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3 critical years since the establishment of the business

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What is the most common reason why an online business does not survive the first 3 critical years of its establishment? We've been helping companies and startups build online businesses for 10 years. Today, we'll share with you the most common reason why an online business doesn't survive the first three critical years of founding.
The reason is trivially simple, yet you won't hear much about it anywhere. The problem is the different phases of the project, or rather its founders. This is because every new online business sooner or later goes through several typical phases, often some of which it simply cannot overcome.

We've observed that it's much easier to go through each phase if you know them in advance, so here they are!

Phase One - Finding an Idea
The worst part is forcing yourself to come up with an idea. The idea just has to come to you. It has to be a casual thought, it has to get you excited. It's ideal if it's a field you know well, a need you have and you're failing to satisfy it. With an idea, it's not so much the originality that matters, but the execution, the focus on a specific target audience and the tenacity with which you go into the project. It is a known fact that most successful companies did not come up with the idea first, but managed to polish the product to perfection.

Phase Two - I have an idea, I'm excited, euphoria, everything is sunlit!
At this stage, everything seems perfect. You have an idea, you find it brilliant, the surroundings are also enthusiastic. Great! What could go wrong?

Stage Three - Sobering. We see the first problems
Phase number three tends to be a kind of graduation ceremony for every startup or person starting an online business from scratch. If you don't have the experience that this phase automatically has to come, it often scares you. What are the most common problems? Most often you simply see the first competitors, the first refusal to cooperate, you see the financial costs. The one who passes this phase is half a winner.

Stage four - More and more obstacles are added
At this stage, you find that you are basically just solving problems, you are bored. However, few people will openly tell you that building an online business is all about sweat and blood. Few will share with you that building a successful project or app is just plain hard and takes a lot of time and nerves.

Phase Five - Screw it. I've put X months of effort into this and it hasn't produced anything
This is where the bread breaks. At this stage, the founders are divided into those who believe in the project implicitly and will build it regardless of immediate results and the others. A high quality and long term successful project will not happen overnight and will not come without pain.

Conclusion
Endurance, along with resistance to negative emotions and problems, is most often what determines the success or failure of a digital project. It's not the money, nor the technology, nor the uniqueness of the idea. 

Our advice? Cultivate some emotional neutrality and stick to the plan. If you're too skeptical, you won't make it. If you wear too many rose-colored glasses, you'll miss important connections related to your business. 

Do you want advice on this? Let's have a chat together!

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