People often tend to get carried away by successful start up businesses, that are making millions and lead to believe that running a company is a piece of cake with a little luck on top. No one really talks about the portion of businesses that fail and reasons for their poor performance. Actually one’s talent and innate “business sense” are not nearly enough to make success of a humble startup. Surely, each company will meet its own set of difficulties on its path, but these common problems are what every startup will be struggling with, sooner or later.
Marketing Issues – In a world of ads and campaigns, nothing is as effective in attracting new customers as a good marketing strategy. No matter how awesome you are in what you do, or how good your product is, without investing in their promotion, you cannot expect great sales. This is the reason why many startup companies hire marketing experts early on. Alternatively, you can learn it how to do it yourself. There is a plenty of literature but also many online courses.
Failing to Recognize your Audience – You marketing strategy should be aimed at your customers and prospects. It is hard to make it effective if you don’t know who they are. By recognizing and identifying your customers, you can adjust social network ads for maximum gain. Invest time and money in surveys, researches and hours of online reading. This is the only way to learn about your customers’ habits and interests.
Inability to Set up the Right Price – There is no better indicator that your products or services are not priced rightly than the fact that you’re a re struggling financially at the end of each month. With products, it’s much easier – you need to sum up material costs, taxes and profits. On the other hand, pricing services is more difficult, but not impossible. Determining the fair price comes with a skill of increasing you prices carefully, in small increments, without driving your customers away.
Debt Collection Issues – Every startup business nightmare. The prospect that one will not be able to collect debts from their debtors and lead to failure is critical in first five years of a new company. Companies that benefit from hiring debt recovery professionals are especially the ones that haven’t fully developed yet.
Badly Chosen Location – Although it largely depends on a type of company and the scope of their products or services, but no one can argue that location is not important. If you haven’t been able to rent an office in a business hotspot, make sure that your location is known to a good deal of customers. Use the Internet, marking your company on Google Maps.
Uncontrolled Growth – Letting your company grow wild without learning the necessary skills and having enough capital to support new business endeavors often leads to a catastrophic fall. Invest your time in planning elaborate expansions that will be backed up by sufficient resources and expert management.
Even a failure is an opportunity for a new start. There is no place for self-pity and whining in the world of business and finance. The award awaits the brave ones. After a fail, it’s important to get back to your feet and push on towards your dream.
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Hello, just wanted to mention, I enjoyed this blog post. It was practical.
Keep on posting!