The Two Critical Success Components of Any Startup

Nothing hurts more than seeing someone who puts a ton of work into their startup fail.

In my daily life, I interact with a lot of startups. I mentor founders and try to help them get their footing. I see firsthand the reasons why 90% of startups fail. It’s typically not pretty.

Don’t get me wrong: few things are better in the world of business than seeing a startup succeed. Founders tend to put their heart and soul into the project. It’s their dream, their idea of a lifetime, their way to self-guided success. When that succeeds, the euphoria is difficult to duplicate. When it fails, the pain is palpable.

There are a ton of reasons why startups fail. You might have read some of the listicles that show 20 or more of them. Forget about those. The truth tends to be much simpler.

As I’m working with new businesses, I tend to see a clear trend. Success and failure is actually pretty binary. Those who succeed share a few, simple traits. Those who fail, don’t.

More specifically, there are two critical mistakes I see often that cause the walls to come tumbling down. When that happens, the stress level goes up immediately. Meanwhile, the chances of success go in the opposite direction. Wondering what they are yet? Keep reading.

The Buck Stops With You

First, let’s get something out of the way. No one is more responsible for the success and failure of the startup than you, the founder. That’s the most critical piece of the equation and without internalizing it, you will run into all kinds of problems.

The buck stops with the decision maker, and that’s the founder in the vast majority of cases. It’s important to remember that at all times, during all decisions.

If your startup is also your side hustle, this lesson only becomes more important. You might not be able to devote your full attention to it all the time, but that doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t treat it as less important.

What you say goes, and what you do impacts the future of your business.

That doesn’t mean you have to go it alone. Help can be invaluable if you seek it in the right spot. Still, that help only matters if you know what to seek, and where to seek it from. That’s where we get back to the simplicity of startup success and failure.

Boiling Startup Success Down to Two Simple Concepts

Founding a startup is daunting. The fact that you’re the lifeline of your business only makes it more so. Fortunately, you can do a few things to make your life easier.

More specifically, focus your attention on two central concepts. If you get the product market fit right and build the right marketing plan, your chances of success skyrocket. Let’s dig into what that means.

1) Do You Have a Product Your Audience Will Love?

It sounds so simple, right? No startup can succeed without a product the audience actually wants and needs. So far, so obvious. Then why do so many founders ignore or fail to prioritize this concept?

Research consistently shows that the biggest reason startups fail is a lack of market need. You spend all that time and effort on a product that no one actually asked for. Understanding why is your first step to fixing the issue.

The harsh truth is that what you love doesn’t necessarily match up with your audience. And yet, it’s easy to get others to agree initially. There are few things worse than launching a product, or app, that you think is the greatest idea ever, only to be reinforced by friends and family.

If the market doesn’t respond to it, none of that initial opinion matters.

How to Achieve Success: Build a Market Fit Process

It’s not as romantic as the brilliant idea that comes to you in the middle of the night. But without testing, that idea might not actually be that brilliant. You need to test it to determine its validity, one way or the other.

Testing your product market fit is actually a pretty standardized process. I won’t get into too much detail here; there are plenty of resources available to help you get started. Consider these 5 steps:

1. Determine your target customer. Just who do you actually want and need to target?
2. Identify needs for that target customer that other products have not fulfilled yet.
3. Define your value proposition, or how exactly you want to fill that unmet need.
4. Create your minimum viable product. Include only enough features to give you a sense of whether you’re going in the right direction.
5. Test your minimum viable product with the audience set you have defined.

At this point, you’ll probably realize that you’ll have to go through trial and error. A lot of it. Rather than charging ahead with what you think is the best option for your audience, let your audience decide that.

You’ll also need market research. Rather than trusting your own opinions and even experiences, trust the hard data. It’s the only way to make sure that you know what your audience wants before you charge in and spend your money and capital on an idea that may or may not work.

If the market supports your brilliant idea, great! If it doesn’t, go in another direction. The customer development model for building a new product can be a great help in shifting attention to your audience needs.

2) Can You Get That Product In Front of Your Audience?

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Getting a great product that your audience actually wants is good to get you started. It also won’t matter if your potential customers don’t actually know that it exists.

That’s where marketing comes into play. Don’t just assume that the word will somehow get out. Without a comprehensive plan designed to systematically get your product in front of your audience, you’ll be in trouble.

No, personal connections through friends and family won’t cut it. Even thousands of connections on social media won’t be enough. Don’t rely on that buddy of yours who knows a ton of products. We will go viral has never been and will never be a sustainable marketing tactic.

The unfortunate truth: people won’t simply flock to you. If that was the case, no brand would need professional marketers and everyone could just take care of it themselves. You need more strategy than that.

How to Achieve Startup Success: Build a Comprehensive Marketing Plan

Your product might be the perfect fit for your audience. Unfortunately, they don’t know that yet. It’s your task to convince them.

This is the part where many startups struggle. Established brands can prioritize goals of brand awareness, increased conversions, or better loyalty depending on their current needs. A startup needs all three.

That cannot be successful without a comprehensive, multi-channel marketing strategy. We know it takes 13 or more marketing touches to even generate a lead. To turn that prospect into a customer requires even more.

You need sweat equity. You need money. Most importantly, though, you need a strategy. That strategy needs to include:

• A clear definition of your target audience, including both demographics and interests.
• Defined marketing goals that tie directly to your business objectives.
• A definition of your core product benefits and messaging emphasis.
• An explanation of the voice and tone that you’ll use to get through to your audience.
• An outline of each channel you plan to leverage, plus a plan for how that channel plies into the overall plan.
• A specific timeline that allows you to track success and make improvements where needed.

Don’t think you have to do it by yourself. You can look for help. In fact, if your alternative is simply making some social media posts and hoping they go viral, you might have to.

Building a startup is impossible without a great marketing plan. Once you build it, though, you have a chance to truly make an impact in the market and shift audience attitudes towards your product.

The Simple Formula of Startup Success and Failure

Don’t get overwhelmed by details. When it comes to your startup, there will be plenty of those. Instead, make sure you keep the big picture in mind at all times. When you do, the road map to success is actually pretty straightforward.

Details about manufacturing or repeat customers don’t matter if you don’t have the right product-market fit or a plan to get that product in front of your audience to begin with. Those two factors, then, make up the simple formula to help your startup succeed.

That’s not to say they’re all that matters. Of course, you have to focus on ancillary things like budget, hiring the right people, and so on. But again: which of those really matters if you can’t get your product or marketing right?

If you leave this post with only one takeaway, make it this: you’re not alone. There are professionals willing to help you find your fit and market your product. They’ll be worthless without your sweat equity. In combination with your effort, though, their impact can be quite powerful.

This article was first seen on Jefflizik.com