startup failure

Getting feedback on your startup: A quick guide

One of the most common mistakes in the startup environment is failing to get feedback at every stage of launch.

One of the most common mistakes in the startup environment is failing to get feedback at every stage of launch. From the initial idea to launch day and beyond, gathering and learning from feedback is critical. When it comes to customer feedback, it’s easy to overlook its necessity. When you’re busy scouting for seed money or on product development, dismissing the need for customer service until you are ready for it can be fatal to your startup’s potential to grow. The goal is to get feedback that can then be leveraged to create a better business model, a better product, and a more eager customer base. If you haven’t been gathering and using customer feedback, here’s what you need to know.

Feedback: Stage by Stage

There are some clear phases that your startup will go through, and you should make it a goal to get feedback at every one of those phases. As a startup, you need to have your lines of communication open from day one, and failing to do so means that you are missing out on potentially high-value indicators from your target demographics about the benefits of your product. Make sure that you get feedback on your initial idea, and then at every forward-moving phase of your startup development.

No Customers!

One of the reasons why startup operators often neglect the need to gather feedback until well after launch day is because they don’t yet have the customers that will provide that feedback. This is a common blunder that is caused by a lack of research. A startup is like any other business in that it needs plenty of market research before moving forward. That needs to include customer research. Identify your core demographics and find out where they spend their time online. These are the people that you will be selling to, even if your product is not yet available. Start gathering feedback now and your startup will be stronger.

Make it Simple

Feedback doesn’t have to be a chore. The more complicated you make it, the harder it will be to get people to leave that feedback, and the harder it will be to create tangible responses to your data. There are many ways to make getting customer feedback easier and more actionable, but simplicity is the key. Look at options like the happy-or-not.com system that you may have already seen being used by some of the biggest names in the business world. If you make leaving feedback difficult then most customers will simply ignore it and move on, leaving you without a clue as to their customer satisfaction and their potential for returning to buy again.

Keep Feedback Ongoing

Don’t get to launch day and assume that you’ve succeeded. Your feedback needs to be an ongoing priority, or you run the risk of losing out on the goodwill that you have so far gathered. Look at sections of your website like the cancellation page. This is the perfect place to gather vital data about the customer experience. It can be hard work to get feedback that helps you to grow, but it can quickly become the most valuable tool at your disposal.

Customer feedback can help guide the future of your startup. Don’t look at the notion of feedback as something to focus on in the future. From day one of your startup idea, start looking at ways to gather that feedback and your startup will only grow stronger as a result.

Why do startup entrepreneurs need coaching?

Leadership is an essential function of management that connects internal and external stakeholders.

One-fifth of the small businesses fail in their first year. This accounts for almost 20% of the industry. Common reasons contributing to the failure of these startups include lack of funding or capital, unsuccessful marketing efforts, faulty business models, and inadequate leadership.

Leadership is an essential function of management that connects internal and external stakeholders. Influential leaders can help businesses enhance productivity and maximize efficiency to achieve business goals.

One of the best ways to develop leadership is by hiring a startup CEO coach. A reliable startup CEO coach is responsible for supporting business founders in their personal and professional growth.

These individuals are usually industry experts that have sufficient knowledge to help startup CEOs take bold risks to accomplish something great. Here are the reasons why every entrepreneur can use a startup CEO coach like Brett J. Fox.

They Put You on Track

Startup founders are energetic and consider themselves as the Jacks of all trades. However, every entrepreneur has strengths and weaknesses and knowing each one of them can help further your business into greater heights.

A startup CEO coach will help you recognize and concentrate on the most critical aspects of the business. This helps you point out your blind spots and catch the big picture so that you will not limit the success of your business.

They also help you create clear and specific goals so that you can develop an innovative strategic direction that can adjust to evolving trends. Ongoing training with CEO coaches will keep you on the right path in the continually changing business environment.

CEO Coaches Bring a Competitive Edge

A competitive edge distinguishes a business from its competitors. It results in more customers, higher prices, and brand loyalty.

However, establishing such an advantage is challenging with the lack of differentiation and the rise of unique types of competition. A CEO coach will ease out the process by helping your brand advance at a quicker pace and ensure that you differentiate yourself from the crowd.

The biggest challenge among business owners is making themselves stand out. You want to have a product that everyone is buying, but you also need to achieve a share of the market to protrude.

A CEO coach can see your business strengths and weaknesses better than you can and will help you market yourself in a manner that makes those differences pooch in your market. Coaches can also ensure that you are showing your abilities to your best advantage.

