There is never-ending craze for startups at present and even more is the interest shown by big investors and VCs to fund startups. More than 70% of startups are on-demand startups. The on-demand model first came through the taxi ride handling firms and slowly it was emulated to other areas. Education, entertainment, healthcare, delivery, home services, etc are some of the areas which saw a spurt of these on-demand startups.

Zero inventory, increased control over the operation, mobile and internet reach, and low initial investment is the major reasons why the on-demand model is attractive and many entrepreneurs take this in hand.

That said, like any businesses on-demand startups also has its share of challenges. Competitive market, the race for funding, intermittent change of marketing plans are some inevitable challenges in the on-demand startup market. If you run any startups like this and facing similar challenges, don’t worry. There are some innovative ways to tackle these challenges.

Let me give you some innovative hacks to run your startup successfully.

Observe and study your competitor

Your adversary will also be facing the same challenges as you. Observe them and study how they pass through the challenges. A most reliable method to analyze them is to use reverse engineering techniques. In reverse engineering, you understand how and what resources and tools your competitors use to sort out issues from the beginning.

This method involves a lot of data and so using data analytics method may help to find a pattern using the data.  The resulting pattern is finally used to find the ways and methods used by the adversaries.

You can do this not only to your competitors but also to other businesses and startups in another domain who has faced similar challenges.

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Remove friction in your operation

People like instant gratification. They always go for the services which give instant gratification. Be it food delivery or booking a cab, everything is done in a short time and it is liked by people. In fact, the on-demand industry grew up to this stage because of this. Still, there may be friction in the business operation which may slow down the processing time.

To eliminate this, find the points and processes in the supply chain which produce friction. Then, find the root cause of it and rectify it. In some cases, it may not be rectifiable and here it is better to replace with innovative techniques.

For example, in on-demand taxi booking, heat view technique is used. Heat view technique enables cab drivers to be near crowded places or places with a high probability of cab booking. This reduces the time gap between booking and reaching the rider.

Unconventional methods for resources and marketing

When you are a small startup and having funds only to run the business but need additional resources then, it is best to try unconventional methods to tap funds. VCs and private creditors are not reliable and may invest only in firms with a high market capitalization.

Getting angel investors who believe in the potential and product will be of much help. You can approach NGOs and business organization that is related to your area of operation for funds. They may provide it on the condition that your startup should add value to the field of operation.

Similarly, word of mouth, social media, referrals are some of the unconventional marketing techniques with literally no investment.

For example, when Facebook was founded it was not allowed to go online by the US government since the company is relatively new. Undeterred by it, Facebook founders made college students in the surroundings to use it and when it became a hit the US government allowed to go online.

Follow the freemium model

In the freemium model, complete service is provided free of cost to registered users for some time. Then, the service is charged as usual. Apply it to your startup. Whatever service you offer, provide without any cost for a particular time. This hack may require a lot of investment but it is definitely worth the spend. This works very well only when the service offered by your startups is outstanding.

Uber taxi offered free service of some distance to its riders at the inception of the business. Obviously, it had VCs backing. Still, this technique proved to be a gamechanger for Uber. Now it operated more than a million cabs around the world.

Unique app solution

This hack yields good results if it is followed even before launching your startup. On-demand startups are nothing without a perfect app solution. Here the unique app solution is not in terms of design or features. But the way it helps us in our journey towards a successful startup.

A solution loaded with analytics tools which aids in consolidating valuable data from the business operations starting from marketing, spending, no. of rides per day, transactions done, etc. can be used to develop a pattern. This pattern is analyzed and if needed necessary changes can be made in the business operation. To do this you should use the right app solution.

SpotnRides is one such solution which is made only for the on-demand business services. Our software is an example for one size fits all. Any type of on-demand services can be applied to Spotnrides. Our competent development team has specialized skills in turning the solution to suit any service.

So far we have customized and provided SpotnRides app solution to cab booking startups, food delivery startups, healthcare startups, medicine delivery, and many more.

Got an idea for an on-demand startup? Come straight to us for technical assistance. Send doubts and queries to [email protected].  

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