Launching an online business is great.
It’s a shame many entrepreneurs fail though.
Oh, and it’s not always due to lack of a proper budget. No.
Sometimes it’s because of a large budget. Wait, what? 😮
Yes, you’ve read it right. And as an entrepreneur who has experienced both successes and failures through the many years in the business world, I have had at least a couple of experiences – working with entrepreneurs – that can back up my statement from the above.
What do I mean?
Well, during the last 4 years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a couple of entrepreneurs who were lucky enough to have a huge amount of money for their projects.
Want to know what happened? They have never launched.
There were multiple reasons why this happened, but it wasn’t a lack of money. You see, it’s not always the budget that hinders us from achieving our goals.
Here’s a list I’ve put together about the main reasons these couple of entrepreneurs I worked with never launched their product online.
1. Not setting a clear deadline
You’d think that when entrepreneurs want to launch a product you don’t need to set a clear deadline for them because they will rush to do everything it takes on their part to reach their goal. As it turns out, it’s not exactly the case for some. And, again, not because of lack of money.
For example, I have worked with an American customer for one and a half years and we had weekly discussions about launching his product and reaching out to his customers. He was a powerful entrepreneur and actually he even had many offline businesses.
The problem was that he was lacking the experience with online – which clearly led to failure eventually. A long story short, he postponed the launch and pushed things in the wrong direction so much that the entire product launch has failed.
Here’s what I would do differently with such a client (as an agency that helps entrepreneurs launch their product online):
- I would set a deadline for launching the first version of the product (which we did) AND
- Then if this client (entrepreneur) didn’t launch his product in a maximum of 4 sprints, I would just stop working with her/him because this is a clear sign that they’re going in the wrong direction.
I must say though, I regret not saying stop to this powerful entrepreneur who basically dragged us and his business for months and resisted all our attempts to show his early product to the world.
2. Constant discussions, no decisions
While having discussions and planning things is a positive thing, having numerous discussions without clear decisions or outcomes will lead to a poorly used budget, energy, and ultimately another clear sign that we’ll end up with no clear results at all.
So it’s important to make sure the talks and planning meetings lead towards something productive and positive. Unless they bring any benefits, talks are useless and only time-consuming.
3. Not getting people’s feedback on your product
If the discussions with the entrepreneur client lead nowhere and we can’t launch the first version of the product, how are we going to have people’s feedback on the product? We can’t. Which means the entire project gets stuck.
4. Finding excuses and reasons not to launch your product yet
As an entrepreneur who wants to launch an online product, you should be focused and not confused. If you are confused about what you want, it’s inevitable that you’ll get nervous down the line and will fail to launch. Why? Lack of clarity and direction.
5. Pushing to add way too many features to the product
As I’ve said before, being confused isn’t a good quality when you want to launch a product. You need to have a clear understanding of what your products should look like. Pushing to add more features to it just for the sake of complicating things, will not help you in reaching your goal: that is to be present online with your product.
If you do that, you’ll one day look at the bottom line and decide to stop. Having a clear strategy when it comes to product features and benefits is key in the process of launching.
6. Stopping the launch for no apparent reason
Although it may seem hard to believe, it can happen. When confusion hits, nervousness, no clarity regarding what you want, pushing deadlines… you’ll end up giving up on the very thing you wanted most: launching your product online. And all that because you were going in the wrong direction
7. Not knowing how to manage your (large) budget
If you thought that not having the money to launch your online business is the biggest problem, think again. How about having the money and failing to manage it to the point you realize: you actually don’t have an infinite budget?!
As I’ve mentioned already, I have worked with such an entrepreneur (startup business) who was very fortunate to have a very large budget for development but in the end that turned out to be the fatal part of the project. In fact, he never launched – in spite of the fact that he was a very powerful entrepreneur.
8. Not knowing how to prioritize
Knowing how to set your priorities in order is crucial in any startup business, as well as when launching a new product online.
I’ve had the opportunity to work with entrepreneurs who despite the fact that they had the money they needed, still set a clear and limited budget. Why?
Because they knew that they need to launch this product with a specific amount of money. And guess what? Having a limited budget has tremendously helped them with prioritization. And they launched. So, I believe success also has to do with the mindset you have.
9. Not setting a clear red line
Ultimately there should be a red line which once crossed, all the features below the red line would not be created, paid for, and delivered.
And there’s also a matter of who draws that red line. Is it you the entrepreneur or it’s the reality that hits you when you totally realize either you are out of money or you simply don’t want to pour any more money into this product?!
You know, launching the actual product is probably 30%-40% or maybe 50% of the entire process. You need at least another 50% of the budget for creating a funnel to generate a constant stream of leads (as in visitors, signups, or subscribers for your new product/service).
So, consider setting aside at least 50% of your budget to ensure you can use it in order to get the needed traction for your new product.
The bottom line is: power and money aren’t enough.
And, it’s extremely important to understand that you can’t do everything on your own and that you will absolutely need help and guidance along the way in ensuring your online success.
If you need help or guidance in successfully building and launching your web platform, contact us.
We’ve already helped 500+ entrepreneurs launch and expand their online platforms. You can be the next one. 💪🏻
