Lets talk about the successful entrepreneur and what makes them so. Entrepreneurs break the rules, never give up, they have well thought out business plans, great ideas and most importantly lots of money to make it happen?
WRONG
Three myths:
Superstar Entrepreneur
This is the type of entrepreneur that the news and media love to shine a light on. The superstar entrepreneur has a visionary idea that is going to change the world, they work nonstop and make it happen by sheer will power. They ignore customer feedback because they know whatโs best, and spend months and years building and building their product. Once the product is released to the market they have overnight success and are instant legends. Sorry to break it to you, but this almost never happens.
The number one reason for startup failure is building a product no one wants, the problem here is taking a chance on a vision that does not reflect what customers actually want.
According to a study by CBS Insights, 95 percent of start-ups fail, and an amazing 42 percent of them failed because there is no market for the product or services, that they have created.
Business Plan Entrepreneur
Here is the method of success that is taught at virtually every business school, with the business plan at its backbone. Its the advice everyone hears, get a great idea, borrow or raise money, hire people, build your product, test it and then sell it. Launching and running your business in this way is flawed because most business plans are based on wild assumptions that are sometimes pure wishful thinking instead of actual customer feedback. Instead what you need is validation and a short term action plan.
Customer feedback and validations tools today allow you to get your product in front of real people, and even sell it before you have a an actual product. Finding customers first, reduces the assumption bias and tendency to obsess with building the perfect product.
Money, Money, Money Entrepreneur
Of all the myths this one is probably the number one reason people don't launch a startup. This is the belief that you need to have a large amount of money to start a successful business.
The money myth is the belief that startup needs to have a large amount of money to start a successful business. The truth is raising too much money is one of the mistakes that can lead to the downfall of a startup. Once large amounts of money are committed the clock is ticking, the company has less room for mistakes, and it becomes much harder to pivot if you realize the product you built is not right for customers.
"...whatever you build, make sure customers want it! "
Once you have an idea, spend your time, energy and money on validating your idea, and figuring out how you will get traction, instead of jumping into building your final product. While there is no one size fits approach that will work for everyone, there is one principle that holds true, whatever you build make, sure customers want it!
Letโs go back to basics. โI am an entrepreneur to be self sustainingโ. In short, build your business to be sustainable and not to be โraise fundsโ. If you make money, people will want to invest.
This is so true. I wish someone had told me this in my early days starting out.
The market determines the success or failure of your business. By solving a need you will create demand. Once you create value, you will recieve money in return..