Challenges faced by start-ups

The number of start-ups has gone significantly high in the last few years and is believed to only go even more high in coming years. This clearly shows that the competition is going to go up even higher and the challenges for start-ups are going to increase.

All start-ups need to plan properly for all the challenges they might face well in advance to make sure any of them does not lead them to failure just due to lack of planning. There are over 150 million start-ups in the world as of today. This is a huge number.

Here are few challenges faced by start-ups:

• High competition:

Every single day, thousands of new start-ups are launched. While on the other hand, there are millions of start-ups all over the world that are already well settled in the market and have a huge loyal customer base. To compete with both new as well as old businesses is not an easy task. Especially, when it comes to competing with old businesses who have been operating in the market for very long is rarely possible as they already have made their name in customers and it is very tough to attract their customers towards new business due to their good bond with the business. To plan and make your business stand strong in front of such fierce competition is important but also not at all easy.

• Human resource:

The performance of any business depends upon the performance of its employees. Hence, hiring proper candidates as per the requirement of the company is important. But it is not easy to recognize the right candidates as it sounds. Many people are looking for jobs, but to find the perfect fit as per the requirement of skills and qualifications is not that easy. Also, it is not necessary everyone has good practical knowledge which is important to carry out the tasks in the business. It is a tricky process and any kind of mistake here can become a problem in the future as one employee’s performance can affect the whole team.

• Financial management:

Start-ups go into the market by raising capital from a source or different sources and take a risk which they are hoping to payoff. But not everyone who is going in for a start-up has practical knowledge of management of finance. Any business, may it be small or big, has a continuous flow of money into and out of the business, theoretically, it is easy to manage all of this, but the practical experience is completely different. It tends to get hard to manage all of the finances with pressure to make sure it doesn’t go out of your hands. It is not easy to handle such financial transactions and it is better to hire a financial consultancy firm to make sure all fall in the right place.

• Trust of customers:

It is very hard nowadays to make customers change their preference of brands and companies especially when they have got used to some other and trust them very much. The customers who are getting everything that they want from other companies which they trust for a long time will not turn towards a new unknown company. To make sure to be successful, you have to plan aggressively about this and apply customer-centric approaches to make sure customers notice you and would give you a try. The only way to succeed is to create a loyal customer base. However, it won’t be easy to do this as long as you can find a way to deliver better products and services to the customers compared to your competitors which would be attractive enough to pull their customer base.

• Level of expectations:

Before the start-up already starts working, many times the expectations set by the entrepreneurs are very high and even unrealistic. This can lead them into trouble as they can try to do too much and end up messing it up badly. Hence, it is very important to have planned and controlled expectations if you wish to succeed.

These are few challenges which entrepreneurs must keep in mind and have plans to tackle before they launch their start-up into the market.