Catering to customers' needs and building their trust are key to startup success, says entrepreneurship expert
When it comes to starting a small business, entrepreneurs need to remember one thing - the customer is king.
At least that's what Neil Patel, cofounder of two internet startups, believes. In a recent blog post, he highlighted the commonly held misconceptions of entrepreneurship, one of which being that starting a small business is just about as easy as having a nine-to-five job, because people can set their own hours and be their own boss.
However, that is not the case, as being an entrepreneur means that there are millions of bosses - they are called your customers.
Essentially, he wrote, "if you don't do what each of your bosses (customers) want, your business will go bankrupt."
In catering to their customers, small business owners do not necessarily solve all customers' problems, Patel added. It is another misconception that the way to startup success is to solve a problem better than other companies, but truly it just comes down to making customers think that the business has solved a problem.
Finally, in order to be successful, startups have to build customer trust. "If they don't trust you, they won't spend money with you," he wrote.
Experts say that customer service is another critical element to startup success, especially during tough economic times, as it requires more money to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one.
