DUBAI, UAE – The pandemic’s aftermath has altered the business landscape. Therefore, startups, SMEs, and entrepreneurs aspiring to grow must adopt a new mentality to scale their enterprises and survive in the competitive business environment.
Before the pandemic, and even now, the classic challenges that startups face revolved around getting funds, managing cash flow and acquiring the necessary skills and talents.
However, as the business landscape changed following COVID-19, new, difficult struggles began to emerge.
According to Awfa Mustafa, founder and CEO of Najahi Events, many startups were unable to adapt to the new business models imposed by the pandemic.
Everyone went online all of a sudden and no one was prepared for this shift, even though many startups thought they would benefit from it and thrive, but only the big companies succeeded, while many small startups failed.
In an interview with TRENDS, she explained that one of the missteps startups focus on is putting the lowest budget for marketing. And when everyone went online, everybody was marketing online and thus burned their cash very fast because advertising on social platforms became extremely expensive.
So, as a result, instead of succeeding, many of them have disappeared and failed during COVID.
“Most startups lack decision-making and team-leading experience into something completely different,” she said.
That is what inspired her and her company Najahi Events, to the idea to create Scalathon. The two-day event for leaders, experts, coaches, business and product owners, entrepreneurs, startups and investors looking to scale their businesses and protect them in the challenging economy was held on Oct 2-3).
Scalathon brought together a team of experts who will share the keys to finding the hidden, untapped value within a company, accelerating its growth and armoring it against challenges.” she mentioned.
Changing the approach is the key
Today, startups need to change their approach, operations, budgeting and their costs as well.
Many startups put a lot of money into developing their product and establishing it but knowing how to sell them and convince investors is the challenging part.
This is an essential point that most entrepreneurs miss; they concentrate on creating products while neglecting to invest in themselves to persuade others.
According to Mustafa, they are investing money quickly in marketing rather than focusing on how to maximize their opportunities, partnerships and networks to sell their products.
They, too, must learn, self-develop and educate themselves.
“Driving passion is wonderful, but it must be combined with the knowledge, education and experience.”
It’s a long journey, but it could be shortened with good management and a supportive, strong team.
Furthermore, startups and entrepreneurs must be realistic and set realistic expectations.
Today, quick success is not the way to go; however, working on plans and realistic goals is what is required.
What opportunities are nearby, what network do they have and how can they influence all the people around them without spending much money?
Awfa mentioned that some startups fall in love with their brand, product, team, and office space, but they forget that no one cares.
She advises them to love their customers and their needs rather than their products.
Determine your customer’s desires and design your product to meet those needs.
Otherwise, you’re creating something ostentatious that no one wants or can afford.
Furthermore, failure is not a source of regret.
But unfortunately, there is a lot of fear of failure here in the region, and we need to give startups that chance and motivate them to learn, self-develop and help each other, and I believe this is an area where we could benefit from more international teachers.