No one wants to fail in their new ventures. In the business world, every startup is unique, but they experience the same ups and downs in their quest for success. While success is not guaranteed, you can improve your chances for stellar and consistent growth by laying the right foundations.
It helps to put a lot of thought into how you start your new venture—building one block at a time as you shape your growth. There are several initial steps you should follow when starting your business.
Know Your Niche
As a new business owner, focusing on a specific niche helps to avoid costly guesswork. The key is to identify your passions and interests as well as problems you can solve within your target market. You should also research your competition and gauge the profitability of your desired niches.
Identifying a specific niche will help tailor your marketing techniques towards the right audience. It will also help you create a differentiating factor, particularly when venturing into commoditized markets. While there’s no perfect way of finding the right niche, it’s important to do your homework without getting stuck in the planning phase.
Hire an Accountant
Finance is usually a challenging part of any startup. Keeping track of taxes, payroll, and other overhead costs is a continuous task that requires optimal attention. As a new business owner, you’re likely to focus on key areas of growth for your startup.
In this case, it will be helpful to hire an accountant to help with your business’s specific financial issues. The right accounting services help startups stay ahead of their finances. They can help you structure your finances, analyze transactions, keep up with payroll, and review your tax situation.
Streamline Processes
The fewer tasks you have to handle every day, the better. Streamlining and automating your key processes can save resources and time and eliminate room for costly errors. Take the time to audit your processes to identify repetitive, time-consuming, and labor-intensive tasks. Then, identify technology or techniques you can deploy to complete the tasks without delays and errors.
Ideally, you won’t have to go through the same steps each time you complete a task. There are digital solutions that can help with that, allowing you to channel your resources to areas that can speed up your business growth.
Strong Staff
Setting up a strong team for your startup is important. At this point, you want to hire people who share your values and are passionate about what they do. Even though the business is your dream, it’s advisable to work with candidates that are open to sharing your dream as they strive to achieve their personal development goals.
As such, take the time to vet candidates before hiring thoroughly—you want to match the right talent to the roles or opportunities you have. Don’t just settle for the first candidate just because you have to fill the spot quickly. Ask the right questions and engage each candidate adequately to understand their aspirations, skills, and motivations.
Utilize Free Resources
Today, the internet is a treasure trove—free for all to access. Yes, there are paid resources, but what you can access online at no cost is enough to get you started in running a successful business. Resources, such as the Small Business Administration (SBA), Startup Stash, Startup Resources, and Bplans, can offer advice on starting, running, and growing your venture.
You can also access free online training or professional development programs, depending on the skills you want to acquire. Harvard University, edX, Alison, and Coursera offer free online courses covering different topics and subjects. Companies like Google, SEMrush, and HubSpot also offer free online certifications for digital marketing techniques.
Learning doesn’t stop there—there are podcasts, online seminars, local workshops, online forums, social media channels, and YouTube videos that are quite resourceful for entrepreneurs. The more you learn about your market, skill, and industry, the better.
Consider Start up Capital
Funding your business can be a long and drawn out process. You might be looking at a combinator or a single investor…perhaps you’re considering asking friends and family to invest. Whatever you do, you need to look after the business, and yourself. Make sure you’re comfortable with the usury definition so that you aren’t taken advantage of by anyone looking to charge far too much interest.
If you’re going down the route of asking for individuals for funding, this can sometimes happen. Make sure you check the contract properly and consider, depending on the sum, having a lawyer look over it to make sure it’s sound.
You might have saved up some of your own money to put into the business but a lot of the time, if you want to launch fast, you’ll need to consider looking for investment. You need to balance off the need for cash, and expertise. If you find the right investor you’ll be able to benefit from their expertise as well as the cash.
Take your time and make sure you’re a right fit for each other. It’s not just about the money, it’s about the relationship. This applies to banks as well as individuals.
Start Your New Business Strong
How you start your new venture makes a difference, regardless of the industry you’re in or the market you’re targeting. Be sure to provide solutions that people want to buy and learn to underestimate revenues and overestimate expenses. Learn to make the right financial decisions and structure your business for success.
Be sure to have a clear roadmap and realistic goals for your startup. Things won’t be easy at first, but consistency, dedication, and commitment are the vital attributes you’ll need to find success.