Enhance Your Personal Growth

CEO coaches are here to help you grow both executively and personally. They can develop an interactive environment for you to see yourself clearly so that you can meet unique challenges every step of the way.

The most significant risk to the success of most businesses is not usually the state of the market, competition, or even the economy. Instead, it is the thought and behavioral changes of startup leaders.

Coaches can also identify your thoughts and behavioral patterns that are slowing and preventing the growth of your business. They help you deal with those particular issues so that it can no longer bring adverse effects to your business.

Building a successful business does not happen overnight. Having someone experienced enough to provide advice and encouragement will help you reach business goals quicker.

The top 5 early symptoms of startup failure

Being aware of the early symptoms of startup failure is very important in defining how to be successful in the future.

Behind every successful business venture is the story of how everything began, and this is true with an idea that inspires you to start a new business startup venture. Being aware of the early symptoms of startup failure is very important in defining how to be successful in the future. You might have stumbled into a small business idea that might just change the way people do things that come with the prospect of a more stable financial security in life, but you have to be aware of the mistakes to avoid. Listed below are the top 5 early symptoms of startup failure that you have to be on the lookout for.

1. Lack Of Market Interest

It is true though that many people do not know what they want until you offer them a product or a service they never had before, just like when the idea of cell phones was once a novelty. But just because you have stumbled upon a good small business idea does not necessarily mean you can sell it, or stick to the irrational belief that people would want it once the idea is made real. Your idea should be geared toward solving a market problem, instead of a solution that looks for a problem it can solve. You can do research and surveys, but if there is a lack of interest for your service or product or the wrong timing for it, then consider this as one of the early symptoms of startup failure that you can avoid.

2. Funding Problems

It takes money to make more money, and one of the early symptoms of startup failure is funding. Not enough funding means your idea never gets off to start, but even startups that have enough funding still face the potential problem of overspending or spending in the wrong places and for wrong reasons. Funding is like the blood of the body that is your idea of a new startup venture, and you have to ensure it has enough funding to take the first step into becoming real, as well as take control of where funds are spent in the future for its successful growth.

3. Wrong People On The Job

It may only take one person to come up with a brilliant small business idea, but it takes a team to make that idea a reality, and one of the mistakes to avoid is in getting or hiring the wrong people for the job. Starting a new startup may mean getting support from your close circles, like family and friends, but it doesn’t mean they are the best people for the job. Assembling the right team perfect for the tasks ahead ensures you have people qualified to come up with solutions, instead of creating new problems.

4. Ignoring The Competition

Even if you only work from home on your new startup venture, you can always find information on similar products or services or existing business competition. It is to your best interest to know your potential rivals for the future success of your startup. Obsessing too much about the competition for your small business idea can be bad for you, but ignoring them, not being aware of their similar products or services might as well mean failure for you. How to be successful with your new startup venture amidst business competition relies on knowing what lies ahead, be it for their strengths, or services that you can offer as a better alternative. Knowledge is power and is your key to success. Use it well.

Related Post: Startup business mistakes to avoid

5. Price It Right

For your small business idea to grow and prosper you do not only have to sell it but also for people to buy it, and one of the mistakes to avoid offering it at the wrong price. You have already invested long hours and money into it, but you have to balance between pricing it low which may attract customers but mean financial ruin in the long run, or price it high that would turn off people and lead to low sales. This is one of the early symptoms of startup failure that might just buy out your idea from success, but careful planning and deciding on the right price tag for your startup product or service will also mean steady and healthy growth.

One of the great things about new startup ventures is that you can work from home, be financially stable, satisfied with your career, and find genuine happiness in life. Your small business idea might just be the next big business venture of the future, so never give up! By knowing the early symptoms of startup failure, you are aware of the mistakes to avoid, so you can plan and decide on how to be successful with your startup!

Good luck!

5 Initial signs of start-up failure you need to be aware of

Nobody wants their start-up to end up as a failure.

Every successful business starts with a simple idea around which a lot of hard work and dedication is invested. Nobody wants their start-up to end up as a failure. However, to make sure that your venture doesn’t meet its doom, there are a few symptoms you need to look out for:

I. Not paying heed to the market

Your product might be a great and unique idea but if it isn’t solving any problem of the people you are looking to cater to, it might meet its doom very early. Market research is necessary to find out whether your product will have demand and buyers. Thus, by doing simple research, you can avoid making a huge initial blunder.

II. Monetary issues

Handling finances in a proper manner is an art. Many a times, start-ups receive adequate funding but do not invest it in the correct way which can prove to be harmful for the company. Hence, it is necessary to spend in the right places and curb expenses in the initial phase in order to keep pumping money back into your start-up for a steady growth.

