Most of business owners make the below mistakes and end up having a failed tech startup business and later keep wondering where did I went wrong:
No planning
The most important aspect of any business is having a written plan. It could be pictorial, graphical, process flow diagram, or just plain text….but it should be written. This plan should clearly describe what, when, and how of your business. If it’s a portal it should clearly define the functionalities user type-wise, process flow, and core conditions rules of the portal. Most of the time owners keep forgetting their own requirement as it has not gone through intense planning and having it set on a draft. For even a business analyst to make a detailed plan for the tech teams- they will need a written plan from the business owners.
Plan it with the developers
Most of the business developers feel the developers are anyways going to develop it, so the planning of the portal will be taken care of at this stage itself. But what they fail to realize is, that the developers are being paid for developmental man hours, where they follow a strict development process flow defined by the project managers. Most of the developers are majorly executors, and not good at planning. If you make the developers plan, then they will try to find shortcuts to reduce man-hours. If they get the development plan wrong, then fixes that the programmers do during the development lead to an unstable portal with lots of unforeseen errors … leading to a never-ending development cycle.
Involving too many uninformed Friends and Relatives’ feedback
Most people feel, that more feedback received from friends and relatives who are seemingly the wellwishers should help in getting different viewpoints and lead to fewer issues when you launch the portal. Most of the relatives give an opinion just because they were asked, and then the friends try to implement it just because it has been given by their friends and this ends up into a case of overthinked project with too many unnecessary inputs. Few people have their second-generation kids who are new pass-outs from esteemed educational institutions, being asked for their opinions during the development phase, just because the owners feel they are young and will know more about technology and current trends. They fail to understand that they could be having theoretical knowledge, but they lack experience…. it’s difficult for them to share your vision about the portal.
No planning of project financing
Most business owners feel the portal itself is everything and overspend on its developments and exhaust every penny for it. They fail to realize that the portals have to be managed and marketed after their development and it requires equal funds. Lack of budget planning may get them to make an excellent portal, but they fail to run it as they do not have enough funds to hire someone to run the show….most of the time they themselves run it on their own and are so drained by the process that they hardly see loopholes or have the time to make amendments or improvisations. An excellent and well-managed portal is nothing if it doesn’t reach the right kind of users, so marketing in the right direction is equally important.
Running the portal on Autopilot
After the development is done- they get so exhausted……they forget that they have to now be very active in running it…….very few realize that the portal does not run on its own. Most owners feel that a portal developed has to work on its own if I just share it among a few groups. Everyone feels my idea is unique and very much workable … .hence it has been created in the first case, but if it reaches none on time…..it’s going to die away eventually. This has been the fate of many very nice portals that we have created. It also pains to watch the portals slowly rot with time, with no maintenance/ active usage.
Delegating Crucial Processes
Most biz owners delegate the most important process of being actively involved in the development process- so they know if their vision is being actualized the way it should be. What’s there in ur mind…..to get it into actual translation is possible only if ur actively involved in the process of planning, implementation monitoring, UAT stages, Demo stages, and hiring the right candidate to run the daily operations of the portal.
Less Priority to their Own Portal
Most of the owners have portal development done as a side hustle and end up giving only their free time. They are not dedicatedly involved in the entire process and keep shifting their priorities to the last. This leads to a delayed development process, with less active involvement from the entire team during the entire development cycle, leading to a very lethargically developed project. A project can go on pause for a short while, but you can’t be pushing the pause button on it for weeks and months.
