Startup. This word has firmly entered our everyday life. A few years ago, not everyone could understand its meaning. But already today you’ll meet this term in the information field every day. Why did it happen? More and more people around the world are launching their own projects to realize their ideas, skills, and knowledge. Unfortunately, not many succeed. According to the data, about 90% of projects are closed within the first year. Most of the remaining startups fail within 1-3 years. However, do not think that it is not worth starting. If you are confident in your abilities, you have a unique demanded idea, then try to launch your project. Use the following guidelines to successfully launch and grow your business.
Step 1: Consider if you are ready to launch a start
Are you ready to give 100% to your work? You may have late nights and forget about relaxing on the weekends because a startup will require all your attention and strength. If you are ready to spend a lot of your time promoting and growing your business, then move on to the next step.
Step 2: Study the market and competitors
Let’s move on to the next step if you are ready to work hard, develop yourself and build your business. Here you must honestly assess the relevance and uniqueness of your idea. You are planning to launch your startup, which will try to implement your interesting idea. Every idea must solve some problem. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a market analysis. Will your business help people? It doesn’t matter if it’s a specific product or service. They must be in demand among other people.
Find out if there are similar businesses on the market. What do they offer? If there are competitors? Are you a pioneer in your chosen niche? Do you have competitors? Carefully study their advantages and disadvantages. Connect with industry experts who understand the rules of the game and the competition between players. Look at user reviews. Such an analysis will help to see the strengths and weaknesses of competitors to use them for the successful development of your project.
Step 3: Create a business model for the project
An analysis of the market and the demand for your project will allow you to draw up an initial business plan. As a rule, people who do not have such experience won’t be able to do it. Therefore, contact the experts if this is your first startup. Sign up for online courses and seminars. Ask for a personal consultation. In any case, before launching a project, you must have a properly developed action plan that should be followed. Of course, it is impossible to plan everything in advance. During the construction of a business, you’ll have difficulties. It is impossible to take everything into account during planning. Therefore, you must be ready to respond quickly and find the most effective ways to meet new challenges. The faster and better you do it, the higher the chance of successful development of your business.
Step 4: Build an effective team.
An effective team is a key to the successful development of any type of business, including a young startup. Today, you can use digital tools to build effective remote teamwork. The market offers a wide range of corporate messengers and managers. You just have to choose the most suitable product, set up workflows, and successfully develop your project.
What business applications are the most popular?
These are Slack, Microsoft Teams, Trello, Jira, etc. Choose the most suitable product for your business, considering its features and cost. For example, Microsoft Teams offers a huge selection of teamwork tools, including the installation of third-party apps. Integrations increase the capabilities of a corporate tool. By installing a VoIP service, you can use your business phone to improve communication between team members, partners, and colleagues. Microsoft Teams SMS allows you to create bulk SMS, set appointments, collect customer feedback, and more.
Step 5: Find additional funding
The main reason for the closure of most startups is a lack of funding. As a rule, poor people launch such projects. Therefore, solving the issue of financing is one of the initial tasks for a leader in the early stages of development. After all, until your project starts to make a profit, you have to spend your money on salaries, bonuses, and other expenses. Your personal savings won’t last long. Therefore, it is better to find third-party funding that’ll cover all the necessary waste. Today this is not such a difficult question as it was 10-15 years ago. What are your options?
- Borrow from friends, relatives
- Find big investors
- Meet business angels
- Submit your project on crowdfunding platforms
- Contact startup aggregators
You’ll greatly increase the chances of the successful development of your startup if you find sufficient funding. Therefore, do not waste time on other less important tasks until you resolve the issue of funding.