Productivity and personal effectiveness is critical to the success of any company, but especially startups. With a huge arsenal of tools and libraries, it's easier to upgrade and optimize your workflow for rapid growth.
And if there is a lot of news about newly created startups, then little is said about the real reasons for the closure.
World statistics on the reasons for the closure of startups looks like this:
But each of these errors has a different meaning for different markets. In addition to the obvious startup mistakes, there are a few unattractive, but very important ones. And today I would like to write about them. I have advised over 40 startups over the past six years, and I will write about three mistakes that were repeated in each of them.
Mistake 1: Poor communication within the team
This mistake is often due to a lack of communication with the startup owner, but sometimes there are disagreements among several departments. An effective team is the most important component of a startup's success.
According to a study conducted by Holmes, the total loss of profits in companies due to poor communication was $37 billion. In addition, more than 400 corporations in the US and Britain, surveying employees, concluded that communication problems reduce productivity and, on average, cost companies $62,4 million in losses per year.
When there are only two or four people in a startup, all communication takes place by voice: everyone understands their role, area of ββresponsibility, and does their job. But as soon as new employees appear, all verbal agreements are forgotten, and communication by mail and Skype ceases to be effective.
What to do?
When the team expands and new employees come in who do not know all aspects of the product, it becomes necessary to structure communication. Here are some of the most popular apps for internal team communications:
1. Slack. A messenger specially designed for managing group projects. In it, you can create thematic channels, integrate third-party services and communicate with the team many times faster.
2. Asana β mobile and web application for project management in small teams. Each team can create for themselves a convenient workspace (workspace), which includes many projects. The project, in turn, can include many tasks. Users who have access to the task can complete it, attach files, and receive notifications about its status. Asana integrates perfectly with Slack: in the first one it is convenient to set tasks, in the second one - to quickly discuss them.
3. Telegram β service for quick messaging. This messenger, although not the most popular in the CIS countries, is great for informal communication and quick coordination of details on the project. You can create several thematic groups to discuss projects.
If you need to control not only internal communication, but also communication with clients and the work of the sales department, you cannot do without CRM. Ideally, if CRM allows you to create a single space for communication with customers and transfer all communications from instant messengers.
Most startups communicate with customers in Gmail, so cloud CRM with Gmail integration is the best solution for startups.
What else does CRM help with?
- Synchronize information between departments;
- Reduce employee costs for routine
- Automate bulk emails and follow-ups
- Effectively manage sales
- Full access to customer data: purchase history, reason for their last call, etc. from any device anywhere in the world.
- Reporting for each department
- Complete statistics of startup activity;
- Transfer communication with clients from mail, Calendar, Google Drive and Hangouts to one interface and get rid of a dozen tabs.
- Don't lose leads
Below I will briefly talk about those Gmail CRMs that we have worked with, with a reservation to the criteria that are important to us: a clear interface without onboarding, low price and an adequate support service.
There were few such CRMs - more precisely, only two.
nethunt - a full-fledged CRM inside Gmail to automate the routine and control sales at the stage from the application to the transaction. It includes a suite of features for lead management, customer relationship development, sales monitoring, and closing deals.
Since the history of communication with customers is stored in the cloud, it is not lost when one of the salespeople leaves and is available .
Of the benefits: a native interface, the most advanced functionality (in some CRMs, you need to pay separately for additional features such as mass mailings), integration with G-Suite and price. For many startups, the price is just critical - a startup with 4-5 people will not pull CRM more than 150 bucks per month (NetHunt has a price per user / month of only $ 10). A separate plus is a personal manager and good support.
Of the minuses: there is no direct integration with sms-mailing services and not quite a friendly design of the mobile version.
The second is an Estonian startup Pipedrive, which is different in that they have the ability to receive phone calls and a convenient application. True, their price for advanced functionality is $49/person per month, which is not suitable for everyone.
Mistake 2: Deification of the creator
The most common mistake that causes 90% of startups to fail is their creators. After receiving the first round of investments, many of them perceive this stage as a personal finest hour. A special hell is the so-called βcharismatic leadersβ who, while praising their startup and giving out interviews, completely abandon the technical improvement of their offspring. They are ready to rush through publications on The Verge or TechCrunch for years, while their startup will depressly slip by the inertia of its former glory. You will often meet them at conferences with inspiring case studies on how to get money from an investor and equip a design office, but they will not say a word about what is happening in the operating system.
