The 5 biggest challenges facing startups and how you can overcome them
One of the most unexpected results of the pandemic is that it led to a boom in the number of startups in the UK. According to government figures published by Companies House, more than 340,000 businesses were registered in the first half of 2021 alone.
Of course, while starting a business can be extremely rewarding, it can also involve a lot of hard work. At a time when many companies are struggling due to the economic impact of the coronavirus, knowing how to navigate these problems can be crucial.
If you’ve started your own business in recent months and want to know how to overcome the five biggest issues that you’re likely to face, read on.
1. Finding your market niche
One of the most difficult issues that you can encounter as a startup is finding your own market niche. As you might imagine, being able to demonstrate that there is a need for your product or services is crucial when raising capital and building a customer base.
With such a fierce level of competition, it’s important to be able to prove that your business has its own valuable market niche. This is why, before anything else, you need to do your homework.
Conducting thorough market research can benefit you in two ways. Firstly, it helps you to understand the needs of your potential clients, making it easier to craft your product or service to appeal to them.
Secondly, it can also give you a good idea about what your competitors are doing. This can help you to learn from their mistakes and get ahead.
2. Maintaining cybersecurity
In an increasingly digital economy, the threat of cyberattacks has never been greater. According to a 2021 government report, two-fifths of UK businesses experienced a cybersecurity breach in the year prior to the survey.
The report also notes that the average cost of an attack on a small business is around £8,500 due to lost data and assets. However, this doesn’t include any lost profit from being unable to work due to the disruption, or the reputational damage it can cause.
When you’re just getting started in the world of business, having to pay such a substantial amount is the last thing you need. If you want to protect yourself from cybercriminals, read our previous article for useful tips on how you can keep your business safe.
3. Creating a sustainable business model
When you’re still getting your business off the ground, one of the biggest problems you may face is the question of how to build a sustainable business model. This is a major issue to address as it can be essential for the long-term wellbeing of your company.
For example, you may want to establish multiple revenue channels. This can help your business to be more resilient to financial shocks, as if one source of income dries up, you have others to fall back on.
It may also be worth planning how quickly you want to expand your business. This can help you to quantify your success, enabling you to assess whether your company is growing as fast as you would like it to and letting you address the potential reasons why.
4. Building the right team
As we’ve often said before, employees are a company’s greatest asset and therefore finding the right ones can be a major part of building a successful business. This is why it often pays to be highly selective when taking on new staff.
Not only should you consider whether their values align with those of your company, but it’s also important to ensure that they will be able to get on well with your existing employees. This can help to encourage synergy in the workplace and enable everyone to be more productive.
Of course, it’s also important to do what you can to look after the wellbeing of your employees. A happy and motivated worker will be much more willing to go the extra mile for a client than one who is experiencing difficulties.
If you want to know how to support the mental wellbeing of your employees, read our previous article for three useful tips that can keep your teammates happy and motivated.
5. Overcoming unexpected financial disruptions
In life, you can never know when the unexpected might happen, at least not without the help of a crystal ball. For example, you may lose important assets due to flooding or fire damage, or have to defend yourself in court after unknowingly violating someone’s copyright.
If this happened, and you didn’t have the necessary cover, your business could have to pay a significant amount of money to fix the damage. In a worst-case scenario, this could clip your wings before your company has had time to establish itself.
While nobody likes to think about scenarios such as these, knowing that you’ve got the right protection in place can give you invaluable peace of mind. This is where working with a professional can benefit you.
When you work with a broker, they can help you to establish which types of cover would best fit your needs. This can not only help your startup to survive any unexpected financial disruptions, but also give you greater peace of mind that you’re protected against the unexpected.
Get in touch
If you’re starting your own business and want to protect it against any potential disruptions, we can help. Email creative@eggarforrester.com or use our contact form to request a callback from our team.
