Startups are entrepreneurial ventures at the early stages of operations seeking to effectively develop and solve a real-life problem with an innovative product or service. However, most startups end up collapsing at early stages without a chance to validate scalable business models. Sometimes though, they evolve from the idea stage to the product development stage but fail to penetrate the market with the product, and they eventually collapse. Most startups fail because of mistakes they make at the early stages of product development. Here are a few of the most common reasons that lead to startup failure.

Lack of market demand for the product

Most startups fail because the founders and the entire startup team fail to conduct a market research to find out if their product/service will be sellable in the market. Hence, they take most of their time in product development, and by the time the product is ready, it becomes too late to conduct market research. The common mistake that most startup founders make is thinking that their invention will be so appealing to the target market without even doing a market research. It is much wiser to take time and validate the product in pilot projects or beta testing before launching it to the market. This will prevent a market rejection risk and significantly reduce failure at the end of product development.

Ignorance of the real problems people face

Beta testing allows startup founders to find out the 'real' problem that people face and if their product will solve that or not. Also, startups should be ready to take in both negative and positive feedback to grow. Hence, whenever a startup faces market rejection in the early stages, it can re-invent and provide solutions that work for the target market. It is much easier to deal with market rejection at the early stages of product development than at later stages. Knowing the real problem that the target market faces allows the startup to incorporate changes in the product before the final release.

A weak or unbalanced team

A weak team doesn't necessarily mean that the team is ineffective or cannot carry its duties efficiently. Instead, it means a team consisting of professional experts of the same school of thought. Let's say the startup has five people, and all of them are developers. Even though they might be trying to solve a real-life problem through the use of technology by creating an app or website, the team is unbalanced. A good startup team should consist of people with different skills, and this will boost the odds of success for the startup. A team of people with different skills will give the startup business an upper hand against its competitors. Since the team will be able to complement each other and get the company going.

A good team should comprise of not less than five members. There at least five key areas and skills needed to make the team complete or balanced. A good team must have a good manager/leader, a marketing guru, an efficient product developer, a salesperson, and a good accountant. In the initial phase or early stages that may seem to be the complete team, but once the startup develops, there will be need to add more skilled personnel to the team.

If the startup manages to develop a scalable business model and begins its operation as a small company, the number of team members must grow too. To compete effectively with other existing companies, there will be need to look for a legal representative and human resource manager. Startups that have and maintain a balanced team have a good success rate compared to startups with a poorly organized team.

Failure to raise adequate capital

Funding is one issue that most startups attribute their failure to. In fact, in a recent conducted survey, 24% of startups admitted to failing due to running out of cash to sustain their businesses. While other startups struggle to stay in the market and get adequate funding. Even a startup with the best idea in town and a successful business model can collapse without proper cash flow. The most reliable ways of funding a startup take some time since investors need to be sure their investment won't be swindled. As a result, startups need to make sure there's a market need for their product and have a detailed business plan to present to investors. Other means of securing funding include crowdfunding and taking small business loans. The latter is very risky, especially for a startup, and should be avoided at all means.

Majority of people fall into 'get rich quick' scams and lose their entire investments trying to make money online. Making money online is easy, might be tax-free depending on where you are based and always should be legal. Also, anyone at a particular age can genuinely make money online. The Internet has so many avenues of making money online that are yet to be discovered. Some businesses operate entirely online and generate a lot of profit. With the correct guidance, one can generate passive income and become financially independent without depending on a regular job. The only thing needed is discipline to revolutionize one's financial status in the long term.

Become an affiliate marketer

This is a performance-based marketing strategy whereby the affiliate marketer receives commission or rewards based on the sales generated for the company he/she promotes. The affiliate marketer is given several products to market by the company, and he/she is to earn profit from each sale they make. Also, the number of people they convince to purchase the product determines the commission given to the affiliate marketer. The affiliate marketer can promote the products by different means, such as posting the products on their social media pages with the special links of purchase provided by the companies.

Affiliate marketing is a proven way to extra income online, and there are thousands of affiliate programs available on the Internet. There a lot of social media influencers that depend on affiliate marketing to make passive income, and it works pretty well for them. One advantage of affiliate marketing is that you don't have to spend money to become an affiliate marketer, and that's true for most affiliate marketing programs. With affiliate marketing, you can make money even when sleeping or doing other jobs.

Email marketing

Email marketing is a great way of making money online, depending on the number of email subscribers that one has. It takes quite sometime before one can reap huge profits from email marketing, but the wait is worth it. First of all, to become an email marketer, one needs to set up an email software then create a lead magnet that they can use in their sales funnel. A sales funnel is a marketing model with a step by step guide of the journey potential customers undertake towards the purchase of a product or service.