III. Incorrect hiring

Entrepreneurship isn’t a one man show which is why you need to have a great team. Unless your team members’ views and values are in resonance with those of your company, you can never be a successful start-up. Hiring the right kind of people is very important because they are the representatives of your company and that can either break or make your image.

IV. Not keeping tabs on competition

It is good to be confident and focus on yourself; however, it doesn’t mean that you become absolutely clueless about your competition. If a competitor can offer similar quality products at a lower price, you will be out of the game in no time. Hence, you need to know your strengths and keep playing up to them but at the same time know your competitors’ weaknesses and try changing them into opportunities.

Related Post: Failure – an inevitable part of success

V. Correct pricing

Pricing your product/service sensibly is very crucial as a very low price could be perceived as an indication for bad quality. Similarly, a very high price would make your customers go for the competitor which would result in very low sales. Thus, it is necessary to price your offering just right at which people are willing to purchase them in order to maintain healthy sales and a good image in the market.

Related Post: Startup business mistakes to avoid

8 stress busters that will help entrepreneurs in dealing with distress

Long working hours and lack of proper lifestyle could add to the stress and lead to serious health problems

An entrepreneur’s life is more stressful than it appears it to be. When a person is leading a team and simultaneously co-ordinating with VCs and stakeholders and taking risks, one can only imagine how much pressure an entrepreneur is under. Long working hours and lack of proper lifestyle could add to the stress and lead to serious health problems.

Hence, an entrepreneur needs stress busters to help him deal with all the stress he encounters:

1. Learn to manage your time

This might seem like a chore on the list of an entrepreneur but a lot of them actually fail to follow this basic step.

Keeping a list will put lesser pressure on your brain to remember things and also help you to prioritize the million tasks you need to do in a day.

2. Hydrate

All decisions aren’t made sitting in a chair; many of them are made in meetings and while running around the office. To accomplish all tasks and keep yourself rejuvenated and relieved from stress, you need to maintain a healthy intake of water. Water cleans toxins and keeps you refreshed for the rest of the day.

3. Sleep

Working 20 out of 24 hours might seem like a feasible idea but it will definitely take a toll on your health and also your performance because lack of sleep causes some serious attention issues. Also, a good night’s sleep is important to keep you fresh and before sleeping, make it a point to clear all office hassles from your mind.

4. Delegate stuff

It is not necessary for you to do everything all at once. The smaller and less important tasks can be delegated to the team. This helps reduce the stress of work and leaves you with more free time to focus on the more important stuff.

5. Eat healthy

DO NOT skip meals because not having enough food will result in burnout very soon due to the amount of stress you’re under. Also, food is a good stress buster because a full stomach leads to a healthy mind. If possible, include herbs and supplements like coconut oil or omega3 oils in your meal for extra energy.

6. Meditate

You can afford to take out five minutes in a day to meditate. Meditation has some serious benefits as it helps you clear your mind of all negative thoughts and stresses in a few minutes. Deep breathing exercises should also be practiced for anger management and if you have more time, try Yoga which has amazing de-stressing benefits.

7. Take breaks

We don’t mean the breaks that you take to eat food or go to the washroom. After an hour or two of staring at computer screen, one needs to give their eyes some rest. Get out of the air conditioned room and breathe in some fresh air and go for a short walk. You are bound to come back from your walk with a mind clear of stress and pressures which will help you do your work better.

8. Identify your hobby

It is always good to take a break from office duties when they start seeming more like a chore than anything else. Try and identify your hobby- cooking, painting, writing, playing an instrument or something else and practice it for half an hour a day. You will be amazed by the results you achieve when you do something you like and taking time off will help you focus better.

Failure – an inevitable part of success

Taking failure as a learning experience isn’t an easy task, but in order to succeed, you must know what failure is…

You must have heard this a trillion times, “the loftier the goal, the farther you fall.” But this is something that should not stop you from progressing. Taking failure as a learning experience isn’t an easy task, but in order to succeed, you must know what failure is.

Remember Thomas Edison? When asked about his feelings regarding facing failure a 1000 times, he replied that the light bulb was an invention with “a thousand steps.”

Let’s start with the reasons why startups fail:

Arrogance
Shortsightedness
Hubris
Egotism
Inflexibility

None of these words are new to you; remember the last time someone’s arrogance or inflexibility made the situation even worse?

