The Reason Why Founders Struggle To Grow Their Businesses

We love founders. They have taken the risk to execute on an idea and step away from paycheck life to solve a burning issue. We speak to a lot of startup founders that are full of enthusiasm for their products and business ideas. However, they often struggle to generate new clients or new users for their apps.

This is a very common pattern. Founders can become so focused on the solution to a problem that sometimes, they cannot see the wood for the trees. They cannot see where the next customer might come from. They do not know how to generate enough users of their app to get their business to the next stage. What are the next steps they need to take with their business?

We discuss with all founders that they need to engage with the community that they are trying to serve. That might mean physically meeting people for a coffee. Or setting up phone calls to drill down on the needs and wants of the community. Or jumping on social media and finding where your community hangs out. That might be a social media chat on Twitter or it could be a hashtag that people contribute to. But you need to engage. You need to be social with your community! Otherwise, you won't build the meaningful relationships that you need. You won't really understand the problems that you are solving.

Once you're engaging with your prospective users about their issues; two things happen:

1 - You will ensure that your product is solving the main issues for your community. And you will be more confident that what you are building is what people want.

2 - You will be able to produce content that your community will engage with. So, instead of going out to find your community, your community will come to you.

A lot of founders that we speak to struggle to find the time to do this kind of work. They would much prefer to keep their heads down developing their product. Or trying to find the next round of investment for their app. But it is essential that you do this community-building work or use an agency like Social INK to help you.

By building a community you won't waste time building out your product in the wrong areas. And when you're out pitching for seed money you can show that you have an engaged community. With a solid marketing funnel for paying customers. Your investors will know that their money will be better invested. 

If you know a founder that is in this position or feel that any of this resonates with you, drop me a message on LinkedIn.

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