Challenges in Start up Company

You must have heard about the theory ‘survival of the fittest’; you must also have heard a statement: “A smooth sea never makes good sailors”.

Both the theory and the statement above fit really well with the world of startups. And the world of startups is a violent one.

To win customers’ trust and loyalty, startups need to work aggressively to implement a customer-centric working philosophy, so as to enable them to succeed in their pursuit of attaining the height sustainable growth and progress they desire to achieve in this tech-savvy and challenging business world.

The Major challenges are :

Money

When cash flow issues hit a start-up that is very well fit, they can hit hard, delaying important progress like rolling out services/Products, hiring key staff, or fitting new offices.

Neglecting marketing and sales

It’s a false economy to put your faith in customers discovering you unless you make a concerted effort to grow them with a proper structured plan to promote your start-up. An easy to use website builder like bookmark is a great resource that can help you get your online presence started quickly.You have to build business development team to build business else you will loose half way to the competitions

Lack of planning

If your business plan is all optimism and fails to allow for surprises, then you’re heading for big trouble. So don’t leave the details to later.

Finding the right people

Strategize key hires and think carefully about each role fits in with the goals you want to achieve.

Time management

In startups as in life, there’s never enough time. There are a million and one decisions to be made and only 24 hours in a day (and allegedly some of those should be spent sleeping). Focus your time and energy on the most impactful things. Ask yourself: what is important and what can be postponed until tomorrow? What is stopping your company growing? Those are the answers you should deal with today.

Your founders

While the founders may have developed a great product and set the wheels of the whole venture in motion, they can’t do everything.So if you’re a founder, avoid making the big mistake of thinking you can do it all alone. Don’t hoard all the work and major decisions for yourself; spread the workload around. Hire other executives who can fill in the gaps in your knowledge, and listen to what they have to say.

Scaling up

You may have to hire more warehouses, offices, staffs etc which was not budgeted and suddenly it goes up then the founders would be in difficult position to support you . Such is the price of success. If you have a plan and the cash to fund all this, great. If not, then prepare for a painful process.

Your comfort zone

Growing a startup can feel like taking one step backwards for every two steps forward. It takes grit. Figuring out your comfort zone early means you can make provisions for this if you need to, so you can find team members who are comfortable doing the things that make you uncomfortable.

Competitors

And it’s growing all the time: you won’t be the new kid on the block for long, and new rivals can quickly alter the playing field.

So you need to put yourself in a potential customer’s place and see how you stack up. What makes your company different? What makes your products special? What makes your brand unique? Why would someone choose you over your competitors?

Poor management

So as you build out your leadership team, you need to do two things. (Well, you need to do lots of things, but for the purpose of this particular point, let’s focus on two.)

Firstly, you need to make sure that your team is working well together. In order to be effective, you need to keep everyone on the same page. 

Secondly, you need to make sure that your team is working well, period. Be proactive about what is and isn’t getting results, and if you spot any underlying longer-term issues, address them as soon as you can, before they become major problems.

Lack of mentor ship

You may have a great product or idea, but lack the necessary guidance, market experience, or knowledge to take it to the next level. That’s where a mentor comes in, with the wisdom and confidence to help you clear those roadblocks that are holding your start-up back.

This is in reference with a blog read today morning on "teamwork on Startup" . But the points are most relevant because I can feel the same as a 1st generation Entrepreneur in to Logistics & Supply Chain Space , I have seen all the challenges in the initial three seasons in last two years .

Write me other challenges you faced in start up for our Learning

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