Five startup challenges you can leverage to create compelling content
Inkwell works closely with a lot of startup founders, whether it’s for client projects or for The Pitch. This means we’re able to keep our finger on the pulse when it comes to the challenges that startup founders are facing.
Plus, as a small business ourselves, a lot of these challenges are ones we’ve also had to overcome. Our experience means that we create content that truly resonates with startup founders.
Understanding startup challenges is instrumental in structuring your marketing strategy. If your audience feels as though you don’t understand their experience, then it will be much harder to build a relationship with them. This is why it’s so important to create audience-led marketing strategies.
To help you understand your audience better, we will highlight five of the main challenges that we see startups face – the ones that keep cropping up time and time again.
1. Identifying their customers’ pain points
A common mistake that many entrepreneurs make is assuming that there’s an appropriate market for the challenge that they’ve identified. For instance, there may be competitors already out there tackling the same issue, or the target market may be too insignificant for them to make a profitable business.
This means that one of the first (and most important) steps is to make sure that they will actually be satisfying a demand. Startups can do this by conducting market and audience research and taking the time to validate their business idea before jumping into their new venture.
Example content
Here are some examples of great content that addresses these challenges:
The Pitch: The seven biggest mistakes startups make when developing an app
UKBF: Struggling to make your first sale? Here are 11 tips to help you get started
The Pitch: How to test your side hustle idea for next to nothing
2. Keeping on top of their finances
It’s no secret that startups are often cash-strapped. With limited time and resources on hand, it’s really important that small business owners keep on top of their accounts – failure to do so has caused a significant amount of startup failures.
Securing funding or investment
Unless they have a bank of cash to hand, most founders will need to secure funding to help get their business off the ground.
But this can be a difficult landscape to navigate, especially for a first-time entrepreneur who’s new to the startup space. Whether it’s angel investment, crowdfunding or grants, each option for securing funding comes with its own challenges.
Example content
Here are some examples of great content that addresses these challenges:
The Pitch: How to prepare a cash flow forecast that investors will love
The Pitch: The top five ways to get money to start a business
3. Hiring the right people at the right time
When a business is just starting up, it will most likely be a one-man band for a period of time. As stated previously, money can be tight in the first few years, so startups need to work pretty lean in order to break even.
There will eventually come a turning point when a founder will need to bring extra people on board to continue to scale their business. However, it’s hard to establish when this sweet spot is – if they hire too soon, then they can’t afford to keep their business afloat. Too late, and they risk hindering their business’s growth.
On top of that, it’s also difficult to find the right people to hire. In an ideal world, new recruits will be incredibly agile and able to handle various areas of the business, but individuals with these skill sets tend to be expensive to onboard.
Founders therefore need to identify exactly what skills are missing from their business and what experience will help drive the business forward the most.
The first few hires are also instrumental in establishing the company culture. Whilst it’s important for startup founders to avoid personality clashes, hiring people that are too similar will create a lack of new ideas, creativity and innovation. Nailing this balance can almost seem like an impossible feat.
Example content
Here are some examples of great content that addresses these challenges:
The Pitch: How top entrepreneurs approach talent acquisition
Be The Business: How can I work out what required skillsets are missing in the business?
The Pitch: The ultimate guide to scaling your startup team from zero to 20 employees
UKBF: How to onboard your employees – and make sure they stay
4. Fighting through all the noise
With so many startups launching daily, it’s very easy for great startups to fall under the radar of their potential customers. As the online world becomes ever more saturated, startups need to be marketing savvy in order to fight through the noise.
Even if a startup does break into the market, they then face a whole other battle: the competition. Whether it’s smaller businesses or bigger corporations, startups need to constantly be a few steps ahead of their competitors in order to stay afloat.
Example content
Here are some examples of great content that addresses these challenges:
Enterprise Nation: How to build your brand awareness and online presence
Be The Business: How can I get a better return on investment from my marketing?
5. Achieving the right work-life balance
One of the most common challenges we hear from startup founders is striking the right balance between work and personal life.
Many entrepreneurs have bought into the idea of being their own boss as liberating, but the reality is a bit more complicated. As they’re solely responsible for their business, founders can feel the pressure build up pretty quickly, which can soon lead to an unhealthy work-life balance and burnout.
Example content
Here are some examples of great content that addresses these challenges:
The Pitch: A guide to staying healthy and productive when running a side hustle
UKBF: 6 productivity and wellbeing tips for small business owners
UKBF: Eight ways business owners can de-stress on their lunch break
Want to reach new business owners?
At Inkwell, we specialise in creating content for companies that target small businesses and startups.
This means we’re aware of the many barriers that come with marketing to pre-start and new business founders. Not only do you need to convince them that you’re the right option for them, but you also need to reach them during the small window of time that they’re making their early business decisions.
But how do you reach them? Startup founders will all be searching for answers to these challenges, so you need to make sure that you have quality content that simultaneously offers solutions and ranks on search engines.
Creating compelling content that addresses common startup struggles will also help build trust and establish authority in your space. This will help lead potential customers down the marketing and sales funnel – so it’s important to get it right.
Our new edition of Inkwell Insights covers the challenges that startup founders face, the current startup business trends and how you can utilise these to build the perfect marketing campaign. If you’re interested in upscaling your marketing, download the report here.
Alternatively, you can also get in touch or book a call to learn more about what we do.