Email marketing is the most effective way of nurturing and connecting with leads. The only way of achieving success through email marketing is by growing the number of email subscribers. There are various ways to add more people to the list of subscribers, such as content upgrades, building ebooks, and cheat sheets. In a short period, email marketing will prove to be a good way of earning extra income online.

Blogging

Many people own blogs but have absolutely no idea how to monetize their blogs. The only thing that bloggers need to do is choosing the correct and most profitable niche. Be it fashion, business, finance, lifestyle, entertainment, photography, or health and fitness. Blogging about a niche you're passionate about will make it easy to connect with your audience and, in turn, generate more traffic. Advertising using tools such as Google Adsense are various ways of monetizing a blog. Also, promoting private ads and sponsored posts is profitable. Other methods include affiliate marketing through your blog, selling digital products, and selling memberships.

Freelancing

This is the most effective way of earning extra income online. You can be your own boss working online as long as you have the required skills. The highest paying freelance jobs on the Internet today are web development, programming, video editing, writing, among many others. Starting out as freelance worker can be quite difficult but the benefits are immense if you stay disciplined and resilient. You only need a laptop and internet connection to become an efficient freelance worker. With the right skills, networking with the right people and delivering high quality work freelance work pays of. There are a lot of websites that offer freelancing opportunities on the Internet, and all you need to do is sign up with them free of charge.

Webinars

Webinars are lectures, presentations, or seminars conducted over the Internet in real-time using a video conferencing software. They help to build brand awareness and allow for interactivity and sending/receiving information in real-time. The only thing you need is to be proficient in a particular niche and get an audience. Earn by product or service marketing with a goal of securing a deal. Also, offering training to your audience for people who want to pay to learn works.

Ecommerce

Shopify is the world's most popular ecommerce website builder, with over 800,000 merchants. With their trusted name comes a robust platform that makes it easy to manage customer orders, inventory, pricing, shipping, discounts and coupons.

Also, their website features helpful affiliate FAQs and promotional ideas.

When cryptocurrency started, it was only a dream or virtual concept until the creation of Bitcoin in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto that turned the academic concept to reality. Cryptocurrency is a decentralized (have no central bank) digital currency that can be sent from one user to another without the need of an Intermediary. Advanced encryption techniques manage the currency and transactions are recorded in the public blockchain. Individuals that trade cryptocurrency must have cryptographic keys, aka wallets. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, has since evolved from peer-to-peer electronic cash transfer to being more of a settlement layer than a payment network. However, there's a raging debate over the future of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology in general. After the start of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, Bitcoin very closely correlated to Stock Markets like the DOW ( Dow Jones Industrial Average ). Also the BTC cryptocurrency now trading at $9200 USD has been increasingly correlated with the S&P 500, Wall Street's equity index and benchmark for global stock markets. Many people wonder if these alternative currencies will eventually replace conventional currencies such as the dollars and euros, or they're just a passing fad. However, to answer this, one must first understand the concept and aim of cryptocurrencies. Decentralization of cryptocurrency hinders it from any government manipulation or interference. The negative side of it is that there's no central regulatory authority. Local currencies are highly centralized and supervised by the local governments. In case a bank goes bankrupt or closes down, the local currency deposits are always insured against. However, when it comes to cryptocurrency it is a whole different story. Cryptocurrencies have no monetary policy objectives hence lack support mechanisms. The value of cryptocurrency entirely depends on the investor willing to pay for it at a particular time.

There are a few changes that can work to add credibility and trust to those investing in cryptocurrencies. If cryptocurrencies get floated in Nasdaq or any other large stock exchange by market capitalization, it may have a chance to compete fairly or be used as an alternative to conventional currencies. Another option that could work to add credibility to cryptocurrencies transfer is to get a verified exchange-traded fund (ETF). There's no significant difference between getting an ETF and getting listed on Nasdaq just that ETF trades investment funds on stock exchanges. All these options can work as support mechanisms to put more trust in those who want to trade or invest in cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrencies have a few limitations that need to be countered in the future to avoid the risk of becoming unpopular. Such limitations include the fact that the digital fortune can be lost or erased by a hacker ransacking a digital vault or computer crash. Also, the fact that without a digital key, clients can easily lose their funds or digital fortunes, as was the case when Quadriga CX Crypto CEO died holding the passwords that could unlock millions in customer coins. That is just one cautionary tale of how lack of support mechanisms and regulations could be costly. Although some of these challenges could be dealt with as technology advances, there's need for a long-lasting solution to make cryptocurrencies more credible.

