It is a common thing in this age to hear people around you say, I have a business or I am an entrepreneur. If you check your contact list, in a group of ten, at least 4 of them will run a startup.
I asked myself recently, why are there many startups out there today compared to few years ago. I mean, almost everyone now sell a thing or the other. WhatsApp has turned to an eCommerce platform. In fact, out of over 1000 contacts I have on my phone, and the active 400 I have on Whatsapp, 60% of them update their respective products on their status.
Whilst this is a very good development and a means of livelihood to many out there, starting a business is not just a task to take out of mere wishes or because you have the money par time.
According to Review42.com in a statistics gotten from Medium,
An estimated 90% of new startups fail.
(Source: Medium)
- How many startups fail in the first year? Around 20%.
- 34% of startups close within their first two years.
- Just over 50% of businesses make it to their fifth year.
- Only 25% of businesses make it to the 15-year mark.
What percentage of startups become successful? Only 1 in 10 survive in the long run.
To make matters even worse:
The failure rate progressively increases over time. You might think you’re in the clear if your small business has been around for a couple of years, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that’s not the case.
Isn't this alarming? Just because you have a startup doesn't mean it will stay long before it gets extinct like a dinosaur.
So, what then do you need to know before creating your own startup?
1. You need Ideas more than Money.
It sounds weird, right? Lol, I know right. But for a truth, you need ideas more than money. Ideas will give you a sense of what next to do that will aid the growth of your business. Having money in business also pave ways for growth as you will have what it takes to reach people but in a sense, when you have ideas in abundance, you will stay in business.
A quick analogy, Facebook has the money, but what gave birth to the recent innovations on Facebook are ideas. Without the ideas, Facebook would have gone extinct just like Dragon.
When you combine brain with ideas, you tend to make money.
Focus on generating ideas more than anything!
2. You need a Business Plan.
It will amaze you that most startups in Nigeria today start without a concise business plan. I mean, who goes to war without planning? The Scripture advised that when you want to build a tower, you need to sit down to count the cost and see if you will not be an element of mockery later. That's it! Without a plan, you fail.
In fact, most startup owners do not even know how to write a business plan and that is quite alarming.
What a business plan does is to give you a full knowledge of what your business is all about and the blueprint that will make you progress and grow.
A business plan will show the strategy to use to stay in business and it will also help you keep your gaze focused to achieving your goals.
Do not sleep on it! No matter how small that business of yours is, write a business plan for it!
3. Take Advantage of Social Media.
About half of the world population uses Internet and in Nigeria, over 80million people have access to Internet with about 50% of them stay actively on Social Media.
According to napoleancat.com,
The total number of users on social media in Nigeria are as follows...
Facebook - 29,430,000.
Instagram - 7,792,000.
Messenger - 26,370,000.
Linked In - 5,395,000.
Check the statistics in millions and you are still thinking how to get people to do business with you or staying within the confines of your WhatsApp contact list? It is time to accelerate! Take advantage of the social gold mine. Run a Facebook/Instagram Advert for your products and reach thousands if not millions!
4. Start a Business for a Big Reason and not just to make money.
Again, this is weird! But it is so much of a truth. Why? Startups at their early stages do not make profit and in fact, there are chances of losing money. If your reason why starting a business is solely to make money (you still would, but that just shouldn't be the optimal reason), then you will run out of business the way you ran in.
If your business is built on a Big Why, a very serious reason perhaps to serve your customers with the best or to make people have easier access to your products, then you will get motivated even whilst you are not making money yet.
See, I know making money is a motivation and an adrenaline to push more but that just doesn't happen for a startup. If you will not be making money immediately you start your business, then you should think of something else to motivate you to keep the business running and in my opinion, the purpose of starting the business.
5. Startups Take Time to Grow.
Maybe you are looking for a quick rush and you want people to tag you as a CEO, something something or you want to start raking in millions in the first month, let me tell you now that it takes time t.
It takes time for you to get your roots firm in the ground. It takes time for people to know you and it takes time for you to really get yourself.
Now that you know it takes time, do you still want to give up without giving yourself time? Give yourself time whilst developing yourself mentally and emotionally for the time to come.
Written and Compiled by Aanu OYEDELE.
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