History is littered with failed businesses and entrepreneurs that felt they were onto a winner, when in reality they had an idea that was not feasible or actually just not very good. It is impossible to know if you have a winning formula before you actually start your business, but there are some steps you can take to avoid embarking on a venture that is destined to fail.
Whatever your intention is when starting a business, there are a number of bad reasons that people use to justify doing it. Firstly, you should never believe that your intended market needs educating. If you feel that you have a product or service that the market really cannot live without, but they just haven’t realised it yet, you are probably wrong.
Any product that requires you to educate the customer before they would be interested in buying it will face a very steep uphill battle to be successful. For example, in the early days of the Internet there were countless businesses with extremely intriguing concepts that the market simply could not see any value in at the time. Many of these concepts are now part of daily Web usage, but the companies that pioneered them originally are long gone. Unless you have extremely deep pockets and are prepared to wait a long time, educating the market is not an option.
Also, don’t rush to start a business just to try and achieve some sort of “first-mover advantage”. Statistics show that half of all businesses that go to market first fail and those that follow closely on their heels are actually more likely to succeed. Take your time and make sure that you get it just right instead of rushing and making stupid mistakes.
Some entrepreneurs casually assume that all they need to be successful is a 1% share of an existing market. However, it is never easy to steal market share away from a competitor. There are no vacant percentages of any existing market just waiting to be filled by your business – there is no doubt about it being a struggle.
But don’t let this put you off too much. All that a small business needs to be successful is a great idea. It doesn’t even have to be your own idea, it just has to be viable enough to be successful. WinWeb’s Business Planning Software is a great way to assess how viable your business idea is!
Tags: Business Success
