Infographics visualize data; but a series of infographics can tell you a story. In this blog post, I will share 5 infographics on startup which can help guiding you to start right and grow right in your pursuit for success.
Are you a startup material?
Okay, let’s start with an infographic from TopManagementDegrees.com. Here’s a question for you: Do you have what it takes to start a business? Your passion can help you start a business, but understanding what you are going to go through on daily basis can make a big difference.
Source: TopManagementDegrees.com
As a startup founder, you are a transformational leader. You challenge the status quo; you shift the paradigm; you do what others don’t. You are a unique breed of people.
You need those qualities for a reason: You need to face doubts and naysayers; you even need to defeat your biggest evil: Your own belief and doubt.
You also need to wear many hats, as starting up often requires you to bootstrap things. Juggling many different things – marketing, accounting, business development, etc. – all need to be prioritized right and done right.
Not stopping there, you need to deal with your fear, most typically the fear of failure. Yes, even the most successful entrepreneur of all does have fear. It’s humane to have fear. However, how you deal with it is what separates the successful ones from the failures.
To put the cherry on top, as an entrepreneur, you are often feeling so lonely: You often need to fight your battle alone. I can relate to this, as I am in a rather unique line of business. I do have a network – online network; but I do sometimes need a physical network, in which I can talk with real people.
Are you ready to do all that? If so, let’s carry on with the next infographic…
What to start?
Most budding entrepreneurs have so many things going on in their head. They have great ideas popping out from their creative minds. How to choose the right ideas to pursue? Well, following your passion is one thing, but we must admit that the most exciting startups today are tech startups.
The startup infographic published by BusinessMBA.org can pretty much show you that tech startup rules in the startup scene.
Image compliments of Business MBA Degrees
Pocket, Treehouse, Duolingo, Storenvy… the list can go on and on. They are fantastic apps which draw much interest from the media. Although most tech startups will fail eventually (more on this later on…) the surviving one is thriving and bringing great value for founders and users. That’s why Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors are funding them. That’s why their acquisition price is mindblowing (Tumblr is sold to Yahoo! for $1.1 billion!)
Prepare for crash and burn – they eventually happens
You may have heard the bleak reality of starting up. There are many versions of startup survival rates, but one thing we can draw as a conclusion from those rates: Your startup will likely to fail on the first try.
According to the infographic from BusinessMBA.org above, the chance of success for a first-time entrepreneur is merely 18 percent. If you failed in your first try, your second venture’s success rate is a bit higher: 20 percent. Even if you have launched a successful venture before, your chance for success is still somewhat low, 30 percent.
But of course, the figures differ from one industry to another. This Staff.com‘s infographic offers you some examples to illustrate the different success rate: For example, independent restaurants have a staggering 60 percent of failure rate over the first five years.
Staff.com – Connecting Great Companies with Global Talent
Indeed, it’s not easy! Embracing failures is the only way to go if you want to walk your entrepreneurial journey confidently. Entrepreneurship is an interesting journey – enjoy starting up something cool and get ready to start all over again with a new idea – rinse and repeat.
Is there any ways to minimize the crash and burn risk? The same infographic suggests you some niches in which success rate is higher than others, such as e-commerce, mobile gaming and Internet publishing (did you notice that they are tech niches?)
Where to start your tech company?
Okay, it seems that tech niches are pretty exciting – and lucrative. If you have embraced the sobering realities above and ready to take the tech startup route, then your next step would be determining the location of your startup.
Sure, starting up in your own garage is typical, but when your startup is getting much attention from an investor or you are ready to go big, there are some ideal places to start and grow your venture.
This infographic from BizBrain.com can give you an idea or two about the location of your startup:
Source: Where To Start a Tech Startup
Typically, Silicon Valley is the go-to place for your big idea: The startup ecosystem in Silicon Valley is 3 times bigger than NYC and 4.5 times bigger than London. The total amount of venture capital in Silicon Valley? A whopping $11 billion.
But again, your choice is all about what you want to achieve with your startup. The same infographic reveals that if you want to change the world (make people’s life better) then you should startup in Silicon Valley. If you want to achieve wealth, then New York City should be your go-to place. If you want to grow and sell your startup (flip it) quickly, London is the right place to start.
Starting up is one thing; how about growing yours?
To ensure that your startup will have a better success rate, you often need tools to help you out. This infographic from Salesforce can give you an idea on how to do just that. Okay, perhaps it’s too geared toward Salesforce’s own solutions. But the idea is there – check it out:
Via: Salesforce for Small Business
In essence, you need tools to help you foster your growths. CRM (e.g. Salesforce,) marketing (e.g. Hubspot,) online collaboration (e.g. Basecamp HQ,) accounting (e.g. Sage One,)… those tools can help you track everything, while giving you all the flexibility to grow your business, as they are scalable, adapting to your need as you grow.
Takeaway
Starting up is challenging, yet exciting. To make your entrepreneurial journey worthwhile, be sure you have the right mindset. Embrace failure and continuously make your startup better – that’s the only way to go!
Ivan Widjaya
Founder/CEO Biz Penguin
Photo credit: Preserved Light by Caillum Smith via photopin cc
