Instead Of Failing Fast, How About Getting Better At Not Failing?

Companies that grind to a halt because they run out of cash is a well worn explanation for business failure. However, there is a more concerning reason for the wheels to well and truly come off.

The financial walk to the gallows, to many, is the main indicator that brings a company to its knees.

On the other hand there has always been a sense of romanticism when it comes to entrepreneurship. It’s all about taking risks and just going with your heart, soul, passion and what feels right. Just do what you feel deeply about; it’s going to work isn’t it? A speaker at a networking event told you to dance like no one is watching and to stand up and say ‘yes’. That’s ok isn’t it?

A Starting Point

A record 581,173 businesses were registered with Companies House in 2014. The opposite side of the coin is that more than 50% of new businesses will not be around in five years times according to British commercial insurer RSA. The research highlights that survival rates are low.

If business survival rates are relatively low then this doesn’t stop the entrepreneurial mantra that Tom Peters originally stated as, ‘test fast, fail fast, adjust fast,’ that any small business is told to live by.

To many businesses they just hold on to that final bitter moment. To be a winner in business you have to look unsettling moments squarely in the eye and laugh back at them. Failure is seen a sign of weakness, you have to continually dust yourself down and get on with it.

Then again, it doesn’t matter how many times you dust yourself down if there isn’t an audience to pick you back up again.

No Market, No Cry

Failure to acknowledge an audience and finding a different reason to serve a marketplace has been recognised in 2015 by CB Insights as the biggest reason for start-up failure. 42% of respondents acknowledged there was no market need for their product/service, whereas 29% pinpointed the moment when there was no cash.

This is where the problem is today.

I know I talk and write about the virtues of a content marketing approach. It has nothing to do with a lack of original content; it’s the fact that the content wasn’t going to strike a chord with someone in the first place.

We are awash with the ability to replicate, iterate and duplicate. In an article from August called, The Main Reason Content Marketing Crashes And Burns, I did my own bit of mini research and highlighted a whopping 20 pages of choice for an iPhone charger.

The ability to replicate a product is simple when all you need is a computer and WiFi.

Replicate & Duplicate

The county where I live and work is awash with ‘creative agencies’.

Dorset has a population of nearly 755,000 people. Matt Desmier (my cohort for Once Upon A Time) conducts a meticulous annual consensus of the creative businesses throughout Bournemouth, Poole and the rest of Dorset.

There are over 400 creative agencies alone within this county. For any new business looking to find their space within this landscape they are swimming in an ocean with companies who all more or less look and act the same. There is the equivalent of a creative agency for every 1,800th person in the county. It is even harder to be heard within a county where there are many doing and creating the same thing.

When An Audience Turns The Other Way

When a company fails because it hasn’t achieved its business objectives comes down to failure of acknowledgement within a marketplace.

Whilst a business owner may be in love with an idea of their product/service being embraced by many, the opposite is also true.

When someone pursues a lost cause with his or her own blind optimism and single mindedness, when a product does not solve a market need is where you have a problem.

Sometimes, it’s best not to embrace the fail fast mantra, but fail less by understanding an audience in the first place.

We are encouraged to celebrate those who take risks and the ‘by any means necessary’ approach. What a waste of time, energy and investment when a product represents no differing proposition to an audience.

Creating products that people want has everything to do with understanding an audience and being able to deliver a reason why they should spend their time with you.

This is the opportunity that businesses have by understanding what makes them different and what they stand for. In the words of Chococo owner, Claire Burnet, a speaker at the last Once Upon A Time, "having a passion doesn’t pay the bills."

Let me highlight this example. I have a friend who opened a restaurant in the East Midlands. They loved cooking; it was in the family blood and warmed to the idea of other people paying for something that they genuinely had a passion for.

Taking a step out of a kitchen for family and friends and into a commercial environment was a completely different world. Working with suppliers, capital investment, staff and adhering to local health and council standards was a far cry from, ‘could I have the recipe for how you did that.’ The company started and closed within a space of 18 months. Stats highlighting that 60% of restaurants do not make it past the first year, is totally believable.

Rather than focusing on the doom and gloom for why businesses are teetering on the edge of the precipice, lets look at the opportunity.

Provide A Purpose For Someone Else

It’s not about recognising the pain points for an audience, but being able to provide a solution and a reason for someone else to put their trust in you.

Lets put the fail fast mantra to one side and embrace a thrive gradually mindset.

You cannot deliver a product or a service without an appreciation for an audience.

Here are 12 things for you to consider to build your audience:

• identify the web pages where your audience is coming to you on your website (analytics)

• appraise the content that you create (is it relevant, informative and entertaining)

• keyword research for your industry

• start putting yourself in the shoes of your customer a bit more. Are they really bothered about your inspirational quotes on LinkedIn?

• testing messages for your audience (email headlines, stories to figure out what people are responding to)

• create a persona of your audience, even better talk to those who buy your product/service

• recognise that creating more is not the answer

• understanding the role of measurement

• anything that you create, ask yourself ‘do I find this interesting’ if it’s a ‘no’ then stop right there cowboy

• use social listening sites such as Social Mention to understand interactions within your industry

• encourage building a subscribed audience that you have complete ownership of

• stop the talking and start doing stuff that is relevant for your audience. From video, to audio to text, there are limited barriers to entry and certainly no excuse anymore

Lets Start To Conclude

Whatever you create has to have meaning to someone else. There will always be companies who loose grip of what they set out to achieve, but the focus has to be on what makes a company relevant to an audience and the ability to consistently be present.

To succeed takes time, it’s better to gradually build an audience rather than think that you have to mean everything to everyone in the shortest time.

Who knows maybe the company survival rates become more encouraging when the focus becomes audience first rather than purely on a return on investment.

Image at the top courtesy of Olly Browning