Reasons Why You May Keep Failing as a Startup Entrepreneur
He who fails to plan has intentionally planned to fail — a popular saying
Hey there!
It’s 2019 and everywhere’s buzzing with a lot of entrepreneurial activity, everyone’s seemingly seeking extra streams of income; current employees at top and medium placed firms, students at different levels of study and even retirees, yes, retirees too.
Different forms of services are being rendered, products being sold and value being offered but PAUSE! there’s a snag. Everyone seems to be launching into their different markets (markets which already have an existing periphery) and most are doing it wrong…the result, poor reactions and engagement to their product or service and these may be caused by one or more of the following factors.
1. Not properly thinking through and planning your strategy before you start out
Yea, yea, I know, everyone wants to have the seeming title of a business founder in such short duration that they forget to plan an effective strategy before they start out.
Starting out your entrepreneurial journey without a strategy is like starting on a journey without even having a destination or purpose for travel, simply put…you’d not get there!
So before you jump right into marketing goods, services or whatever you have to offer, take time out to plan, nurture the idea, study your intended market, determine a feeling you’d want your brand to evoke (do you want to spell luxury or affordable quality? do you want your brand coming off as firm & kind or authoritative?) and most importantly have a direction!. Combined together, these would launch you properly into the entrepreneurial space.
2. Not properly defining your audience
Yo! How well do you know your audience? How well do you know who you’re planning on selling your goods or service to? Have you taken time to try and observe their daily living patterns? their frustrations and pain points? Well if you haven’t you need to!
Defining your audience/target market would help you understand how best to sell to them
I once stumbled on a post on social media saying “Lamborghini doesn’t do TV commercials because those who can afford one don’t spend time sitting in front of TV’s”; now that’s deep!. They understand their target and hence build the brand to act accordingly, you too should do the same.
3. Not paying attention to tiny details.
Details, details, details…we run away from them a lot but they always get to eventually clamp down on us.
If you don’t pay attention to details while building a brand, they’ll eventually tear you down.
Little details such as the perceived feeling a customer gets when they patronize you or having a good logo that consistently communicates you across all channels or even good customer service and etiquette or avoiding little typos when making a public post or address would ultimately increase trust and scale up your business.
4. Not properly structuring your posts that aim to sell your goods or service.
Ever come across the IG feed/story/WhatsApp status of some businesses that sell shoes or fancy jewellery? they just flood their timeline with their products (about 18–20 posts) and leave nothing in the caption…What exactly do you want? Sales or your product as a wallpaper?
When you post your products or service on any channel of communication ensure you follow it up with a nicely thought out caption and cap it off with a CTA (call to action).
Tell your customers to swipe up for more deals or have them gain by referrals or some other strategy. Don’t just post your goods, sell them!
5. Not leveraging on “collaborations”
Ever wondered why the ’agege bread’ seller sits close to the akara seller? or why taxi’s park in front of hotels? It’s COLLABORATION.
COLLABORATION fosters business growth when done rightly.
Pick another business in a different niche from yours but offering complimentary business features to yours, collaborate and watch your business spark to life!
Going with more examples would have been lovely, but I would also like to hear you think.
