If you’ve launched a new business, the odds of success are stacked against you. In fact, according to Forbes, as many as 80% of new businesses will fail within their first year. Why does this happen?
Lack of Financing
Money is often the main reason why new companies fail, either because you need to keep borrowing money in order to try and survive, or because you lack the capital to get your business up and running. Both options will spell the end for your business. This is why you need to ensure you have enough money to see you through the early stages of your business, to a point when profits can start to takeover and replace the money you’ve invested. Until then, you need to think of ways to raise money, either by utilizing a nest-egg you have, or be attracting investors.
No Marketing Strategy
Assuming you’ve made it past the initial stages, the next potential hurdle is a lack of marketing. If you’re in a position where implementing strong marketing campaigns aren’t possible under your own esteem, then you need to consider a marketing agency. Although this means spending more money to begin with, you’ll be paying for experienced professionals to aid the growth of your business during its most crucial stages. Furthermore, by having someone else running marketing, you can spend your time focusing on other, equally important, areas of the business.
Ignoring Your Customers
There’s a reason why the saying “the customer is always right” is a popular one — it rings true. Your customers should be at the heart of what you do, and they should be able to communicate with you regarding where you need to improve your company. When customers can’t have an open discussion with you, they can feel neglected. Avoid this scenario by asking for feedback, connecting via your business social media, and so on; do this and you’ll get customer satisfaction every time.
Rapid Growth
Even though having a large, recognized brand may be the end game, expanding the business too soon and too quickly can have damaging effects. The main reason businesses fail at this stage is because they become too complacent, believing that they don’t have to put as much effort in because most of the hard work has already been done. This is far from true. Expansion is just like when you first started up, which means you’re going to need to put in a lot of hours, money, and hard work to make this next stage of the business work just as well.
A Lack of Innovation
Being a totally unique brand isn’t easy to achieve, simply because there’s so many other businesses out there similar to yours or who have adopted similar business traits. This shouldn’t be new information to you. Instead, you should analyze the current market and your competitors, in a bid to learn how to ensure your brand really stands out from the crowd. If you lack impact, you’ll get overlooked time and again.
