A lot of founders make this huge mistake.
They skip the foundational steps required in starting and building a business. This oversight is one of the critical reasons why a lot of promising companies crash in their first five years of operation. Some don’t even make it up to a year, not to talk of six months or, worse, 90 days.
Imagine a contractor assigned a project to build a mansion, but who pays little or no attention to the initial planning and the foundation laying of the building. What do you think will happen to that mansion after it has been fully built?
It will collapse eventually, and in a short timeframe. This is exactly what establishing a business looks like when you neglect the foundational steps.
Before we proceed, I want you to know one thing: businesses that succeed are not built just to serve the interest of the founder(s). They are built to provide solutions to a significant problem.
Imagine trying to sell a new mattress to someone who already has a perfectly comfortable one that meets all their needs. There’s no way such a person will buy what you are offering because they don’t need it. The worst part is that people don’t even care how much you have invested; they will not buy what they don’t want or need.
In order for you not to waste money, time, and energy building a business that will barely survive or grow, you need to take the following steps very seriously.
Mind you, just in case you have started a business already and you didn’t take these steps into practice, it’s high time you implement them so that your business can begin to fulfill its maximum potential growth.
The question now is, what are the steps you need to implement before starting or building a company?
📌 Mistake #1: Skipping Problem Identification
The very first step is to identify the problem you want to solve.
You might be asking yourself, “How do I identify the problem I want to solve?” That’s a good question. Just look around you. What is one key challenge that is common among the residents in your environment? The problem could even be your personal challenges.
Let’s make this practical.
Imagine going to a popular restaurant. On getting there, you find a massive, slow-moving queue. You finally wait 30 minutes for your turn, only to be told the meal you wanted is finished, and you now have to wait another 45 minutes to an hour for the next batch.
What we have just discovered is a significant problem that many people in this category will want a solution to by all means: poor service efficiency and a painful customer experience.
The mistake that a lot of founders make is thinking that once they are able to identify a problem, the next thing is to start building the company.
No, that’s a big mistake.
📌 Mistake #2: Skipping Customer Research
The next thing you must do is to conduct customer research.
Customer research is the process of making an inquiry about what else your customers would like to get from your business as part of the solution you want to provide. It is also where you find out what other businesses that already exist are not doing that you could leverage for a market advantage.
Using our restaurant case study: for us to conduct customer research, we need to start asking customers of the already existing restaurants how they were treated, what they would like to experience differently, or what they wish they could get more of.
Once we get this information, the next thing is to analyze what the existing restaurants offer, how they offer it, and what they could have done better.
The conclusion of this information will help us make better decisions on how we want to offer our restaurant services and how we want to do it better than the competition.
Mind you, one of the things you absolutely must know is to identify the category of customers you want to serve, in terms of their income range, their lifestyle, their buying decisions, and basic knowledge about them that will help you know their individual preferences.
Oh, I think we now qualify to start our restaurant business now. Yes, let’s get a name.
No, not yet. There’s something we haven’t attended to.
You might be wondering, what else? Good question.
📌 Mistake #3: Neglecting Your Business “Why”
Have you ever wondered why Apple products thrive in the market of technology companies, even when the specifications sometimes trail the competition?
Think about it for a moment.
Let me guess what you found: “Apple products are of good quality.” Yes, but this is just part of it.
The real reason is the “WHY.”
You need to have a WHY behind your solutions.
Simply put, the ‘Why’ is the inspiration, ambition, and the expectation that convinced you enough to want to start that business. The ‘Why’ is the story behind your business’s existence.
This is what turns your customers into loyal fans. That’s the reason a lot of people today will still prefer Apple products to other brands: they feel connected to the brand story, and for that reason, they want to be a part of it.
Remember we wanted to found a restaurant? To craft our ‘Why’ story, we need to identify our motivation towards solving the discovered problem, and how we want to solve it differently.
To make this practical, let’s craft a short story for our restaurant. Our ‘Why’:
“The meals we eat keep us alive, and our time is a precious asset. That’s why our priority at [X] Restaurant is not only to serve you delicious life dosage, but we also value and protect your precious time while serving you.”
From this short message, we have narrated a story that identifies the importance of food in our lives and also narrated that we choose to offer it with speed and respect for the customer.
Just for context, have you ever told someone about a goal or a dream you are working on, and they instantly felt a need to be part of it? They offer their own contributions to ensure it succeeds, even though they might not directly benefit from it.
This is what your ‘Why’ story does. It makes the customers want to be a part of what you do.
Now that we have successfully identified the problem, conducted market research, and crafted a story/identified our ‘Why,’ do you think we can start building now?
Not yet!
We haven’t chosen a name, we haven’t tested the market (MVP), we haven’t crafted our formal brand story, and we haven’t legalized our business idea, plus some other important things we need to do to build a successful business.
Look out for the next series of this article, where we identify the next steps to take when starting up a business, and after you have started one.
P.S. The processes we are unleashing play a foundational role in the establishment of a successful business. Even if you have started yours without them, it is critical that you revisit them in order to build a thriving business that succeeds in the market.
Would you like me to elaborate on one of the next steps mentioned, such as the MVP (Minimum Viable Product), to give you a head start on Series 2?
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