Here’s why you might fail as an entrepreneur

Has the word startup lost its meaning? Is there any difference left between a start-up and a 9 to 5 job?

In this age and era, the smarter mind started innovating and developing start-ups because they wanted to be innovative or they had a solution to a problem that the corporate world or the common public was facing. But it’s not what start-up is anymore, everyone today wants to be an entrepreneur but not many to put in the work needed to make it a success. Some are doing it to get admission to a prestigious college, some are doing it with money as the aim others are into it because why not. This is not what startups used to be.

According to various data present on our web guru Google, 70% of the start-ups fail in the first two years and many of them end up without any financing to start with or improper planning that leads to pennies being left in the bank. The failure percent goes up to 90%in some business domain.

So does it mean that we shouldn’t have a start-up?

No, that’s not what we should do. All we need to understand is that success doesn’t come easy and in no way a person can build a successful company just because they want to.

Every book store is lined up with successful start-ups and their founders but there aren’t many books talking about the failed start-ups and what might have been done differently. The entrepreneurs we are so in awe of and are trying so hard to portrait are the exceptions to the rule. Just remember that “you cannot be successful by copying the rich, what you can do is to learn from their failures”. Every day a few start-ups close their doors and with no credibility to show there comes a door of rejection which could have been prevented if we wouldn’t have shown the world to be so welcoming, it will eat you up whole if you don’t have the skills to climb out of the sinkhole of denial that this world is. The young generation needs to understand that success doesn’t come easy and to those who have a dream, it comes to those who know how to work for it. The people we now know as being successful had a life of hardships and failures which they fought to be where they are right now.

Now as we have got an idea that success doesn’t come easy let us understand what a start-up is, to begin with.

It is a young company founded by one or a group of entrepreneurs to develop a product or service that caters to a certain business category and launch it in the markets. The money which is the break or makes point of startup initially comes in the form of funding from friends and family who can get a share of the company if it gets successful. But that’s not all a startup is…. It can’t be this simple, right?

If you understand the essence of the startup then you are just left with hard work that would place you on the next Forbes list. A start-up is all about innovation and not finance. An entrepreneur with a financial motive has set themselves on the path of self-destruction and has been prepping for failure.

The innovative and revolutionary-minded entrepreneurs are the ones we now call a successful few. Everyone has ideas but only a few turn them into reality. And as much as innovation plays a role in success so does patience and the virtue of not giving up. The reason behind patience and to never give up attitude being pressed on is because it takes years to make a startup success some taking up to 10years, so we need to be consistent and patient. Remember

“Success comes to those who challenge their hardest times”.

You can avoid all the mistakes and make your startup a hit, what you have to do is to avoid mistakes that are so easily overlooked. Let us have a walk down the mistake lane and beware there might be a few stops that you just might be familiar with.

Mistake 1

No customer targeting

Startups’ first rule is being customer-centric, which isn’t difficult to be. Close to 40% of startups fail because they weren’t focused on customers but on how good their idea was. It shouldn’t be about whether your idea is good or not it is about how you target your customer.

It’s a fact that “A fool with a plan will outsmart a man without a plan”.

There have been many companies that have made the mistake of not doing proper planning and factoring in the value of customer mapping, not only startups but many big companies and they have paid dearly. Remember,

|”There is only one boss, the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” — Sam Walton — Travis Biggert

So what should we do…

It’s never about perfecting your product or service in one go, having the basic idea and launching the product /service to see how the customers react is. Based on their feedbacks improve your idea. Don’t be afraid of the feedback, they will make or break your company.

Do the basic research of where does your product fits in a customer’s life and what does it fulfill, once you find the source, you own the business like a boss.

Mistake 2

So what’s your product?

Why do we need your product?

How’s it different from the rest?

If you have a problem answering these questions or if the customer walks away, your product isn’t innovative. It is like any other product that’s already catering there need and has gained their trust. So why should they choose your product?

| “Innovation takes birth in sync with the evolution of customer’s expectations and demands or vice versa. Either way, organizations around the world have to continually innovate themselves and keep up with the people’s wants. The failure to do so or being indifferent to your customer’s need will make your competitors win. And then suddenly, customers become indifferent to you- a high-risk gamble to play at.“

Ketan Kapoor, Co-founder of Mercer-Mettl

Innovation has to be a key if you want to challenge the companies already present in the market, provide something that even they fail to and you would walk away with the biggest shares in no time, but it is not easy. We need to understand the meaning of innovation and how do we evolve a basic idea. The secret ingredient behind every company’s success is the idea they have and how they have been innovating it with time.

