Zero-G Creative

3 ways you can keep your startup from failing…

Jan 16 2009

In my line of work, we meet a WHOLE lot of first time entrepreneurs and we’ve seen a whole lot of successes and failures. If you are one of the dreamers out there with a $100 million idea in your back pocket, here are three easy ways I’ve found to help improve your chances of success:

1. Learn everything there is to know about your audience. A product is useless if it doesn’t appeal to the people who you want to sell it to. Stop getting hung up on what your product does, how it works or what freebies you can toss into your new service offering. The right questions to ask are from your audience’s point of view… How does my product/service benefit my audience? How can I make my product more relevant to them? How does it save them time or save/make them money? Savvy entrepreneurs study their customers like scientists.

2. Make a list. The details that are important to you may not actually be the details that are important to the success of your business. Before you spend hours agonizing over the precise shade of red that you’re going to paint your product or the minutia of your service contract, consider all the factors that could cause your business to actually fail and make a list. Sure, some of them are probably product/service development related, some are likely legal, some operational, but you’ll probably be surprised at how many of your “fail factors” are actually marketing related. Like “what if no one gets it?” or “what if I can’t get the word out?” or “what if my audience just isn’t interested?” Make sure you address the BIG problems before you dig into the little details.

3. It’s OK to compromise a little. Sure, everyone wants to launch with a perfect 10 product/service/web site/everything. But that’s not always realistic. Staying 100% true to your initial concept can sometimes come at the cost of your business. Sure, an “imperfect” 7 may not be ideal but consider the upside: it gets you to market sooner (and therefore gets you revenue sooner) and it gives you an opportunity to get your product into the hands of real live customers, allowing you to base improvements and subsequent launches on THEIR feedback rather than YOUR initial idea.

Entrepreneurs, please chime in: what did you learn along the way that kept your business from failing?

Published by Erik Wolf under Branding,Sales,Strategy