In this
article we talk about how to do business, new businesses, new companies and
startups.
That is,
places where professional dreams are concentrated, the biggest and most
important.
Have you
ever dreamed of launching your new business?
Realize your
new business?
Build it
with your sweat ...
Create a
business that can help many people?
Finally go
to sleep satisfied and made for having done your best and enriching the lives
of your customers and collaborators (in a different way).
Be happy
also for having enlarged your current account and ... finally take away the
satisfactions you desire.
No
satisfaction regarding your old job as an employee, that is a topic now
outdated, you no longer want to recoup those colleagues or those ungrateful
leaders.
No.
You want to
take away those satisfactions that you deserve, that you earned through the
work and commitment of building your company, bringing prosperity to your
collaborators and happiness to your customers.
Nobody can
stop you from realizing life as you want it ...
Here it is.
In this
article we talk about how to achieve this state you want.
But not
talking about how much you deserve it, how right it is for you to do it or how
easy it will be (if you apply the right " marketing recipe " to the
letter ). Newspapers and the web are full of articles in this tone, and they
talk about things that don't work.
No.
Later in
this post you will read the truth.
The one that
hurts.
The one you
need to know, which you cannot ignore, if you want to have any chance of
success.
That is, you
will read how difficult it is to make dreams come true as an entrepreneur, what
are the dangers, the deceptions and ... what are the indispensable steps you
must take if you want to design a company that has any chance of functioning on
the market (not a utopia that will burn you the last money of the checking
account).
I want to
give you the opportunity to save yourself from the cat and the fox, from the
sirens, from the harpies, from the legends of being able to become manager and
entrepreneur in an easy, fast and risk-free way, thanks to the ultra-super
ninja techniques of the gurus (we get there, stay here calm).
So I'll be
brutal.
Get ready.
The biggest
dream bubble is in the world of startups .
Startups differ from new businesses in
general for two reasons.
They
received initial funding (somehow) of a few tens of thousands of euros
They work in
some incubator, coworking or similar, and live in the dream of becoming the
future Facebook, Whatsapp, Just Eat or Google.
I'll let you
tell the facts from Wikipedia , so you don't say I'm heartless.
From the analysis of the data relating to
Italian startups, it emerged that:
on average
the number of employees is less than two;
half of
these companies can barely cover their costs;
the other
half collects less than € 400 a day, roughly like a small grocery store, or a
cafeteria in an area close to the center.
Alessandro
Palmisano also said that the profit of those who sell services to startups
exceeds the gain of startups themselves.
The
following emerges from a study by Confimpreneurs:
«The value
of the average production, calculated on the 2,860 innovative startups for
which the financial statements for 2014 are available, is equal to
approximately 114 thousand euros, but half of the innovative startups produced
in 2014 no more than 21,303 euros. The assets are on average around 214
thousand euros per company, but for half of the innovative startups it does not
exceed 62 thousand euros. Numbers that are unsatisfactory for a sector that
enjoys that level of public incentives and ad hoc legislation. » (Startup: so
much noise for nothing?)
From a 2016
study, taken from several national newspapers and then by the Ministry of
Economic Development, it emerges that as of December 31, 2015, startups
registered in the Register of Innovative Enterprises operate only two websites
out of three, and more than 30% of these it is not responsive.
In a recent
book, "Disrupted, my misadventure in the start-up bubble", journalist
Dan Lyons wrote how employees are treated as startups in school startups. The
people who work in that startup have no previous experience and can be fired
without reason at any time. The product marketed is mediocre and the company
focuses more on appearance and advertising than on the quality of the service
offered.
There is
therefore a lot of talk about fake businesses that are on the market like
meteors.
In fact, the
mortality of startups in the first years of life is 9 out of 10. If we then
extend to the medium term we will grow to over 95%.
Of all those
that remain, for a company that becomes the new Uber (the transport company
hated by taxi drivers), there are an incalculable number of companies that
barely survive (at best). (Data collected by Fortune.)
To be honest
then, the real business of startups is not for new entrepreneurs, but for the
whole system that revolves around them (incubators, mentors, angels, etc.) who
do everything to support, and at the same time dust, the new businesses.
The dream of
becoming entrepreneurs does not come only from the various press campaigns,
from films or TVs, in favor of the " startup phenomenon " that
enhances the success of Zuckerberg or Kalanick, grown starting from nothing.
There is
another large current of people who are seduced and launched onto the market
(without a net) by some " gurus " of the personal training sector.
In fact,
there is a current of trainers that has the mission of wanting to teach you how
to make money, to do business, to make investments, to put marketing in front
of everything, etc. They introduce themselves as gurus (of their offer), they
ask you to follow what they offer to you.
They work on
your sense of inadequacy in the present life, on your desire for revenge, they
leverage it to push you to pursue dreams (and follow their training courses).
Legitimate
and sometimes commendable message.
Very risky
if the information they sell you is not reliable.
Before I go
on, have you ever wondered how many of them (I mean these trainers / gurus,
some have been on the square for several years) have I become Zuckerberg, Jobs,
Bezos etc.?
Have you
ever done research to see how many of their boastful companies (in addition to
the training they actually earn) actually work, produce profits or have simply
survived the market?
If you look
carefully (look for the balance sheets, etc.), you will discover that the
failures are almost total, that is, that vaunted safe method of doing business
and making money, applied by the same people who promote it, works almost never
...
