Article Note: This article “Successful Business Startup: 19 Tips to Make Sure It Doesn’t Fail” was first published on 15th January 2020. We have last updated this article on 30th March 2021 with fresh information.
Let’s speak for real here. Starting a business isn’t easy. The ways in which you could start a business are changing. There is no doubt that entrepreneurship is our future. We have been barking about this for forever now. Because traditional jobs are clearly not cutting it.
We know how big of a problem this is as we are seeing it happen right in front of us. But yet the majority of people keep doing the same thing again and again. While we see regular people living their dreams, getting paid to travel the world all because they did something different.
We can understand where the hesitation is coming from. A lot of people think, “Oh, I don’t want to go into debt for starting a business”. This especially when 8 out of 10 new startup businesses fail, it’s risky.
The new approach of starting a business
Well, here is the thing. In the past, if you wanted to start a business, you would have to invest a whole lot of time, energy, and money to create a product. On top of this, you would have to hope and pray that it receives the expected attention.
But now with the internet, you can do your thing backward, this means you can build your brand first. If you do this correctly your brand would start to generate revenue. Then you can funnel that brand revenue to fund product creation. This way when you are ready to launch your product you have your customers already lined up for you.
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Best tips for your startup success
Welcome to the digital revolution. In this blog, we are going to shed light on how you can start a business with just a few simple steps. A startup business can become the primary source of income for a person. Anyone planning to open a startup must try putting efforts to improve it with time. However, you must always try to get rid of situations that would lead your startup to crash abruptly. Here are the top tips that you must follow while being in a startup business to avoid a crash.
1. Where do you want to be?
The first thing that you need to figure out is what industry or niche you want to cater to. Unlike what a lot of people think, your niche can be anything. To ascertain this you need to forget what the majority of people think. That is where the minority mindset lies.
Here is the thing. You can have the best and the most useful product in the world. But if nobody knows about it, you will fail.
2. Always be optimistic
Optimism is a primary necessity for every person in the business. You can get a startup business run at any pace if you have an optimistic mind. In many cases, you might face a situation where your business might take a negative turn. In such times, your primary duty is to remain optimistic and plan for the betterment.
As a businessperson, your optimistic mind can help you to make the correct decisions for the future while being in a crisis. If you are pessimistic, you will not find a proper way to get out of the trouble. Optimism can also work well if you face any legal proceedings related to the business. A legal trial is probably the worst thing a company can face; however, you can remain optimistic if you are sure of not being wrong.
3. Get known
Once you have your niche figured out you can move towards the next step. You would want to do this before you have a product and you will know why below.
I would tell you to come up with a name or create a website. But in reality that is just the logistical stuff. Remember, your brand is worthless unless people know about it. So, if you want people to know about you, you have to take your brand and literally put it in front of people’s faces.
Now, you have two ways to do that on the internet; the first is SEOs and the second is social media. SEOs let you be spotted at the top of search engines making you more visible and approachable. If you want to be found on Google you have to answer potential questions that your customers are asking. Just imagine that there are 40,000 searches on Google every single second, so this is really important.
One way to do this is by creating a blog where you write about topics your potential customers are searching on Google. On the flip side, you get known on social media like Instagram and Facebook when people share your social media posts.
Right now the best social media platform for organic growth is Instagram, if you don’t have an Instagram account then you need to make one. The best way to start on Instagram is by searching for a #hashtag that represents your niche and then starts liking posts under that #hashtag. Within no time you will start to divert traffic towards your startup business page.
4. Start a business with a passion
Never consider a business as a profession only. Most startup businesses crash mainly as the owner thinks it to be a way to make money. However, you can always excel as a business person if you are passionate about your business.
Your primary duty before opening a business is to think of a specific type of business. It can be in the field which you like the most. If you are quite clear that you can develop your team and deliver a kind of service to the public, it is always suggested, you take that path.
Once you choose the business field in which your passion works, public handling and customer communication can be more comfortable. You can even look for newer ways to improve the profit in your business.
Your passion can passively show up in your service style, and it can turn your startup more sustainable. Always remember that most of the customers get attracted to a business by checking out the proprietor’s level of passion. If you find that you cannot be passionate about the business field, consider planning for extensive market research. It can always help you to determine the type of business you can do.
5. Welcome criticism
As a business owner, you should have the ability to welcome criticism at every level. Several startup owners eventually fail as businesspeople only because they cannot take complaints properly.
Always remember that not every customer will be happy with your service. It is never the rule of business. Once a customer criticizes you, you must keep the fact in mind and try to improve in that area.
