4 Common Challenges Faced By Tech Entrepreneurs and How To Get Around Them "The only difference between those who make it and those who don't is one didn't give up at the first sign of trouble"
By Rustam Singh
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
The future is an unpredictable time frame – everything we can assume about economics, culture, tastes, trends and growth/loses can dramatically change. Even industries can experience a dramatic change in their functioning, sales, marketing and practically every aspect of their existence. However, if in this dramatic economy, if there's one field that is sure to constantly stay in profits if it keeps up a good pace of upgradation, it is the technology department. The allure of launching a tech startup is easy, but failure to understand the challenges you'll likely face may bring you down sooner than you'd expect.
Here are top four challenges tech startups will likely face and how to overcome them:
Failure at first step
Tech changes at the blink of any eye and so you can lose out a nice share of your first slice by missing your goals. It's common for tech entrepreneurs to take the defeat or loss too seriously, remaining idle for too long, or pausing the work altogether. By this time, the idea is already out there and someone who does what you should have done – learn, adapt and move ahead- has already taken over.
Solution: Try, and stop not until you have succeeded or until your business has taken off completely. Remember the goal when you first started? Keep that goal alive. Dozens of famous startups started strong, lost funded, restarted, failed, restarted again and finally took off. Failure is never final and success is never ending.
Dynamic nature
Tech startups are most dynamic by principle of their founding. As any tech entrepreneurs would vouch for, the constant fear of running slower than your competition or being slower than your peers may be a huge risk. The window of opportunity to pitch your sales is extremely narrow before someone else takes over. Even if you score first, the price jack for the debut may actually limit sales. Smart consumers wait for a products second launch, often defeating the debut sales.
Solution: Seek feedback, especially from first launch product consumers. Take the feedback seriously. It is not necessary for a tech entrepreneur to be the most knowledgeable in the technology personally but consumers who spend more time on it might be.
Hacking and outdates software at back-end
All your brilliant ideas and databases are at the end of the day stored in a server. Remember how Snapchat's database got hacked and leaked over a million pictures? Or how Ashley Madison's leak resulted in breaking down innumerable families? Cyber hacks are a constant risk no matter what technology business you are in.
Solution: Invest in a good programmer and make sure you plug in all loopholes. Even if it seems arbitrary for someone to steal your private data, it is easier to stay safe and prevent rather than repent later.
Ownership choices
It is easy to think your start-up is too small or young to make ownership rights' discussion at the early stages, but it can be a major difficulty to discuss this later. Are you planning to merge your company with a similar one /rival in the eternal future? Are you associating yourself to someone who doesn't update themselves as easily? Whatever technology seems the best thing today will definitely be replaced by a better one tomorrow.
Solution : Choose tie-ups and partnerships based on the company's history to amend, change and progress. If you suspect they are hesitant to change, they might end up being a liability to you instead of an asset.
What's your open secret for running your technology business successfully? Let us know in the comments on our official Facebook page at Entrepreneur India