The inability to critically rethink the original idea of ββa startup is the scourge of many business owners. Startup owners often turn to me for confirmation of the correctness of their ideas than for real expertise. They miss out on market analysis, user feedback, and employee opinions.
Constant failures and jambs at every stage of launching a product on the market or marketing are perceived by startup owners as a personal challenge and strive to prove that their idea will definitely work. The rest just don't understand.
These are startups where the lion's share of the money is spent on marketing and PR. The bounce rate after the free trial is prohibitive, and G2Crowd and other platforms are filled with dozens of bad user reviews. Employees in such a startup are chosen exclusively loyal: if at least one of them questions the Idea of ββthe Great Creator, they quickly say goodbye to him.
The list of startups with a charismatic leader is led by Theranos, a blood testing company that is now accused of fraud and misleading users. At the end of 2016, investors valued it at $9 billion, higher than the sum of the valuations of the top 20 startups in Silicon Valley combined. A couple of years later, the deception was revealed and the whole world learned that the idea that the creator Elizabeth Holmes believed in so much could not be realized.
What to do?
In order for the external picture to coincide with the internal processes in a startup, you need a good team. If you are an early-stage startup without outside funding, you wonβt be able to lure a good specialist with a friendly team and cookies in the office.
There are several ways to put together a great team without involving family friends:
1. Offer a stake in a startup: a common practice to give options or shares in a company. Read more about the distribution of capital in startups written . Since it is almost impossible to conclude an option agreement in a startup registered in Russia without creating an offshore company, see the following paragraphs.
2. Freedom and responsibility: for a good specialist, involvement and a degree of freedom are often more important than money (but not for long). An employee who feels like a part of a cool project and can choose the strategy and tactics to achieve the goal at his own discretion is able to accelerate the growth of a startup by 3 times. Provide him with access to analytics, give him regular detailed feedback and share long-term plans. Such an employee understands the capabilities of a startup, can clearly assess deadlines and see product bottlenecks before users see them.
3. Take on young talent: most talented students go unnoticed by employers for a long time. Look for junior developers and QA at hackathons, among course graduates and on specialized forums. Many training courses take real projects on which the group learns. Submit your startup and keep an eye on talented students.
4. Provide an opportunity for development outside the profile: it's great if an employee can learn the insides of the company's work and pump not only in his own, but also in related areas. The startup provides an ideal field for comprehensive development, supports and cultivates the initiative of employees.
5. Train employees: employee development is an ideal investment in the future of a startup. Even if after six months one of them leaves for a large corporation for a market salary. Negotiate discounts for specialized conferences, mentor employees and buy access to online courses.
And the main advice - admit that even such a genius as you may be wrong. And then the feedback from employees will be perceived as possible points of growth, and not as empty noise.
Mistake 3: Making a product without monitoring the market
In 42% of cases, startups failed because they solved non-existent problems. Even with a dream team, brilliant leader, and fantastic marketing, your product may turn out to be of no interest to anyone. What went wrong in the process?
Treehouse Logic, a customization app, described the reason for their startup's failure: βWe weren't solving a global market problem. If we were to solve big enough problems, we could reach Β»
The team believes to the last that the market is waiting for their product and does not understand why AngelList investors do not immediately invest in it. Startups choose areas of activity that are of interest to themselves, and not to investors. So, they create products and services for business, develop services involving high technologies, develop technologies in education and IoT. Venture investors are interested in fintech, logistics services, marketplaces, retail and technologies for the food industry.
What to do?
Every startup idea goes through roughly the same cycle before being realized. At each stage, it is important to pay attention to the nuances:
Step 1. Writing a business plan. Many people think that this stage is for wimps, and go straight to the third stage. Almost half of all failing startups did not receive adequate funding. Keep in mind that breaking even may take longer than you think. A back-up source of funding and reasonable costs are what distinguishes thriving startups.
Step 2. Estimation of market demand. Research your industry and monitor the latest trends. It is important to calculate which of them will linger for a long time: compare statistics and growth in the industry. Research direct and indirect competitors: their positioning, market share, development. Who left the market and why?
Step 3. Get to know your target audience. Interviews, polls in thematic groups. Ask on forums, in facebook groups, acquaintances of acquaintances. Such studies take up to 2 months, but not one of the startups I know was left without insights after reading all the research results. It makes sense to create and test different hypotheses on a small part of the loyal audience.
If you are a young startup that has gone through all the stages on the way to stable growth or are just about to launch your project, share your mistakes in the comments.
All big investments and growth!
Source: habr.com