Myths are common in any sector, similarly, there are myths with regards to a Start-Up. Below are five of them I would like to bust today.
1) Perfect Product: There is nothing called a perfect product. Product development, whether it is a software or a platform or an app is an incremental process. There will be bugs and there will be further developments. So, you need to figure out what is the minimum development that you should do to sell your product. (Even giving it for free is selling because you are asking the user to invest his time; and time is money). So, the first step in every entrepreneur's journey is figuring out this Minimum Viable Product (MVP). I will talk about figuring out this MVP later. So, figure out your MVP, complete your development (its ok to have some bugs, you can tackle them on the go), launch your product. Don't delay.
2) You should start marketing only after you launch: Wrong! This is one of the very frequent mistakes that an entrepreneur makes. You should start marketing along with your product development, even if your product is not ready. I would say you should market even before product development. Today, marketing not just trade shows, events, advertisements. Marketing has a whole new definition. There are various new marketing techniques under Digital Media Marketing which include Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing etc (apparently, everyone who has a Facebook page is a expert in this. Don't fall for them).
Anyway, Marketing is a slow tool with a very few exceptions. It needs time to grow. So, if you start your marketing after your product development then you wouldn't have any customers right after product development and this will be a very frustrating scenario. Entrepreneur and his team get demotivated during this time. The right way is to start marketing right from your start. Make a marketing plan along with your product development plan. Embed marketing in your product development. How to do that is a topic for another day.
Golden rule - Engage, Empower and Embed.
Engage with your prospect customer, Make sure your product Empowers the customer, Embed their feedback in your product.
3) Start Up will make me rich: Success of a start-up should ideally make the entrepreneur rich. I still call it a myth, because it is very subjective. There are many entrepreneurs who are not rich even after a few rounds of funding. So, it is really important for an entrepreneur to have the financial sense. Of course, its never too late to learn. Everyone, compares funding to success. This is not true, there are many start ups, which are funded and then closed down. So, you need to understand this for your own good. Very prudent financial planning is necessary for a start up.
4) Great product doesn't guarantee Success: Having a great product is wonderful. But it doesn't guarantee success. There are many great products which were not successful for various reasons. You should also concentrate on usability, user friendliness, dependability etc while developing of the product. Your product might solve a very small problem, but you can still be successful because of how dependent your users are on your product. So, don't stop just at the product, make it usable, make it dependable, reliable and more importantly simple. Someone once told me, if you cant explain your product to your customer in 2 minutes, then you don't have a product. This might not always be true but the principle is still valid.
5) Instant Success: People expect start ups to be instantly successful. This is not true in most cases. For many, it takes years to be successful. You might have to change your model, pivot, shuffle etc. It needs all the time that you have. You will have to postpone your dreams, trips, cars, houses, marriages etc. So, start up is not something you should do if you are looking to enjoy life. It is something that you should do for your passion. I personally like to call it a lifestyle rather than just a business. You are lucky if you are instantly successful, if not embrace the journey; learn, implement and try to be successful. Start up is not just luck, it is hard work, persistence, trust, dedication, learning and it is many things.
I will end this by saying "Fortune favors the brave".
There are many other myths. I would like to hear about them from you. So, please free to post your experiences, knowledge, learnings, comments etc in the comments section below.
I will end this by saying "Fortune favors the brave".
There are many other myths. I would like to hear about them from you. So, please free to post your experiences, knowledge, learnings, comments etc in the comments section below.
