Common Reasons Online Business Startups Fail

It seems like starting a website should be easy enough – there are almost unlimited free online resources spouting off advice, it can be relatively cheap to launch a website, and, naturally, you have the best business idea for your website. So why is it that so many website startups fail?

1. Low Quality Web Design

One of the biggest mistakes that web startups make is having poor web design. Your website is the most important aspect of you company so why would you skimp on that? The overall design of your site is what initially draws people in, it’s what their first impression of you as a company is, so having a solid website design is crucial to your success.

2. Poor Content

In the same respect as low quality web design, having poor content on your site will be a huge turn off to people. To retain visitors you need to be able to provide content that wows them. You want to show anyone and everyone that visits your site the best you have to offer, so why would you fill your site with uninteresting or poorly written content?

3. Poor Marketing

Google SEO Chart

Google is one of the best places to start your online marketing – both simple SEO and paid ads are are good place to start.

You can have the best website and the best content in the world, but if no one ever sees it then it won’t really matter, will it? You can never retain a customer if you can’t even catch their eye to begin with. This is why it’s imperative to spend ample time marketing on social media, through email campaigns, and through traditional marketing routes. You have to be willing to put time and money into your marketing scheme to achieve the best possible outcome – after all, you reap what you sow.

4. No Passion

Picking a niche market just because you think it will be profitable is one of the worst reasons to start a business. You have to actually be passionate about what you’re trying to make money off of, otherwise it’s going to be a lost cause and people will be able to see right through you.

5. Not Enough Funds

When you don’t allocate enough money for a startup company, you run the risk of forcing the company to fizzle out because you lack the proper funds to keep it going – or worse, you risk driving yourself into debt.

Get rich quick schemes rarely work in life and the same holds true for web startups. The road to success can only be reached by hard work, dedication, and money. So if you’re contemplating launching a startup business, make sure that it’s something you really want to do, otherwise you’ll be doing your potential customers and yourself a disservice.

9 thoughts on “Common Reasons Online Business Startups Fail

  1. Interesting article.

    I think number four is key — ‘passion’.

    If you are passionate about the venture your clients will sense this and have more respect for you. Of course number five is equally useful 😉

    • Christopher Roberts

      I think as a business owner it can be easy to loose your passion after a while. It can be a real challenge trying to get back the enjoyment. If you work too hard you get loads of money, but loose interest, vice versa, don’t work enough and you don’t get the money you want, but can remain passionate.

      Thanks for the tweet David. 🙂

  2. Christopher, I think what u wrote in the comment above is very important. Its easy to lose your passion if things started going wrong. If you expect a deal that doesn’t occur
    for some reason, it is easy to give up. If people start telling you that your business is not going anywhere, its easy to give up.
    And that what makes the difference between successful and less successful people: Successful people never give up. They try again and again. Do you know that most of the millionaires in the US has failed at least 3 times to open a successful business when they started?
    They never gave up.

    • Christopher Roberts

      I have heard similar statistics Ron. Most people fail at something, at some point, what matters is what you do afterwards: restart, start something new or give-up – the latter probably won’t get you anywhere fast!

      Thanks for the comment Ron, welcome to the community 🙂
      Christopher – Admin Team

  3. While I agree with all the factors enumerated, I also think that determination should be included to get successful in online business or even in any kind of business. As what Christopher mentioned in his comment, its easy to lose passion especially when everything is not going well according to what you’ve planned and expected. But if you have the determination to succeed, you’ll keep trying despite how many times you’ve failed. 🙂

    • Christopher Roberts

      I suppose a lack of determination could come under point 4 – No Passion.

      Good to know the article got you thinking!

      Thanks for the contribution Stef, welcome to the community that is Technology Bloggers 🙂
      Christopher – Admin Team

  4. Having passion for the right thing is quite important. Some business don’t have the right combination of these features making their business fail before even starting up. It’s important to remember that there are no short cuts in building a successful business. Hard work mixed with precision is the way to go !

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