As we all know in the entrepreneurial circle, the most difficult is the creation of "from zero to one", and the most difficult stage may be the first year from zero. I believe it goes without saying that you may also have observed that many newly opened restaurants have collapsed in a year or two, and many mobile apps have stopped serving soon. According to data from Bloomberg News Agency, 8/10 of innovative enterprises failed in the first 18 months of entrepreneurship, which can be said to be the peak of failure. What kind of cycle will there be in the initial stage of entrepreneurship, and how to deal with it?
The only way to start a business: honeymoon period - bottleneck period - rapid development period
Alex Furmansky, the founder of online marriage platform Sparkology, is also the guide of many innovative enterprises. When talking with me, he talked about the entrepreneurial cycle. He thought that entrepreneurship was very smooth at the beginning, and then there would be a bottleneck period in three or four months. By about one year, companies that could stick to it could gradually see that their business was stable and entered a rapid development stage.
Honeymoon period
Of course, this schedule is not absolute. But in general, there will be a smooth period at the beginning of entrepreneurship. Because at this time, psychologically, you are the most passionate; Strategically, there are vague plans for entrepreneurship; Network resources: you will have a number of previous "relationships" for help. Besides, the market. Just like love, new lovers are attractive. When your new product is just launched, there will always be early adopters who like new things to catch up with you first, making you feel very successful. Even investors may prefer to pursue investors.
Bottleneck period
Once the honeymoon period is over, you will find yourself mentally tired; Strategically, 80% of your initial ideas may prove to be wrong, and many new problems that you did not think of may arise that can not be solved at the moment; In terms of networking resources, you should talk to almost all your friends and relatives. There may be only one or two friends who can give you valuable resources, and then you can't find out who to look for; As for the market, you can no longer use "new" to attract attention, and it takes time for the mass market to accept.
At the same time, in terms of the industry, you may also encounter the so-called "off-season". Alex said that his Sparkology had suddenly failed to develop six months after its establishment, not only because there were no new customers, but also because of the withdrawal of old members. At that time, he had to fire all employees. Alex analyzed that summer was the off-season of the whole marriage market before he fell into the struggle of fighting alone. Airbnb also has a similar story. At the 2008 Democratic Party Congress, they briefly became the favorite of the media and users, but were forgotten as soon as the meeting ended.
How to go through the bottleneck period?
It is painful to experience the bottleneck period, but unfortunately, it is unavoidable. Each case has different conditions. This is just a small experience to share. Psychologically, "Keep Calm and Carry on", get ready and focus on your career. At the same time, we must be careful that many of the concerns and growth at the beginning of the business may be only temporary, and we must not be dizzy because "happiness comes too suddenly". Otherwise, you may have been defeated by the sense of frustration that followed before being defeated by difficulties. Zhang Xin, the founder of "+1", said that when "+1" was just listed that year, it was because it was too easy to get money. The first month of user growth was too fast, and the media quickly exposed it, It makes me feel that there is a halo on my head and my tone becomes too big. The next round of financing was good, too optimistic, and failed to handle the functional problems exposed by "+1", so it ended in failure.
Strategically, you should understand that the problems you encounter may be the core of your business, and the key to establishing your great company may be at this time. So take every problem in front of you as an opportunity to improve the product. For example, when Airbnb went public for the first time, only Brian, the founder, became a user himself. As a result, he was unhappy because he did not hand over the money to the landlord for several days. The experience of failure in the first battle gave the founders of Airbnb the idea of creating a payment system, which has become the core of Airbnb's added value.
In terms of network resources, a person must have limited space for development. But development needs help all the time. At this time, you can participate in more industry activities and pay attention to industry organizations, which may help you find new contacts. At the same time, you can share the difficulties you have encountered and the help you need with your business partners, friends and peers. They may have suitable contacts to share.
In the market, in addition to being patient and improving the product, you should also learn to seize your first group of customers. You may still be serving them at a loss, but remember that they will be your first spokesperson, the first batch of successful cases and the first batch of testers. Serving them well will definitely benefit you. The turning point of Airbnb is also here. The first change they made after entering YC was to come to New York, take photos for a group of users, talk with them and listen to their opinions. These people have also become the earliest loyal fans of Airbnb.