Leading Entrepreneurial Success Today-How to Ensure Your Small Business Survives: Whilst booming with young entrepreneurs and start-ups, 90% of small businesses in India fail, according to a study by IBM. Arguably the driving force behind the country’s economic growth, and flourishing amidst a challenging environment, the MSME sector in India has experienced several highs and lows in the last few years. One contributing factor to this is that, even today, SMEs are set up by entrepreneurs with innovative products or services, but with little or no knowledge of running a business. Other reasons include lack of skilled workforce, funding and poor business ethics, amongst others. Some factors that can contribute to the success of your MSME, are as below: • Market Analysis: Market research should not be done as a one-off activity while launching a business. With the constant change in the micro and macro ecosystem, it is imperative to continuously analyse these factors to avoid acting on out-of-date information. As a business grows, the competitor base also proportionately grows, and a market-leading offer might lose its USP over time. Furthermore, it’s also key to understand the product lifecycle to maximise overall profitability. Developing an in-depth understanding of the customer behaviour will help the product offering to remain relevant. Regular communication with customers, suppliers and other business partners are importance sources of market information. • New Avenues for Business: While entrepreneurs manage to fund their operations, what remains lacking is the ability to scale. Most businesses have extremely limited expansion plans. It is crucial to keep expanding the business- whether in terms of product offering, or tapping into newer markets. With the onset of ecommerce in India, it is now easier than ever to tap into new markets and grow the business on an international scale. • Innovation & Development: Entrepreneurs should also look at integrating digital advancements as a means to evolve from traditional approach to develop new products and services. R& D has a significant role to play when it comes to improving organisational efficiencies, in terms of reduced costs and integration of the latest digital technologies in their R& D to speed up the manufacturing processes. Constant innovation also allows for regular product improvement, as well as new product development, which allows for the business to stay relevant. Conclusively, every entrepreneur needs to work around the hurdles that block their path of growth, and make the most of opportunities to create a sustainable growth model for their MSME. Source: power2sme.com