Introduction
Technology and innovation has a vast range of ways business can use to look attractive even in the most competitive market bases. Those start-up companies that use digital technology survive in the first-difficult phase of their existence. Many people start business or consultant services without getting proper knowledge of the customer base. It is important to have prior information of the technological demands of the market, and ways to beat the existing ones.
Developed businesses have established a milestone in technological investment that armature companies cannot meet. Those entrepreneurs who use unique ways are the only ones who successfully survives in the giant-companies dominated market.
Background
According to the recent statistics, there are about 260 start-up companies in Canada every day, which makes it 95000 companies annually (Lagoy and Nguyen, 2019). Those companies that do not incorporate innovative ideas and technology end up closing shop due to low revenue generation. For instance, 801940 were active as of February 2020, this number dropped to 689,900 by in May (Walpole and Isdale, 2020). Corona virus pandemic is not the main reason these start-up firms have been failing. Actually, during the pre-pandemic period (years before 2020), 95% of new business have been failing every year. Experts say “Ran out of Cash” and “No Market Need” are the main reasons these business stopped operating (Walpole and Isdale, 2020). For instance, a good portion of these businesses were selling products that no one wants. Lack of creativity is the key reason why they cannot develop a reliable customer base which is associated with lack of proper technological background from these businesses.
Synopsis of Project Objectives
The aim of the study was to explore what challenges start-up’s face and how digital technologies can improve their success and help reduce risks. In addition, it aimed at identifying the best technology practices that contribute to the promotion and success of start-ups.
- To review the existing literature to identify technology drivers in the business.
- To explore the challenges that startups face.
- To explore real-world examples of how technology is used to mitigate new business risks and improve business success.
- To identify the best technology practices that contribute to the promotion and success of startups.
The Rationale for Project Selection
The research was designed to answer start-up business failure using the following questions:
- What are the challenges startups face? Do these problems relate to the lack of using digital technologies?
- What impact does digital technology have on businesses, and how can it contribute to success?
- What impact can technology drivers have on startups, and which ones can be considered the most successful?
The modern business area of start-ups is developing rapidly. Almost every day, there are many new projects that have significant prospects. However, new businesses often face many challenges that lead them to ruin, and in some cases, the reason for the failure may relate to insufficient use of technology drivers. In this regard, research that identifies new drivers for start-ups and focuses on technological and innovative aspects is highly relevant. Therefore, this work will help fill the literature gap and shed light on the relationship between the introduction of digital technologies in a business and its success, which will be useful for entrepreneurs and can provide them with additional tools to improve performance.
Technological innovation in new business
The start of the business is one of the most critical part of its existence. It is during that time business must implement the Gibson & Wiggins Technology Business Incubator model to cautions their activities against the hard times (Lai, 2017). Many business fail due lack of enough protecting from the limited resource which cause the inability to create valuable products, loss of money is sales due to high production costs, and accounting and investment failures. During the start-up of a business, the limited resources must be handled with care to safeguard against these pitfalls. Use of incubator affiliation will reduce the overall operational cost that the business will incur. It is vital to introduce unique products that will be supported by bigger organizations.
Summary of Outcomes
This project took into consideration that apart from technological issues that face start-up business, Covid-19 has also impacted these businesses. The strict measure set up by the government to limit movement of people has made businesses lose clients, especially the lockdown of some areas. The success of start-up companies relies on the level of technological investment that has been put in to help them get a fair share of the market. Covid-19 pandemic has impacted on this growth, as more companies are closing up their activities. This pandemic is a great test for business, especially the new ones, who must improvise ways to get a sizeable share of the market. Those companies that do not incorporate innovative ideas and technology end up closing shop due to low revenue generation. In this regard, previous studies either address the relevance of digital technologies in a general business context or consider startups’ problems as a separate topic that does not relate to digital technologies.
Critical Reflection on Undertaking a Major Project
The success of start-up companies relies on the level of technological investment that has been put in to help them get a fair share of the market. Covid-19 pandemic has impacted on this growth, as more companies are closing up their activities. This pandemic is a great test for business, especially the new ones, who must improvise ways to get a sizeable share of the market. Those companies that do not incorporate innovative ideas and technology end up closing shop due to low revenue generation.
Previous studies either address the relevance of digital technologies in a general business context or consider startups’ problems as a separate topic that does not relate to digital technologies. In turn, no direct research that would explain how digital technology can contribute to a startup business’s success was found.
How Learning Might Inform Future Practice Professionally
A trend for start-ups is ‘cloud hosting’ also liked by most organizations. It has its advantages because there are no utilities to run or maintain. The use of Cloud Computing for startups has always been more convenient because of the help it offers to host and scale mobile apps by only paying for the services used. The cloud technology provides security tools to secure personal information and also provides their customers with real-time tracking.
AWS, Salesforce, Rackspace, and Microsoft have cloud platforms for startups in the US. Despite its use by large platforms like Linkedln In, Pinterest, NASA, and Dropbox, startups can as well adopt this technology for data storage. To shield the network from attackers, starters should use cloud technologies to secure their network.
Technological implementations for companies entail two sides which are the front end (client-side) and the back-end. On the server-side, for example, the apps will be the operating system, the software server, the database, the web interface, and the programming language. Frontend programs include Java and Scala, while backend is LAMP ((Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP).
Reflection on the Development of Entrepreneurial Competency Skills
Although patents may also allow the invention to propagate, many innovations are not patented. In addition, so-called patent thickets can potentially impede invention. Start-up technological companies should therefore, ensure that all their innovations are patented.
In the Canadian case study, on average, 96,000 new enterprises joined the country’s economy last year, accounting for about 9.4% of all Canadian businesses (annual birth rates). Accommodation and food facilities were the highest birth rates. Higher birth rates for industries continued to be lower for 5-10 years. 63% of Canada’s small businesses lived for five years and 43% lasted 10 years due to government subsidies and start-up tax vacations (Canada, 2021).
The Government of Canada’s Innovation and Skills Plan includes investment in clean emerging business technology (Canada, 2021). A team of government-wide experts will advise clean technology firms through the Sustainable growth hub. The hub offers one convenient connection point for renewable energy initiatives and services. Start-up businesses can therefore take advantage of this government support to foster their technological use towards the achievement of sustainable development as outlined in the global vision 2030.
Conclusion: What next?
Previous studies either address the relevance of digital technologies in a general business context or consider start-ups’ problems as a separate topic that does not relate to digital technologies. The use of digital technology has been mainly considered in the context of large businesses that have been present on the market for several years.
However, this project has linked the success of start-up businesses to the use of innovation and technology, and therefore, start-up businesses should embrace technology in order to strengthen their competitive advantage, promote new ideas, and achieve success quickly. Start-up business problems such as inability to create a valuable product, loss of money in sales, accounting and investment failures will also be solved using digital technology.
References
Canada statistics. (2021). Canadian New Firms: Birth and Survival Rates over the Period 2002–2014, May 2018 – SME research and statistics. Ic.gc.ca. Web.
Lagoy, R. and Nguyen, J., 2019. Start-Up Pavilion: Bringing Together Start-Ups and Established Companies. IEEE Microwave Magazine, 20(4), pp.55-56.
Lai, P. (2017). THE LITERATURE REVIEW OF TECHNOLOGY ADOPTIONMODELS AND THEORIES FOR THE NOVELTY TECHNOLOGY. Journal Of Information Systems And Technology Management, 14(1), 21-38.
Walpole, S. and Isdale, W., 2020. Business Interruption Insurance and the COVID-19 Pandemic. SSRN Electronic Journal.