Launching a startup seems like the most promising business opportunity for creative individuals who don’t want to drive down traditional career roads. This is exactly why startups are flourishing worldwide, flooding every niche from home services to online retail.
But it doesn’t mean that every startup is successful. On the contrary, studies prove that 90% of startups fail due to the broad scope of problems. It’s a serious figure that should make you curious and willing to learn more about the whole process before launching your own business.
While the Internet is packed with positive articles and success stories, there are still so many downsides and issues that you need to understand. In this post, we will explain nine things what nobody teaches you about getting your startup off the ground.
1. Running a Startup Is Difficult
Let us be clear about one thing straight away – running a startup is difficult. No matter what people tell you, rest assured you are going to deal with lots of problems, including financial issues, deadlines, mental pressure, and so on.
Although startups give you that much-needed level of professional independence, they also make you fully responsible for everything. This can be a heavy burden for most entrepreneurs, so do your best to prepare for the challenge and get used to being the person in charge of everything.
2. Startups Really Fail
We mentioned this one before, but it’s impossible to overestimate startup failure rates. The vast majority of startups fail because they can’t handle one or multiple business problems, with the usual suspects being as follows:
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Running out of cash and not being able to finance the project anymore
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Competitors are too strong and impossible to outperform
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Ignoring customers and their demands
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Not preparing a feasible marketing strategy
As a startup owner, you must take these issues into account and prepare well to avoid failure.
3. There Is No Market Need for the Product
Okay, so you’ve come up with this incredible product idea and now want to make a fortune selling it? That is totally fine, but we strongly encourage you to ask yourself one question – is there enough demand for this item? Over 40% of businesses that failed listed a lack of market need as a contributing factor. This is actually the main cause of startup failures, so make sure do the research and test customers’ preferences before launching a business.
4. You Need a Business Plan
Most people think that all it takes to run a startup is an excellent idea for a new type of product or service. You will hardly ever hear someone telling you that the idea is just the beginning of the process because now you need to design a comprehensive business plan.
Jake Gardner, a finance analyst at Pro Essay writing service and My Assignment Help, says a business plan represents a core document: “It’s a step-by-step guide that describes your business goals, the mechanisms to reach them, as well as the timeframe needed to fulfill these objectives.”
5. Form a Good Team
Startup owners are mostly solo performers who want to take care of everything single-handedly, but this is not how the real-world business works. Instead of being an all-around player, you should form a good team of trustworthy professionals. For instance, you will hire a lawyer for legal affairs, a marketer to run campaigns, an expert writer to write website content, a sales manager to attract customers, etc.
6. Marketing Is Fundamental
Marketing represents a fundamental business component. This goes for all types of companies, from global corporations to the smallest startups (even the ones of paper writers community or resume help service. However, not too many entrepreneurs will warn you to accumulate enough funds for marketing activities. Generally speaking, there are two ways to promote your startup:
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Digital marketing: This solution is perfect for service-oriented companies doing most of the work online. Digital marketing grants you exposure to over two-thirds of the global population via emails, websites, and social media.
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Traditional marketing: A lot of startups don’t want to bother with traditional marketing formats, but it would be a big mistake if you are running a local business and targeting customers from the neighborhood. In this case, we strongly suggest using promo mechanisms such as events and print, radio, and TV advertising.
7.Create an Attractive Website
A startup without a website is like a man with no identity documents. Therefore, you must design a good-looking website to host digital guests and present your company’s portfolio.
Jason Matthews, a great web analyst, says the site should contain the basic information about your team: “Besides that, it needs a list of products, contact details, and a blog with the latest industry news and relevant articles. Of course, don’t hesitate to add anything else that your target audience might consider important.”
8. You Are Not Alone
While you really are the only person responsible for the startup, don’t think that you are completely alone out there. The Internet hosts hundreds of startup-oriented forums and communities that you can join to find out precious information about the business. It’s impossible to mention every single community currently available online, but some of our favorite picks include Startup Grind, Growth Hackers, and Reddit.
9. Prepare for Hard Work
The last thing we want to tell you is to prepare for hard work 365 days a year. As a startup owner, you need to keep things under control around the clock, so you can forget about traditional 9-to-5 work. It is all up to you, so get out there and do your best to build a profitable business.
Conclusion
Creating your own business can be an excellent career opportunity, but only if you invest enough time and efforts into market research. You have to get it all covered, from business plan to customer service strategy, if you want to make a successful story and start earning some real money.
But in order to do so, you need to learn both sides of the startup story. In this article, with the help of assignment writing service we explained what nobody taught you about getting your startup off the ground.
Do you plan to launch a startup? Have you ever thought about the details mentioned above? Let us know in comments and don’t hesitate to ask questions – we would be glad to answer you.