In today’s business environment, there are many business ventures to invest in. For this reason, it is important to be particular a...
In today’s business environment, there are many business ventures
to invest in. For this reason, it is important to be particular about
the one you choose invest in to avoid devastating losses. Jumia shares 4
signs a business venture is going nowhere.
Lack of Focus
This is especially the case with start-ups. If a business venture
is focused on one thing this month, then next month the focus has
changed again to something else, and it’s the same a month or two after
that, it’s a sign you need to take note of. Weak and inconsistent focus
is one of the number one business killers, and any business without a
focus or with one that keeps changing or expanding is a venture you need
to careful with.
All Income Comes From a Handful of Customers
The Pareto principle says that 80 percent of your sales will come
from 20 percent of your customers, that is 80% of the results stems from
20% of the input. Therefore, if you find that with a business venture
the number is less, then you have to start to find ways to increase this
number through actions like marketing and networking. This will help to
enhance the sustainability of the business.
Little or No Excitement among Early Users
Especially for a business ventures that is service or product
centered, it is important for early users of the product or service to
return again and again. If new set of users keep coming in without you
being able to sustain their continued patronage then it’s a sign you
need to be concerned about. Your service or product should be able to
create that buzz or effect to sustain the patronage of early users to
help validate your business idea.
Plenty Visionaries but Not Enough Doers
Visionaries are great for conceiving a potentially viable business
idea, but it’s important to work to bring these visions to reality. For
this you need to have doers on your team, people that can work and
strategize to get things to done effectively and efficiently to help
bring your ideas to life. Typically, there’s more programming and
technical work to be done within the first 6 months of a business (when
you’re trying to lay the groundwork for the business) than marketing or
business development work. After all, you can’t exactly market a product
or service that isn’t fully functional, that’ll be putting the chicken
before the egg.
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