In this article, we focus on sending a message to entrepreneurs and project owners about the importance of studying the market, understanding the target audience, and diversifying social relationships that help you understand your field in order to improve and develop your own projects.
At a time when most entrepreneurs and project owners are talking about the best ways and methods to achieve growth and success in their private ventures, the ambitious entrepreneur wonders about the other side, which is the best practices that lead startups or organizations to failure to avoid them and benefit from them. In this insight, we will focus on several points that can make projects and startups an incomplete success experience.
Your Personal Desire Comes First.
Failed projects are based on a complete disregard for the consumer or the target audience. All marketing efforts are centered on the desires of the manager or project owner to fulfil their personal wishes without any consideration to the buyers. This behavior leads to various complications in the business world, which can, in turn, lead the company into difficult times and sometimes it can even lead the company to collapse. Marketing isn’t just about building projects based on customer desires but also about aligning these projects with the customers’ aspirations and needs and helping them meet these needs. Marketer and author Allan Dib says, “As a business owner, your mission is not only to create a product that fits your customers' needs but also to ensure that your product has really met this need.” For example, if your project is to establish a sports club, your task is not only to provide sports equipment but also to ensure that the members have achieved the body shapes they aspire to achieve.
Your Friend Is Your Consultant.
Failed projects don’t only execute the desires of the person in charge but also the wishes of the people around them. It is essential to have people supporting you when planning your project, but be careful when selecting them. A study buddy is a study buddy, not a business analyst, and a coworker is just a coworker, not a financial consultant. Sometimes, the reason we make wrong decisions when building our projects is that the information we received wasn’t from an expert but it was rather a perspective from someone close to us. And due to the lack of knowledge or experience, we sometimes fall under the category of “failed businesses.” Try to attend events and conferences held in the city regularly and get to know people who can genuinely help you and advise you. Build diverse relationships to help you build your project professionally and away from speculation and hearsay.
Profits Begin with the First Order.
Usually, failed projects have a short-term outlook, as the project owner believes that profits will multiply with the first order they receive. However, this isn’t true. According to statistics, businesses are said to start making profits within 1–2 years after they begin operating, which means that the project's start is only cumulative losses and risks borne by the business owner owing to their complete faith in their idea. Therefore, when you launch your project, think thoroughly and create a five-year plan. How will you finance your project? What returns do you expect within a specific period of time? How can you provide resources to grow your project? By answering these questions, you will realize that success is not just a result of random efforts or ill-conceived plans, but it is rather a result of consistent and persistent efforts over the years.
Follow the successful, and you will succeed.
Although this rule is generally true, it's not always the case. Having a successful business or project in your area doesn't necessarily mean that if you implement the same idea and project, you will achieve the same success. Success and excellence go deeper than this generalization, and this is a mistake that most founders of startups fall into. Many of them end up as part of successful stories that didn't "fail," but their success wasn't fully realized yet. Sometimes, it's easy for us to see the full picture and make premature judgments that everything this company does is "easy" and can be simply executed, and with a better quality. Sometimes, we even try to be creative and innovative in the way we create and execute this project. But when we take the first step, we discover that reality is entirely different. We weren't familiar with the operational processes, human resource management, workflow, and other internal details of the organization. Moreover, we weren't aware of market fluctuations, supply and demand, customer needs, and, most importantly, we didn't know the most crucial point in starting projects: answering the question, "How can I serve the community with this idea, and what sets me apart from project B?"
Now that you've learned about the characteristics of failed companies, let's move on to the other question: how can we develop businesses and build successful establishments out of them? In this insight, we answer this question as we discuss several methods that can help you build your company and improve its growth through a variety of tips provided by Saudi entrepreneurs.