Lack of Capital

In the beginning, insufficient capital might lead to failure of the business. Running day-to-day operations might cost a lot, and if the money you have is a lot less than what you are spending, things end up going wrong.

Expanding without keeping track

Expansion is a difficult step for a start-up, from personnel, to equipment (May it be machinery or establishing plants). All the steps involved in expansion need to be fully funded. Also, if the startup becomes a success, and needs to expand urgently, it should have a plan devised for it.

Debt Financing

Heavy reliance on debt is a dangerous thing for your startup, because if you lose money, all the investment in the form of debt, may it be from your family or your best friend, all would go in vain.

Lack of Strategic Management

No matter how skilled you are, if there is no strategic planning and lack of management, your business might eat you alive. You need to be qualified to run your business in one way or the other. We don’t suggest you to get a Business Degree at this point but manage your team in a way that there are people who know where things are going.

No Business plan

It’s a good thing if you are an optimist but, bear in mind that hope is definitely not a good strategy. From the concept, to the planning, and then execution, you need a business plan. You won’t ever touch the moon if you don’t even know what you need to do in order to reach for it. No matter how good yourconcept is, if you fail to chalk out a plan, someone, somewhere in the world might just use your plan and earn millions because of it.

Regardless of the reasons your startup failed, you need to look at the brighter side of the picture and know that failure is an inevitable part of success. You might fail once, twice, or even a hundred times but think of the experiences you gained because of it. If you had not gone through all those processes, you would not have been what you are today. So, simply get up and do it again.

Image Credit: cbi-blog

7 Things I learned from my first startup failure

People say ‘Startup is like jumping off the cliff and then building a parachute before you hit the ground’. In our case, we did jump off the cliff but didn’t bring the tools to build the parachute.

We made a lot of mistakes in our first startup which led to its failure. We were like every other undergraduate student. We were motivated to build a business while in college and even skipped our college placements.

Here are my learning from my first startup failure:

1. Plan and Validate

Don’t start something because you ‘feel’ it’s right. Go out. Get your hands dirty. Do some market research. Find out the problem that your customer segment is facing and does your solution really alleviate the problem. Get your idea validated.

2. Find a great Co-Founder

It’s certain that you cannot possess all the knowledge of the world. It’s wise to start with a co-founder, but don’t start with any co-founder; your best friend may not be your best co-founder. Find someone with a complementary skill set.

3. Don’t fall in love with your prototype

We are entrepreneurs, we have a tendency to fall in love with our creation. We have to keep in mind that it’s a prototype. Prototypes are meant to be changed. They have to evolve with the customer feedback.

4. Define your end user

We failed to define our end users and built our product without any clear direction. We ‘assumed’ that our users (students) will love this product, they didn’t.

5. Don’t run after revenue

Revenue should always be a by-product of your startup and not a primary goal. Build your product so that your end users love it, ‘like’ is not an option.

6. Advertising is a bad option

We did it. We failed. Word of mouth is all that you need. If your product is amazing, don’t worry about ‘advertising’, your end users will spread the news for you. They will do anything to tell their peers how awesome your product is. Ask these questions before you advertise- ‘what is wrong with our product?’ and ‘why there is no word of mouth?’.

7. Ask why we are doing this?

Your why has to be larger than your what, else, you will lose interest and the startup will fail.

Why startups fail and what experts have to say about it

Check out the infographic below to learn what you’ll need to look out for when starting a business, and what the best of the best have to say about it.

Just as there is no one path that guarantees success, there is not one single mistake that will doom a startup to failure – there’s more than 50, actually.

These reasons fall under nine umbrella categories, including business ideas, leadership and planning. Obviously, there are pitfalls in managing finances and human resources, too.

Beyond giving a litany of the many wrong turns a startup could possibly take, the infographic below also offers advice from people who have been there – and succeeded. There are words of wisdom from contemporary moguls like Warren Buffett and Richard Branson, as well as former presidents, athletes, inventors and others who have experienced the hard work that comes before being a household name.

Check out the infographic below to learn what you’ll need to look out for when starting a business, and what the best of the best have to say about it.

This article was originally published in Entrepreneur

Image credit: www.emptyengine.com

How to stay motivated after a startup failure

Here are four things to keep in mind to keep your spirit and motivation up after flop of your startup.

