You might have a unique startup idea, or maybe you’ve wanted to be your own boss and start your own company for many years. Now, you feel like the time has come to implement those plans. You’ve got a business loan, or maybe you’ve located a venture capital firm that’s willing to back you but want to avoid any difficult startup niches.
If you have tenacity and a little luck, your company can certainly succeed. However, you should know that some industries are inherently challenging to break into for various reasons.
Let’s talk about some of them right now. Our purpose is not to dissuade you but rather to let you know that if you’re trying to enter these particular difficult startup niches, you’re not likely to find it easy.
Website Design
Maybe you have some website design skills, and you’ve made your living for a while doing contract work in this area. Now, you’re ready to hire some individuals with this same skill set and start your own agency.
There’s potentially more money in running a web design company rather than continuing as a freelancer. If you can prove consistently that your company delivers excellent results, you can gain notoriety for the right reasons. If your team has specialized skills, like if they can show your clients how they can function as a domainless enterprise, that might be enough for you to carve out a place for yourself.
The reason why it’s so challenging to make it in this industry, though, is that it is super competitive. There are always both freelancers and other agencies who are competing for your business. They might try to beat your prices, or they may do a better job of keeping up with emerging technology than your staff does.
If you want a better chance to succeed at running a web design company, you’ll need to conduct frequent staff training seminars to make sure they know about the latest, most cutting-edge tech. You’ll also need to offer excellent customer service and competitive pricing.
Real Estate
If you want to start a real estate company, you’ll find that’s a challenging field to break into as well. You might have your own realtor’s license, but moving away from working for a company and starting your own requires considerable resolve.
Again, competition is frequently the reason why. You’ll have to make sure to hire only individuals who not only have great customer communication skills and friendly personalities, but you’ll also need to find those individuals who know your geographic location better than anyone else.
If you can locate those realtors and make them a part of your staff, you’ll be able to assign them to potential clients who are looking to buy or sell, and they can give those individuals or families useful advice. They can steer would-be buyers toward parts of town based on their wants and needs. They can advise sellers on what price they should set based on real-time, ever-changing market factors.
The Restaurant Industry
It probably will not surprise anyone that the restaurant industry is one of the toughest nuts to crack if you’re ready to run your own company or business entity. You’ll have to worry about things like selecting the correct location. The difference of a single block or two might guarantee failure or success.
You’ll have to hire the right staff, from your featured chef to the sous chef, from the sommelier to the line cooks. If you find some individuals who don’t work out so well, that could doom the enterprise from the very beginning.
In this niche, the wrong restaurant review in a particular publication can sink your dreams. The one time your kitchen sends out a slightly undercooked entrée can spell disaster. You’ll have to make sure that everything is firing on all cylinders to succeed, from the ambiance to the dessert menu to the alcohol selection.
The Hotel Industry
The hotel industry is another very difficult area for you to find instant success. You might feel like you have found the right spot to open up a new hotel or motel, but again, you need the right staff members to help manage and run it.
You’ll need the proper menu at your onsite restaurant. You might have to automate some of your lobby tasks. Hotel check-in automation is very popular now, as you can often more easily upsell your visitors that way.
You’ll have to decide things like whether you want live entertainment or whether a swimming pool and a spa area make more sense. You’ll presumably have finite monetary resources, and you don’t want to invest in something that your guests won’t like or that they won’t want to use.
The Construction Industry
Construction can also be tough to break into, particularly in some cities or states. If you’re attempting to start up your own company business somewhere like New York or Chicago, you’re not likely to gain any headway in those markets very easily. Certain construction companies have operated there for many decades, and the owners regard those territories as their own personal fiefdoms.
You will probably find it easier to succeed as a new construction company in a small community, but even there, you’ll doubtless have to deal with some unique challenges. For instance, you may have other companies trying to offer better rates. You’ll also have to make sure that you have the proper insurance policies, or you can get in serious trouble if one of your workers injures themselves on a job site.
Whichever of these industries you’d like to enter as a company owner or operator, you’ll need superior marketing techniques and advertising in addition to the proper financial backing and employees. You may choose to hire a social media marketing manager and a well-regarded web designer since you’ll need both a business website and social media representation.
If you believe in yourself and your vision strongly enough, there’s no reason why you can’t succeed, even in the difficult startup niches and challenging industries we mentioned.
