Starting a business in this day and age is tough work, starting a successful business and making a profit is even harder, but far from impossible.
To run a start-up requires a solid strategy before you even consider bringing it to fruition. It takes months, if not years to gain some traction, but slow and steady always wins the race.
To mitigate the difficulty of getting started, having a few tactics on your utility belt will not only make it easier to launch, but it could mean the difference between success and failure.
Here are the five must know tactics for a successful start-up:
Keep Your Eyes On The Times
Think about this for a second, what is one of the most common, yet fatal blunders leaders find themselves stuck against? Time.
Napoleon invaded Russia in the early 1800s but found himself freezing to death in the harsh Russian winters, and the same thing apples to the prospective start-up.
There is a proper time for everything, including starting your business, which is influenced by countless variables.
One such variable is over saturation. Say you start a business where there are a million other companies who provide the same service and are already establish, it may be almost impossible for a young company to compete.
Another factor is the current economic state. If you provide a service where a business will need to shell out some serious dough, yet are laying off employees in droves, it’s probably not the best time to provide for that industry.
These are just a few examples, there are dozens more, so make sure you do your market research.
Learn How To Budget
Another blunder a new start up may face is poor budgeting. Say you have $100,00 to start, just putting some here and some there isn’t going to work, like at all. Your start-ups budget is one of the most, if not the most important aspect of the business.
Spending money willy nilly without knowing if it’s going to X or Y will have the business bankrupt faster than you can say insolvent. You won’t have the money to pay off your liabilities, preventing you from acquiring the necessary assets your business will inevitably need to stay successful and grow.
Do yourself a favor and set up a proper budget; if you can’t or don’t know how, hire a professional accountant to do it for you.
Build A Solid Team
From sports to the military to business, teamwork makes the dream work.
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, it’s almost impossible to manage and operate a start-up alone. Sure, more money is great, but that is honestly a silly notion if you want to get anywhere.
Building a solid team of loyal and dedicated professionals is singlehandedly one of the most important assets a business owner can have. You can’t do it by yourself, even if you’re skilled in one area, odds are you’re not skilled in another, hiring the right people to do the right job will take the start-up to the next level.
You’re probably not able to operate the business while handling the accounting, on top of knowing the legalities of your industry. Outsourcing to companies such as LegalZoom and Local CPA’s will take a lot of the hard work off your shoulders.
Network
If one thing is for certain, it’s almost impossible to tackle a grand undertaking alone.
Knowing the who’s who of your industry will get you somewhere, but knowing them on a personal level is even better.
Networking and getting your name out there will not only spread the word about your company, it could lead to meeting people who are genuinely interested in your company and may lead to them becoming potential investors to give you much needed capital so you can start to scale your business. It doesn’t pay to be shy in business.
Be Flexible
In the words of the late and great Bruce Lee “Be formless, shapeless, like water.” Having the ability to adapt to change will keep you ahead of the game since you’re not bound by any preconceived notions that could ultimately hold you and your start-up back.
Welcome fresh ideas, change with the times, and keep your mind open.
Starting Up Your Own Business
As you can see, start-ups are no joke. There will be times when you find yourself under immense pressure, or as a Judo player would say “Fall seven times, get up eight.” With an iron will and a plan, anything and everything is possible.