However, you should avoid taking the words of skeptical customers seriously. These are the set of people who are not happy with any product or service. If you find it tough to deal with a skeptical customer, try avoiding selling any stuff to them. There might be a situation where he/she might purchase a certain item and later come back to you with the command to take back the thing without any valid reason.
6. Never compromise with service or product
One of the best tips to follow to ensure your startup business’ sustainability is providing excellent service. Try not to compromise with the service/product as it can lead your company to develop a bad reputation in the market.
No matter the product you deal with, make sure to collaborate with the best set of manufacturers and brands. If you are dealing with a service, you should always check that the team working under you is well efficient. Moreover, you should instruct them about the proper way of customer communication.
At times, you can provide exciting discounts on the products/services at your convenience as a proprietor. It can help you with the development of a brand loyal customer base. Once you have enough customers who are loyal to your brand, it will be easier for you to expand the business with networking.
Furthermore, you should always provide your customers with easy ways to communicate with the company. This can enhance the transparency of the company-customer relationship. Even if the customer comes up with anything negative, you should address it properly.
7. Give value
Let me break this down as simply as I can, there are about a billion Instagram pages out there and if you don’t want people to just scroll past your page you have to give them a reason to stick around. So if you are posting spam-looking ads you will lose notoriety pretty quick.
One can always follow the three “Es” for the creation of valuable content. That is “Entertain”, “Excite” and “Educate”, so you would want to prepare content keeping at least two “Es” in mind.
8. Respect your customers
A startup company should always mingle up with customers/clients with respect. This is crucial as most customers approaching the company are new. If you are a startup owner, you should be aware of this fact.
Consider most customers approaching your company to try out something new. Moreover, there is a high chance for the customers coming in with an expectation of getting a good service against lesser expenses.
The best you can do is check if a service can be provided to them for slightly fewer charges. If possible, do not think twice before providing the services/products at a discount. This can help your company to get a few more clients as the existing ones can announce it in their network.
Respect towards the customer is the primary effort you can put into your business, and expect an outstanding turnover improvement. It happens as your business stays in the best recognition of the customers.
If you are into a product-based business, you can earn respect from your customers by making them understand its usage and manipulating them for your sales, and they are right. Never be disrespectful to your customers, as it can lead your startup to crash within a short period.
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9. Understand the needs of the customer
Your startup can fail if you are unable to understand the necessities of the customers. Every customer has unique needs. You must keep the individual needs of the customers in mind. Check if you can extend a bit of your service to meet the needs of your customer.
As per your customers’ needs, you should always try to maintain the deadline for your service. Failing deadlines might lead your startup business to crack at any moment. The best you can do is make proper scheduling when it comes to making deliveries to the customers.
On the other hand, if you are into a product-related business, you can give the customers many options.
10. Hook them in
Now you are finally getting noticed on social media and through that getting visitors on your webpage. But the thing is a large number of customers are going to visit your website or your social media page and then leave without following you and without doing anything especially if you don’t have a product yet. So you need a more direct line of communication.
Furthermore, after somebody has been to your website it’s a lot harder to make them come back again. For this, you would want to hook your customers upfront.
The way to do that is by getting their email or maybe even their phone number. When you do that effectively you own that personal information and you have a direct way to communicate with your customers.
Now if you want somebody to give you their personal information you are better of giving something in exchange. It’s just like Pokemon cards, you have to give a card in order to receive a card and here you have to give something that pertains to your niche.
This is the reason why we keep seeing those giveaways on social media because these are a great way to get personal information. At the end of the day, the followers of your social media page are owned by Facebook and visitors for your website are owned by Google. So having your own consumer information ready is of the utmost importance.
Once you get somebody’s email don’t start spamming them with messages instead set up automated email messages. This will give your customers more value, as we said earlier give people reason to open your emails and check your messages.
This process can really make or break a startup business. If customers are just going to your brand and leaving without doing anything this means you’re not hooking them in.
11. Get that internet money
One of the best parts about having an internet startup business is that you can start getting paid without even having a product yet. One way to do this is by partnering with other businesses promoting their products as an affiliate. So, anytime some make a purchase, you get paid.
One word of caution is that don’t promote anything that you haven’t used, it takes years to build trust with your customers. If you start promoting the wrong stuff you will break it pretty quickly. One can also start a drop-ship E-Commerce store to start selling products without buying any inventory. These are some ways your startup business can benefit from internet money by using these tactics effectively.
12. Eyes on the metrics
The thing is that content only stays relevant when it revolves around market trends and consumer tastes at a certain period of time. Have the relevant metrics at your side that give you the complete business picture.
