By Matata Mercy
There is a strong saying in the army that if you are strong everywhere, it simply means that you are strong no where.
You will need to gather enough intelligence, determine the avenues that the enemy will most likely use to launch an attack and then finally defensively position yourself so that you are able to easily protect yourself and the area being attacked.
If you try do defend each and every place all at once, then you will fail.
The same kind of advice can work well for start-ups out there. The shortage of capital, talent and time is already enough to leave start-ups as vulnerable to the competition as possible and therefore if you try to position yourself as a one stop shop, then it will most likely make your situation worse.
1. Avoid becoming big very soon
Most start-ups feel that they deserve to be big very soon and that they are actually at the cutting edge of technology and they just want to be able to get the attention customers by assuring them that they can offer them several features all at once that are way better than what the market actually does offer.
When a company offers alot of promises and there is very little delivery, then the reputation of the company will be damaged and it will most likely lose customers in the near future.
The truth is that each and every successful start-up out there first excelled in one thing before venturing into other things.
Google first worked on search first before adding emails, maps, and self-driving cars to it's menu, Amazon started by selling books online before it expanded it's offerings to include it's streaming service Amazon Prime, Facebook first started by connecting people and focused mainly on students before it acquired WhatsApp, Instagram and is now venturing into the marketplace.
Uber started by offering black ride sharing cars and later it started Uber Eats, the food delivery service.
When you have mastered your core competency and it has become a successful business, then you can add other product lines to complement your business such that it can grow into a successful sustainable business.
2. The critical customer pain point that you are solving
You should discover the pain points that your customers do feel and see how you can help in solving this problem.
If you can discover the pains that are faced by your customers and are able to provide some viable solutions to those problems, you will most likely be able to succeed in your business.
For example Amazon made it very convinient for people to shop without moving away from their place of residence hence it solved the pain of moving around looking for good stuff.
Having focus will help you to grow quickly as you meet the needs of the customers out there and also build an audience for yourself.
There is a strong saying in the army that if you are strong everywhere, it simply means that you are strong no where.
You will need to gather enough intelligence, determine the avenues that the enemy will most likely use to launch an attack and then finally defensively position yourself so that you are able to easily protect yourself and the area being attacked.
If you try do defend each and every place all at once, then you will fail.
The same kind of advice can work well for start-ups out there. The shortage of capital, talent and time is already enough to leave start-ups as vulnerable to the competition as possible and therefore if you try to position yourself as a one stop shop, then it will most likely make your situation worse.
1. Avoid becoming big very soon
Most start-ups feel that they deserve to be big very soon and that they are actually at the cutting edge of technology and they just want to be able to get the attention customers by assuring them that they can offer them several features all at once that are way better than what the market actually does offer.
When a company offers alot of promises and there is very little delivery, then the reputation of the company will be damaged and it will most likely lose customers in the near future.
The truth is that each and every successful start-up out there first excelled in one thing before venturing into other things.
Google first worked on search first before adding emails, maps, and self-driving cars to it's menu, Amazon started by selling books online before it expanded it's offerings to include it's streaming service Amazon Prime, Facebook first started by connecting people and focused mainly on students before it acquired WhatsApp, Instagram and is now venturing into the marketplace.
Uber started by offering black ride sharing cars and later it started Uber Eats, the food delivery service.
When you have mastered your core competency and it has become a successful business, then you can add other product lines to complement your business such that it can grow into a successful sustainable business.
2. The critical customer pain point that you are solving
You should discover the pain points that your customers do feel and see how you can help in solving this problem.
If you can discover the pains that are faced by your customers and are able to provide some viable solutions to those problems, you will most likely be able to succeed in your business.
For example Amazon made it very convinient for people to shop without moving away from their place of residence hence it solved the pain of moving around looking for good stuff.
Having focus will help you to grow quickly as you meet the needs of the customers out there and also build an audience for yourself.
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