I know
you're thinking, but then all those testimonials from people who " made it
"?
They should
be taken with reason, measured on the% of customers trained in total, on the
skills and on the specific starting situations of each, on the real results
achieved (not bragging).
When you rip
this veil of ignorance I assure you that reality is less bright than they want
you to appear (personally verified with the budgets of some very popular
companies).
Speaking of
trainers / gurus, do you know how they present themselves in all their
communication?
Do you remember?
Here,
without starting to tell you that presences abroad are often to evade the tax
department, private planes are parents (that is, real entrepreneurs ...) and
the rest of the hypocrisies, look in the photo alongside who really knows how
to do business worldwide and compare it with the message that gurus want to
give you.
To conclude
the topic ...
As for
startups, the concept also applies to followers of personal training, for an
Elon Musk who becomes a billionaire there are tens of thousands of new
entrepreneurs who lose money (including the home) in meaningless projects /
dreams.
How to do business, the truth
After all
that I have said, it does not mean that you can no longer do business.
Quite the contrary.
I wanted to
warn you from the legend that it is possible to do business in an " easy
and safe way with the recipe of the guru " and on the emotional wave that
" everyone has the right to make their dreams come true ".
In wanting
to keep saying things as they are, I must also confess that doing business,
launching a new business, always remains a beautiful thing.
But let's
face it.
Setting up a
company is an incredible, tiring, demanding and ... very risky commitment.
Through your
own enterprise you can express yourself, build your future, be master of your
destiny.
But it will
NEVER be easy.
Doing
business is for brave people with a strong stomach, who are not afraid to bear
the effort and risk that the new company requires.
Do you
really want to become an entrepreneur or are you only interested in putting the
status of "Founder and CEO" on your LinkedIn profile?
You have to
be aware that doing business will be painful.
This is the
truth.
It will
bring you anxiety, it will challenge your values, it will change the way you
see work, the economy, the whole world.
You will be
forced to make real sacrifices.
It will ask
you for money, perhaps a lot of money, someone will also put the house there
(it depends on the project and the planning) and there will always be some risk
or danger to be taken into account.
But getting
to the bottom will be wonderful.
The
satisfaction and emotion at the end of the path will be unique, comparable only
to that felt at the birth of a child.
So what do
you think?
Are you
still thinking about starting your new business or not?
How to do business, limit the risks in 7
steps
If the
answer is "yes", here are some suggestions for limiting design risks
as much as possible.
First of
all, don't start from the realization of your product (or service).
This is the
typical mistake that startups make. They concentrate on the product, they spend
the whole budget in the design and engineering of the product and then, when
they arrive with the cash register at zero, realize that nobody wants to buy!
So they
close everything and get angry with the bad market.
To avoid
making such trivial mistakes, get out of this scheme, look at your company in
its entirety.
Let's see what are the steps to take:
Step N. 1 - Market analysis
I mean the
analysis of competition , both direct and indirect (what are your potential
customers doing now to solve the problem you want to face?). Wouldn't you want
to go to the market without knowing what is going on? Please, would it be
suicide ...
Step No. 2 -
Business model
How will you
earn? How many customers will you need to survive? How much will it cost you to
find a customer? Will your company have growth opportunities? What will your
organization be like? Are the skills you need available on the market and
willing to work for your startup?
Step N. 3 - Business Plan
Convert all
your answers into numbers, put them in a blessed business consultant Dubai plan and see what
comes out. Measure to a hundredth how much money you will need before reaching
a tie. Do not make up the numbers of the revenues, because you will play on
your skin. Revenues are the most delicate topic, the one where there are
greater uncertainties (calculating the costs everyone is capable of), the one
where the future of your company (and your dreams) is at stake.
Step N. 4 – Customers
How will
your clients be made (will they be housewives, teenagers, lawyers, employees,
managers of multinational companies, etc.)? Will you be able to make yourself
preferred over the competition (direct and indirect)? What will you say to your
customers in the negotiations (do not mention the quality and the price,
please!)?
Step N. 5 - The product
We finally
got to the product.
Will
customers want to buy the product you have in mind or a variant? Will you be
able to understand which product is being sold or do you want to continue with
the product you have in mind? With the variants that you will discover from the
relationship with customers, how will the costs be? Will the business plan
still provide the same economic answers, or will there be a need to change
something in planning?
Step N. 6 – Marketing
How will you
be recognized by customers? What will you have to communicate to be reported?
What are the aspects of your product that interest customers, can you
communicate them effectively? How will you reach potential customers to
convince them to buy? How can you differentiate your communication from the
competition (direct and indirect)?
Step N. 7 - Market test
Before
burning your entire budget, what do you think of doing some tests to measure,
in reality, if the estimates of revenues and costs of customer acquisitions are
correct? Check customer appreciation? Maybe you need to update the product to
sell, or understand what services are necessary for the sale and customer
satisfaction.
And so on…
As you can
see, the things to plan when you think about your new company are many and very
demanding.
The product
is just one of the many components of your business.
There is no
more important element than others (for example, marketing as someone wants you
to believe), but it is a question of balance between all components: market
(customers and competition), marketing and sales, finance, planning, product
and organization . (See for confirmation the reasons for startup failures on
the Fortune article cited above)
Ask us for advice immediately in Dubai by
our best business consultant and auditors in
Dubai
No comments:
Post a Comment