to have uniformity between your startup’s concept and location. You can get established as a brand in the local market where your startup is based but then slowly you need to start planning about expanding to the nearby locations as well. Another important factor to be considered is that if you are working with remote teams, there cannot be a failure in communication or work execution.

If your team members are based on different locations, it is important to ensure that you establish good communication methods otherwise you might end up with a lack of team work and proper planning and this might affect the overall project and customer satisfaction.

Over To You…

Although you might be a little overwhelmed by the points mentioned above, but they are there just to make things easier for you. If you are aware about these points, you will be more careful and you will be in a better position to make the right decisions at the right time. The road ahead of you is free and open, move forward with a positive mindset and knows for a fact in your mind that you have to mark the success of your startup, no matter what it takes!

• You must choose success over failure
• Give preference to customers over products
• Choose self-motivation and focus over any external validation
• Choose predictable growth and calculative risks over unplanned decisions and unplanned scaling