Qualities of a successful start-up

by Jason Shilongo

One of the most common characteristics found amongst most developing countries is a high unemployment rate. During the COVID-19 pandemic period, many technological advances have happened in the business ecosystem and caused an increase in the number of young entrepreneurs establishing start-up businesses. But what does it take to be a successful start-up in a rapidly-evolving business ecosystem?

Relevance

Every business is built on the relevance it can provide for its customers or clients. Start-ups are forming rapidly as the business environment provides new opportunities that entrepreneurs can take advantage of. To remain relevant in a business environment, businesses must actively look for ways to make the lives of their customers and clients simpler, either by being exclusive in their industry or simply by being better than their competitors.??

Inclusivity

By bringing the element of inclusivity into business operations, you stand a better chance of being relevant to a vast population. Being inclusive to customers & clients means the business is available to anyone who wants to make use of it without being bound by race, gender, lifestyle, location, religion, etc. However, inclusivity is also important in the employment structure of the business. Culturally, businesses make more provisions to hire tertiary-educated individuals, however, it is beneficial for businesses to also implement programmes where uneducated, but promising individuals can receive training & education on how to be effective in positions that are in demand.?

Innovative

New opportunities and challenges keep arising in the business ecosystem as the external business factors (technology, politics, competitors, ethics, etc) keep changing. Businesses need to introduce new measures, products, or services to take advantage of emerging opportunities or even to cope with emerging challenges. Being innovative also includes making changes in already existing policies or measures to accommodate the present situation.???

Adjustable/Fluid Adaptation

Various external factors can affect a business, both negatively and positively. Businesses do not have control over these external factors, and because of this, a business needs to adapt to its present business ecosystem, but at the same time, must have a structure flexible enough to accommodate any future changes that the external factors can present to that business ecosystem. For a business to have an adjustable adaptation quality, it must implement ways to deliver its value to an inclusive population in any given situation.

For a start-up to become a fully-fledged sustainable business, it must be able to actively find ways to be relevant, make its offering available to anyone who might desire to acquire it, adjust well to any situations presented by external business factors, and must have creative methods of seeking for opportunities and solving issues as they arise.