Measuring audience reception presents an idea about the prevalent trends of the market and by designing content that has the ability to trigger those trends are a sure way to ensure success and stay ahead of the competition.
There is a wide variety of engagement measuring tools available and once you know what kind of metrics matter to you the most, measure them and extract engagement ideas.
13. Make your product
So, you have been following these steps and now you have started to make some money. You look at your bank statement and think “Should I buy a BMW?” or “Should I funnel this money back into my business?” I’ll leave the decision to you.
If you want to create a product, now you have the money coming in from online traffic towards your startup business. By doing market research and competition analysis develop a roadmap for product development.
14. Promote your product
This step can take place simultaneously with product development. The key here is to use the brand image that you have previously created and promote your product.
If you decide to start product promotion before the product has been developed, it is best to use your social media following to provide knowledge about the product. Remember to be truthful, you can only gain more customers if they trust you enough. So, present content that does not make your following drift away from you.
It is best to create videos, visuals and other content that revolves around your product. Keep in mind that at this stage the content that you create is to disseminate knowledge about the core function of the product and how does it successfully fulfill a need.
Email marketing is also a very useful tool. A lot of startup businesses use email marketing to know about their customers on a deeper level. So, use this platform to give information regarding the process involved in the creation of the product.
15. Keep planning
Proper planning always ensures the appropriate management of a startup business. There are multiple steps of business planning which you should take care of as a proprietor. If you think that you might need a management team, hire some management experts and form it.
Pre-startup planning is always not enough, and you might need to plan up many more things after your startup activates service. You should always plan for new ways to meet the target of serving the customers satisfactorily. Your management team can help in networking, and they can also look forward to the betterment of the business.
Budget planning is another crucial aspect you should never miss. It can give you a clear idea of the timely expenses you have to make your startup small business successful. Proper devotion towards budget can lead you to avoid the situation of unnecessary expenses.
16. Be adaptive
As a new startup in the market, you should be adaptive to a large extent. In many cases, your business might go through ups and downs. The best you can do is pre-plan everything in the right manner. Adapting to the market in the case of a startup business can be a tricky job. However, an efficient marketing team can help you to avoid significant losses.
No matter what business you are in, you should have an active online and offline setup. An active online setup can help you to manage the business properly.
If convenient, you can go for an e-commerce startup and ask your management and marketing team to handle the business accordingly.
17. Balance between online and offline
No matter if you are into a business based on product or service, you should always make sure that there is a balance. To ensure balance, you need to have a responsive website and an efficient team. The best you can do is hire a web designer who can make you a good website.
If you plan to design a website, check if the designer is keen on providing post-designing services. Remember, you can only maintain the balance of clients and delivery only if your website works correctly.
You can consider adding the following features to your business website:
- A responsive design.
- Menus according to the needs.
- Updated content about the products or services.
- Easy navigation.
- A transparent customer communication portal.
18. Give complete dedication
All businesses need complete devotion from the proprietor. Your life becomes hectic if you have just started a business. However, you can make teams that can cut the extra pressure from your shoulder.
As a business owner, your main job will be to coordinate the teams appropriately. The best you can do is take daily reports on how your teams are performing.
19. Relax a bit
No matter how hectic your life turns after you open a business, consider relaxing a bit. You might face a lot of health issues if you do not get the proper leisure time. Consider it an outstanding idea to get a few days’ holidays and get detached from your business entirely at least twice a year.
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Final words
There are many things a business owner has to look after to make a business work properly. If you have opened a business recently, make sure you get it in the right order by recruiting the right people and appointing them to the right services.
Following these tips can make your business shine within a short period. Then, you would not need to think much about its sustainability in the market.
We have written this article in association with Steven Clark and Pooja Shah. Steven Clark is a highly skilled and experienced software developer working at CMOLDS, a USA based software & mobile game development company. He has wide experience in IT industries to develop a creative business system based on Java, .Net, Python, iOS, Android, Magneto. He is working with mobile app industries.Pooja Shah is a Content Writer at Financesage. It is a blog where she cover financial tips related website which is working towards investors to take better financial decisions and make the best choices while buying financial things and for better financial life.
Pooja Shah is a Content Writer at Financesage. It is a blog where she cover financial tips related website which is working towards investors to take better financial decisions and make the best choices while buying financial things and for better financial life.
Web Developer & SEO Specialist with 15+ years of experience in Open Source Web Development specialized in Joomla & WordPress development. He is also the moderator of this blog "RS Web Solutions".