1. You know your customer.
You can come up with an ingenious product, but go bust because you don’t have customers willing to pay for it. This is one of the main reasons why startups fail – there is simply no need in the market for what they do. To avoid wasting time and money, don’t be lazy to do CustDev, which means getting feedback from potential customers. You can already collect feedback at the idea stage. For example, many companies start sending out demo videos about a product even before it’s born. It helps not only to get positive feedback but also to attract investors.
To understand whether the product will be in demand, it is not enough to ask your friends for their opinion – they will indeed support you in any endeavor. Find out what your target audience thinks. For example, if you are making an educational app for teenagers, you should interview teachers and parents.
2. You have assembled a strong team
“Great things in business are never done alone; a team does them,” Steve Jobs said. When people share experience and knowledge, they can tackle complex problems and find creative ways to solve problems. Like-minded people will support you in a difficult moment and help you realize your ideas.
You don’t always need stars on your team – sometimes “good guys” who will be responsible and interact effectively with each other will suffice. Be sure to think about the interchangeability of team members. There shouldn’t be situations where everything is kept on one person. He may go on vacation or quit his job, and then the work stops. To avoid this, try to create the most comfortable working conditions for employees to stay in your company. You can use the paystub generator with overtime, which calculates the salary of employees, including taxes. Or you can opt for dedicated and unified solutions, consisting of factoHR, PayUSA, Payroo, etc., tools that handle all the employee-related tasks and compliantly process their salaries. You can also use applications that count your profits, losses, and embezzlement.
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Try to have employees of different genders, ages, worldviews, and cultures on the team. Because everyone will have unique experiences, they can develop more creative ideas and make the business more profitable.
3. You are ready to change
Businesses need to be able to adapt to the changing reality. Last year, for example, many companies switched to working remotely – they had to build new business processes very quickly. But in addition to difficulties, there are new opportunities, such as the ability to hire employees anywhere in the world.
Changes are needed not only in times of global crises. Many well-known companies drastically changed their business model because the old one wasn’t profitable and attracted few customers. YouTube, for example, was once a video dating service, and the founders of Android planned to create an operating system for cameras. Changing direction may seem like a waste of money. But the truth is, quitting a failed idea can save you money that you would have spent creating a dead-end product. To find new development opportunities, you need to decide to change in time.
