One fatal mistake that could shut down your Business

Starting a business can be very exciting, while running the same successfully, at times can be very challenging and exhausting.

We hear new business ventures being born each day, while many others not being able to taste success or eventually even shut down within a couple of years. While we all are aware that there can be many factors that could lead to the business not taking off as expected, ignoring 'Market-fit' can be identified as THE Fatal Flaw, that can close the doors of any business.

This leads me to first explain the very commonly used jargon, product/service market fit.

Market-fit, very simply put, is about creating offerings that your customers genuinely want or need. The journey of any business, therefore, has to begin with understanding and defining the REAL problem statement.

The REAL problem at most times is quite different from the external symptoms that a customer makes evident. This problem is internal to a customer, which is in the form of frustration or an unfulfilled desire or need deep within.

Ex: a person wants to buy expensive branded clothes, not to solve the problem of covering the body, or simply looking good, but to be acceptable and acknowledged in a certain class of society, or to announce ones success.

Let's now understand, how we can

avoid ignoring market fitment, through these 5 simple ways:

1. Practicing Empathy: There are various tools and methodologies which can be used to understand the customer and his/her REAL problems better. Make this a regular practice and feature in your organization.Train your team, or seek external help. But identifying the problem and then working on its solution is THE master key.
2. Failing fast: Develop a prototype or a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), which can be tested in a good sample size which closely represents your target audience.
3. Being Continuously engaged with the customer: Feedback has to be welcomed and in continuous loop. Adapting to market response is the key to success.
4. Ready to Pivot: No one gets any extra points for sticking on to the original idea, if it is not taking the business anywhere :) Tweak it, if it needs to.
5. Focussing on clear value proposition: The value proposition may be extremely powerful, but if it is not communicated to the target market, in a way that it understands, the entire exercise is futile.

Ignoring market-fit is a critical mistake that can spell disaster for any business.

But the good news is by being aware of the repurcussions it can cause, and understanding and working on simple ways by which it can be handled, any business can write its powerful growth story.

to know more about various methodologies and tools which can be used to create your market-fit, do get in touch.

Will be happy to help :)