When you have an idea for a business, project, or investment, it is crucial to set out your objectives and your actions for reaching them. We asked owners of start-up businesses to share their top ten secrets and tips for start-ups.
1. Seek the help of others
Take into account the people who will help you to realize your project. Sometimes, even with the strongest willpower, taking on a workload singlehandedly can be too much. You will likely have some gaps in knowledge or expertise in areas necessary to reach the objective, try to fill these with someone who can help. Also look for capital, a partner for example may be able to help you share the risks incurred in setting up your business as well as share the project with.
2. Build the right environment
You may need a number of staff for your business to prosper: a good business consultant, an accountant, a marketing and communications consultant, and also potential suppliers. Your employees will make your business, so it is crucially important that you don’t simply fill the roles required, but fill them with the right people who have the right personality traits.
Jeremy from marketing & support at Good.Co Inc. says:
“Hire people who exhibit ‘smart recklessness’ in everything they do. It sounds crazy, but I’ve found that the most successful start-up employees are those that are comfortable with taking big risks to figure out what works.”
It is however also important that your employees fit in with the team dynamics, as clashing personalities could also prove to be counterproductive.
Allan Branch from Less Accounting says:
“Be careful who your first hires are, they’ll set the tone for the rest of the team you build. One or two toxic employees can ruin your morale making an unproductive working environment.”
3. Decide where the money’s coming from
One of the most important parts of any business is its capital. For a healthy cash flow which will make your business successful, you will need an accurate and realistic idea of what you will need to reach your objectives. You can either raise this initial injection out of your own pocket, or look to potential investors (perhaps look for the support from banks, family, or other investment sources).
4. Location, location, location
Another tip is to consider carefully the location of your business. Do you want to run your business in an actual physical location, or online? Take into account where it will be easier for you to run your activities, as well as where your competitors are thriving. It is important to make a strategic decision and position yourself in the best possible place for your potential clients.
5. Keep motivated
Treat your staff! Everyone enjoys social events and investing in these will not only result in creating a stronger team but also keep your staff happy and motivated. It will likely yield better results in terms of productivity.
6. Know your market
In every kind of business it is important to understand the market and know who your competitors are. Extensive market research should be undertaken in order to understand what others do and how. A marketing effort which will enable you to understand what the strength and weaknesses of your business are as well as theirs. From these forge an effective plan of action to enable you to develop and improve your business operations and yield the desired results out of your business.
7. List constraints
Understand the time constraints of the industry as well as those within the market. Take into consideration the suppliers’ time constraints, employees, and also customers. Plan in some targets to achieve in order to give yourself the right amount of motivation to get things done. This also means being disciplined and respecting these deadlines.
8. Price up
Pricing will also be an important section to take into while setting up a business. Deciding on the right price of what you will be spending as well as what you will sell. Take into account your own expectation of this as well as thinking of who target market will be, which will of course be the audience you are selling to.
9. Pin down your USP (Unique Selling Point)
Confirm the reason you are setting up this business, the motives that are pushing you to do it, the gap you’ve seen in the market, or the quality of your own service or product. From these values and points, you can accurately pin down your company’s Unique Selling Point.
10. Remember why you’re doing it
Bear in mind what is important for you, having assessed whether you genuinely have the passion to drive your business. Passion and dedication for your business is what will eventually make a difference and push you to do better than the competition.
Chris Hexton Co-Founder of Vero believes that this passion for the business to be one of the most underlining factors of success, prevailing above all the others:
“The biggest thing, I believe, is being pragmatic. For many businesses, you don’t need a big office to get started. You don’t need a team of ten people. You don’t need press in the New York Times. You need to talk to customers, you need to make them happy and you need to work hard, constantly. If you do that, you stand a much better chance at setting out on the right course.”
At The Saasty Annual this year, Tiago Paiva, Talkdesk’s CEO said:
“No matter how fast you are growing – you can always grow faster.”
These top 10 tips for start-up founders can provide you and others with motivation, inspiration and the stepping stones you need to get moving.
What would be your top tip to someone starting up their own venture?