On a more positive note, Cryptocurrencies in the future may rise to compete and replace flat currencies. This can only happen when the number of merchants that accept payment through cryptocurrency steadily increases over the years. Currently, only a few merchants accept cryptocurrencies, but once they gain widespread acceptance, they'll become widely accepted and a force to reckon with. Hence, it'll attract more investors in the long run. Right now, only the technologically adept merchants are willing to trade in cryptocurrency. However, for that to happen, consumers must first understand how cryptocurrencies work and be sure their transactions are safeguarded.

In the future, various measures should be put in place to preserve user anonymity and prevent other nefarious activities from occurring under the cryptocurrency umbrella. Blockchain technology would be much more successful if it avoids government scrutiny; hence no tough regulatory measures would be placed on digital asset companies. As a result, they'll run much more smoothly and gain more trust from investors. Also, cryptocurrencies ought to provide a more appealing alternative to fiat currencies in the event of a market correction.

Thanks to the fundamental nature of blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies retain their value even in the face of an economic strife when the fiat currencies will be faltering. Thus, attracting the interest of many investors who would turn to cryptocurrency to safeguard their savings. Even in an economic crisis, cryptocurrencies are set to thrive thanks to their untethered nature, moving money across borders won't be an issue.

Japan is today a leading industrial nation that plays in the big league along with the world's most industrialized countries. Yet this has come at a price. The Japanese work environment has increasingly become so intense that the word Karoshi has come into Japan's national dictionary. In the 1970s, the word Karoshi was first invented. When translated literally, Karoshi simply means ‘death by overwork'. In reality, Karoshi represents the idea of death by overwork or what may be referred to as a sudden-death occupational mortality.

Some major medical causes of this puzzling phenomenon are stroke and heart attacks due to stress, long work hours or a starvation diet. At times, Karoshi may also involve a situation where employees commit suicide as a result of overwork. The first case of Karoshi was in 1969. Then, a 29-year-old man, who worked in Japan's largest newspaper's shipping department, died after suffering a sudden heart attack.

By 1978, there was a consistent but disturbing pattern of people developing heart failure and fatal strokes that could be traced directly to overwork. This attracted the attention of both scholars and government agencies for the first time. By 1982, the term Karoshi came into popular public usage. Indeed, a book dealing with the novel issue was first published that year.

In time, the term Karoshi quickly emerged to become part of the Japanese public life. This was especially so in the mid-1980s at the time of the famous ‘bubble economy.' At this time, several high-ranking corporate executives who were in their prime years suffered the ravages of sudden death without ever showing any previous signs of illness. Japanese officials now recognized the Karoshi phenomenon as a significant menace afflicting people in the workforce. This prompted Japan's ministry of Labour to publish consistent statistics on Karoshi beginning in 1987.

These measures were aimed at helping to decrease the number of deaths resulting from Karoshi, but the effect was to take some time before anything positive came out. Even as recently as July 2013, yet another employee was reported to have died from this sad phenomenon. Miwa Sado, the 31-year-old woman, who was a journalist, died straight from heart failure. The woman had logged in a startling 158 hours of overtime, in a single month, at his employer's NHK news network. It was not until October 2017 that Sado's death was officially registered by the government as a classic Karoshi case.

Meanwhile, around the same time, a 24-year-old worker of the Japanese advertising company, Dentsu, tragically jumped to her death from a balcony in the company dorm room. She had lived in this dormitory, working 100-hours in a month. This apparently led her to commit suicide. A month after the horrible incident, Tadashi Ishii, the Dentsu CEO and president, was forced to resign for this embarrassing culpability.

Work Culture

The concept of karoshi may well be traced back to the days of World war II. At that time, when the country was freshly war-torn, Japanese Premier, Shigeru Yoshida, made it a top priority to build Japan's tattered economy. As part of this initiative, the government prompted the major corporations to give their workers life-long job security as long as these proved to be loyal to the hilt.

Despite the fact that the big plan was meant to boost the Japanese economy, the Japanese workers were compelled to give up on their work-life balance in order to achieve this. Yes, the plan worked to catapult Japan into a leading industrialized state but all these came at a huge price. Within just a decade of the commencement of the government's official ‘work-to-death' policy, many cases of Karoshi started to happen. Many workers were apparently ready to sacrifice their family and personal time to make a good impression with the bosses and boost loyalty ties with their employers. They wanted to keep their jobs at any cost. It was not long before this situation started taking a toll on the Japanese workers who wanted to build the national economy at any cost.

Most of these workers regularly spent long hours in the office, suffering from sleep deprivation. The burden of meeting the demands of the employers started taking a toll on them, prompting many to get into suicide. Many others may not have died, but they suffered the ravages of stroke and heart attack. In time, the fatalities were clearly recognized as job-relate cases. The phenomenon, overtime, came to be labelled as ‘occupation sudden-death'.