Start Up Problems 101 — Clue, It Includes Those Pesky Worker’s Compensation Lawyers!
Startup culture has definitely been on the rise in the last decade. But that doesn’t make it immune from failure. As many as there are new companies coming, there are also many that have failed. No matter how good your product offer is, if several parts of your organization aren’t working properly, you won’t succeed.
In this article, we’ll dive into the most common startup problems you will come across and provide solutions for how you can avoid them.
Managing money poorly
If you’re lucky, you will have a steady flow of cash coming into your business from your investors and profits you’ve earned. However, not everyone will be as fortunate. You want to have a steady balance of money coming in and out of your business.
Don’t go far too fast. If you have to close your startup because there’s no more money left to pay the employees, and little profit is coming in, that is just a waste. It’s always better to work slowly and steadily. The most successful companies didn’t succeed the first few months. They play the long game and enjoy fruitful returns more sustainably.
Dealing with worker’s compensation lawyers
If you created an ideal working environment for your employees, you wouldn’t be dealing with worker’s compensation lawyers in the first place. Their job is to help your employees get the most money to pay for what they have lost because of the accident.
To prevent this dilemma of facing worker’s compensation lawyers, you need to have a working place that is conducive and safe for work. If possible, you want to hire someone to inspect your office to ensure there is little to no accident risk. You can even go as far as having your own company worker’s compensation lawyers. This is a person you can contact immediately in case your aggrieved employee needs legal counsel, like from the attorneys of Marble Law Firm. Having them on speed dial shows your employees that their safety and well-being is in your best interest.
Hiring the wrong people
Speaking of hiring worker’s compensation lawyers, you need to be hiring the right people. So much time and resources are wasted by having the wrong people working in your company.
Before you even have your startup set up, determine the processes required to run your organization efficiently. What skills are required to perform these processes? How many people do you need to fulfill each work? Do you have a metric for determining whether a person is capable of doing such work?
You can’t just hire anyone from the street. You need employees who are not only skillful but also passionate about working towards a common goal. Remember, you’re probably running on limited fuel here so it’s best to invest it properly on the right people.
Not having a mentor
Running a startup is hard. It can even feel isolating. It may seem like no one understands what you’re going through and you feel like only you alone can solve your own company’s problems. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Someone can help.
Find that person who has been on the same path as you are. Someone who has succeeded and can teach you a thing or two about running a successful startup. They can be your mentor and provide you with valuable insights that are holding you back. They can bring you a perspective you never would have thought before allowing you to run your startup more effectively.
Lack of marketing strategy
No matter how innovative your product is, if there’s no marketing strategy, it’s not going to take off. You can’t just rely on word of mouth. Sure, it’ll get to a few hundred people. But the goal isn’t to get to only a hundred, right? You want your product to be in front of millions of people. From that million, you’ll probably get hundreds of customers and then grow from there.
Put as much effort in your marketing as you did with creating your product and the sales will follow —sales which can further keep your business running longer.
Incapable founders
A founder may be great at creating groundbreaking products but they may not be that effective at running an organization. It’s important to be aware of these limitations and not let ego get in the way. Some startups with the best potential failed too early because the founders, investors, and executives of the company could not get along and make an aligned business decision.
If you are a founder yourself, knowing this right away could work to your advantage. Have a mentor to help guide you along the way as well as a business manager to keep your sanity in check.
Products that aren’t user-friendly
You will be surprised by how little patience most people have. It’s easy for a competition to beat you with the only difference being that their product is more user-friendly than yours. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and look at your product with a critical lens. What could be wrong with it? How can you solve the problem? You may require a focus group on this for a more objective opinion. Once these roadblocks are solved, it’ll be easier to retain your customers.
Lack of focus
When customers look at your website, do you know right away what you’re offering? Or are they scratching their heads trying to figure that out? If it’s the latter, it could be that your startup is lacking focus. Again, this is a result of having a poor business model and marketing strategy.
From the very beginning, you should already figure out what your main offer is and implement that to your marketing efforts. It’s easy to get sidetracked by new ideas but put that aside for now and stick to the plan.
What was the first big problem you encountered with your startup? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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