Find the answers to the above questions and boom you have the dream company you wanted. Remember,

• You need to talk to the customers and understand their needs hit the sweet spot by solving their biggest struggles and catching them off-guard.
• Keep the idea simple and develop it with feedback.

Mistake 3

Lack of Focus

“I think the lack of precision and deep focus is why it took me years to build up my work.” — Gil Kane.

We can’t build an empire in a day, it takes a year to build something meaningful and it does need a lot of dedication, one wrong move or a little slack can push you back years. Somethings that you might relate with are:

· The wrong crowd and social group

· Long coffee breaks

· Attending seminars and conferences

· Marketing your product without proper research

· Spending time on Social Media

· Competing with others

These are just a small wave in the ocean of things ready to take you off the coast, dedication isn’t hard if you are doing what you love that’s why founding a company because you want to innovate is better than doing it for money… It said if you hang out with 5 millionaires you would be the 6th, this is enough to understand that your crowd is also a factor that can help you succeed or fail, so be careful of people you hang out with.

You want to make your startup work…Right? Why else would you put in so much hard work? So just keep your focus on the idea and you are all set to rock.

Mistake 4

A one-man army.

|An important mark of a good leader is to know you don’t know it all and never will.-Anne M. Mulcahy

Startups with a single founder take up to 4 times to outgrow the startup phase and are at a much higher risk of failing. The only reason behind that being the attitude that you can do it alone, having a person or two from different disciplines can share the load easier and take on challenges that that particular segment can face. A single person can’t face all the issues of product, consumer experience, sales, and marketing. No human being is perfect and that’s our USP, we are strong together just like an unbreakable bundle of sticks. The more people that believe in your idea and vision the merrier and the stronger is your base.

Jack Ma started his company Alibaba with his past colleagues and his wife and succeeded because he had people of various disciplines working with him. Why do you think all the big start-ups succeed? The reason is simple; it all boils down to the fact that they have a combination of people that covers the holy triangle: the mastermind, the creator, the smooth talker.

If you have these, congratulations you no longer have to worry about the long hours and you would always have someone to correct you.

With people, you can learn a lot and that’s more than what you could have bargained for but it’s not the only thing. Making something that your customer would love becomes much easier when you have the right set of peoples.

Mistake 5

Disrespecting and downgrading your employees

|”Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”

Richard Branson — founder of The Virgin Group

Always remember to value your employees and partners. As much as you are capable of doing something great, so are they. An employee will devote themselves if they are made to feel valuable. Lying about the remunerations or trying to use the falling market to trap employees with lower salary packages will backfire as soon as the market rises and they are sorted by people who can provide much more. So why should they stay with you?

Show them that they are above clients

They matter

The company will be with them in the time of distress.

A lot of startups fail because some department heads or entrepreneurs get on their high horse and think of others as nothing. Always remember an employee can get a job and can work at the level that he is working at but the owner will have to get down to a much lower level. So make sure your ego doesn’t take over and always remember it might be the treatment you would get in the future.

People with the same mindset as yours would be willing to work at any package but there won’t be always people present that work with your mindset, so be flexible and you are set to have all the best pieces in the game of chess.

In the end

Everything a startup needs can be summarized by this quote

|“You need three things to create a successful startup: to start with good people, to make something customers want, and to spend as little money as possible.”

― Paul Graham

9 out of 10 startups fail. So what? You will fail when you give up not when the world says so. Just focus on some golden rules and you won’t have to worry:

Startups fail, don’t delve into the past. Learn and walk on. Once an entrepreneur always an entrepreneur.

Choose customer over product

Follow innovation, money would follow

Employee first client next and investor last approach.

You are stronger together

If you can pull out of these hurdles you are all set to be the top 10 percent and who knows the next big things on Forbes.