There is no surefire success recipe for a startup – if you take a look at those of them that do well you will see all of them rose to the top in their own unique ways.
There are, however, a number of very definite recipes for failure: do one of these things and your startup is likely to die within several months of being founded.
1. Starting as a Single Founder
No matter how innovative your startup is, you can’t do everything yourself. And there are other reasons to find a co-founder. Having a team as the basis of your startup is reassuring for potential investors: they see that the idea is shared by a number of people, they are sure that startup will go on even if something unfortunate happens to one of the founders. If you are going to start a business, find at least one co-founder who shares your beliefs.
2. Neglecting the Design
Startup founders often perceive design – both of their products and their websites – as an additional feature that should be taken care of, but not necessarily as a first priority, as it requires a great deal of investment in terms of money and effort without any immediate results.
If you take a look at them, all large and successful companies are extremely attentive to their designs – take Apple, for example, who turned their design into one of the primary selling points. However, design is not a luxury you can afford when you get big – according to Magicdust, a Sydney website design company, startups that create a consistent high-quality design from the outset have much greater chances for success.
3. Lacking Focus
The most successful startups are either those that offer some genuinely new product or service, something nobody thought of before, or those who appeal to the interests of a very specific customer. Needless to say, the latter approach is far more available than the former – yet most unsuccessful startups still try to do too much for too many people, ending up with complicated, poorly working product without any definite user.
4. Second-Hand Ideas
Remember the primary idea from _Positioning _by Jack Trout and Al Ries? Being the best is not as important as being the first. So, even if you know for certain what’s wrong about Facebook and how to make it better, chances of your Facebook-killer achieving any kind of success are negligible.
5. Poor Money Management
Money problems, naturally, are among the primary reasons of startup failure. They either don’t raise enough money or spend them too quickly and on all the wrong things, find it impossible to deal with investors or all of the above. In order to succeed you should be ready to cut costs, be reasonable about your spending and make sure to have enough capital before you move out.
The success or failure of most startups is determined within half a year since they start; in some cases it is defined by decisions their founders made prior the launch. Avoiding these mistakes isn’t the only thing that can ensure good results, but it will make them far more probable.