Achieving your goals and dreams is not always easy. This is especially true when it comes to building a business. Building a business is one of the hardest things anyone can do. It takes years of absolute dedication and effort to truly make a business thrive. The whole process of starting a business is physically, emotionally, and financially draining. And oftentimes we invest all that energy just to see the business we built fail. And that happens quite a bit. According to the Wall St. Journal, 3 out of 4 ventured-backed startups fail. And that’s just venture-backed startups. Bootstrapped startups, with no starting capital, have a higher failure rate. It’s a difficult thing to face for startup founders; seeing something you’ve put your blood, sweat, and tears into crumble. So the question for founders of failed startups is—how do you stay motivated keep going after the failure of your startup? Well here are four things to keep in mind to keep your spirit and motivation up after flop of your startup.

Take Comfort in the Fact that Most Startups Fail

Those who start businesses are extremely smart and talented (for the most part). But even with the talent and intelligence, you cannot get away from the nature of startup heartache. As a founder, you should take comfort in the fact that most startups do not succeed. The reasons for a business failing is plenty and many of today’s top entrepreneurs have emerged from previous startup flops. Andrew Mason, the founder of Groupon, actually founded The Point prior to his successful multi-billion dollar coupon site. Never heard of The Point? That’s because it never took off. Bill Gates, prior to founding Microsoft, was also the founder of the now-defunct Traf-O-Data. Sir Philip Green, the billionaire British businessman, went through at least three startup failures before making his first million in his thirties. So as you can see, startup failure is not an exception, it is almost a rule. Failure with your initial startup is almost a rite of passage for startup success. So take comfort in that fact. Take comfort knowing that even the brightest and richest have failed. Knowing that will give you the motivation to move on and try again. Because, as the famous Albert Einstein would say, “you never fail until you stop trying.”

Also read: 10 Reasons why Entrepreneurship is awesome

Have your End Goal in Mind

I’m sure one of your biggest goals was to make your startup a smashing success. But I want you to think bigger. Reach down deep to think about your ultimate goal. What is the purpose of starting your business? Why did you want to build a successful startup? Was it to provide a valuable product to society? Was it to support your dream lifestyle? Was it to give your family and loved ones the life they have always wanted? The startup isn’t the goal itself; it is a means to getting to the goal. So if one startup doesn’t work out, there are plenty of other opportunities for you to succeed and achieve your goals. Looking at the big picture and having the end goal in mind is an important element to keeping your motivation after startup failure. Without seeing the big picture and the end goal, you will be knocked down by every little mishap.

Also read: 8 Things Entrepreneurial People Do Differently

Giving Up is for the Weak

Being a business owner is a whirlwind adventure. You will feel the ultimate highs and the ultimate lows. It takes emotional resilience and grit to be able to be a successful business owner. And if you are planning on giving up after failing a few times, then you are not meant to be a business owner. So if you want to build a successful business, you have to be willing shrug off the lows. You have to be resilient and keep going. Otherwise, startup life is not for you. Essentially, giving up just means you don’t want it bad enough. And when you don’t want it bad enough, you will not survive in the competitive culture of business. You have to want to succeed enough to want to pick yourself up after momentous failure and embarrassment. Just like the hip hop preacher Eric Thomas said, “When you want to be successful as much as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.” So do you want success as bad as you want to breathe?

Experience is the Best Teacher

Your startup’s demise is temporal and momentary. It does not define your whole life and it does not mean you are a failure. Rather you should take the experience learned from the failure of your startup to do better the next time around. You can read as many books as you want or go to a thousand seminars; nothing can teach you as much about business and life as experience itself. Learning from the school of hard knocks and low blows is the ultimate vehicle of learning. So let the failure of your startup be your teacher and learn from the mistakes made during your failed startup to do better the next time around. And remember, many entrepreneurs failed at multiple businesses before finding a successful and thriving business. So take that experience and make something useful out of it. Let that experience motivate you to do better the next time. And trust me, you will.

Putting Everything in Perspective

It hurts to see something you invested so much time, money, and energy into just crumble. It hurts a lot. Because you have so much invested, it can hurt much more than losing a job or even losing a house. But in the end, you need to put everything in perspective and take a look at the bigger picture. Looking at the bigger picture and putting everything in perspective means that the chance of you succeeding with your first couple of startups is small. And just because your first startup flopped does not mean that you have failed. If you are smart enough, tenacious enough, and gritty enough, you will eventually build a successful business. You just need to keep motivated and keep going. You only fail if you stop trying.

Conclusion

Instead of being disappointed that your startup has failed, and start writing a new resume so you can get a job, think twice and learn from failure. Starting a business is not always easy, and it requires patience and a lot of experience.

Also read: The 15 Characteristics of Effective Entrepreneurs

This article was originally published in under30ceo.com

Image Credit: www.entrepreneur.com