Three Reasons Businesses Fail
Starting a business is a dream for many as it not only allows you to work on an idea you’re passionate about but it also makes you your own boss. The question is whether your idea will take off or after putting years of your sweat and blood, will it put you in a worse situation financially. Some reports state that about 80% of businesses fail within the first two years and that is a very worrisome number. urSTORE will take you through three reasons why small businesses fail and what you can learn from others’ failures.
1. They don’t have a unique value proposition.
If you offer the exact same products or services as a hundred existing businesses with loyal customer bases, why would anyone want to buy from you? That’s the question you must ask yourself before starting this venture. Think of what your business can do differently, whether it be in terms of cost, technological advances, ease of use, availability, etc. Being able to deliver on this is even more crucial in today’s world where thanks to the internet you’re competing with the whole world. Take, for instance, the case of urSTORE. It’s an online store where you can purchase customized apparel and accessories. So you must wonder what makes this business different from all the other ones in North America. What makes it stand out from the crowd is that it allows customers to create a free online store of their own where they can upload artwork and sell to their unique audiences.
2. They don’t put customers first.
From the inception of a business idea to the day you open your doors, chances are you never spoke to your potential customers. What’s even worse is if you never even tried to find out how your customers feel about your product or service. Unfortunately, this is a mistaken made too often. If you never get this type of insight into how customers feel about what you sell, how would you know where you can improve upon and what your areas of strength are. Besides what you sell, what can be a key differentiating point between you and your competitors is how you treat your customers. Customer service may be the only thing that your competitor is better at and they know it and use it to their advantage.
3. They don’t have online presence.
The internet is king today so if your business is not on it then it’s a problem. Think of about the last time you needed to get new tires for your car or needed to get a household item repaired. Chances are you didn’t go through a phonebook to inquire where these products and service are offered. Search engine is where this type of information is sought so if you’re not on it then. This applies to both brick-and-mortar stores as well as online stores. If you have a physical location but no online presence, it’s difficult to be found by potential customers. By the same taken, if you have an online store but don’t appear high on search engine ranking, that’s as good as not being online at all. No one goes to the second or third page of their search results, so if your business doesn’t appear in first ten or so results then it’s no wonder you don’t have a lot of traffic coming to your website. In today’s day and age, it’s crucial to invest in search engine optimization to get a higher rank on major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.
