This guide outlines the key business tips for startups that will help to ensure future success. Did you know that 3 in 5 small businesses fail in the first year? Did you know that over half those failures are not caused by a lack of money but a lack of planning? In an era when you can start a business with an idea, a laptop and an internet connection these figures may well increase.
Business tips for startups
Helping start-up businesses to start up properly is key to ensuring that they will succeed in the future.
Business tips for startups 1: know where you are heading
If you do not know where you are heading you have no idea how to get there. I will often have business owners come to me looking for business tips for startups. When I ask them what are the goals for the business I get a blank look. I know that it is tempting to simply start a business with no idea of where you are going but the first of the business tips for startups is that you need to spend some time considering the goals of your business. This applies to sole traders and businesses with multiple owners. When you set a goal it does something in your mind to help you achieve it, it gives you something to reach for and make sure that you achieve.
Business tips for startups 2: How are you going to operate the business?
Getting advice about the structure of your business is crucial. Don’t just listen to your mate at a bar-be-que as that advice while well intentioned is not tailored to your circumstances, your business and your goals. If you have not set goals then you will have no idea what is the best structure for you. You need to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of structures with your accountant and lawyer and tell them exactly what your goals are, what your current position is and then allow the consultants to discuss the best way forward for your business. So long as you have given them the right information about your goals and current position then you will get the best advice.
Business tips for startups 3: key agreements
Great contracts make great relationships. When starting a business it is tempting to dive straight in and start doing work for your clients straight away. No matter what type of business you are in and who your clients are you will need to make sure that you properly document your agreement. While you might think it is difficult to have that discussion early in your business it is better from a long term perspective to document your agreements early. You should also have a debt collection process in place. Training your clients/customers to pay on your terms, so that you can pay your debts when they come in, if you don’t train your clients/customers on what you require from them in payment then they will just do what is best for them not for you.
Starting a business is a rewarding journey but these key areas are considerations that I see many business owners missing or simply not doing. Unfortunately often the businesses fail and the owners are left with nothing for all of their hard work. By taking these business tips for startups early on in your business you will avoid becoming another one to add to the business failure statistics.
Business tips for startups 4: Structuring a scalable model
Being scalable in situations of extreme uncertainty is an elementary characteristic of a startup. However, designing business models under these conditions is far from being the central aspect, the paper accepts everything. Or rather, Power Point accepts everything. Virtually all business models will undergo changes when subjected to hypothesis testing with the market. As a general rule, there is no right or wrong, good or bad business model. The really important thing is to know how to test your premises, through well-founded hypotheses, with an integrated and complementary team.
Business tips for startups 5: The startup acceleration process
The time required for a startup to be accelerated varies significantly depending on the particular characteristics of each company, market, technology, service, business model and so on. In addition, most startups will need to pivot , which will require an additional effort to recalibrate their course of action. In practice, this will require, among other things, an additional dose of time. Therefore, each startup will need its own development time throughout the acceleration process. Getting to the end of this process in less time than the others can mean absolutely nothing, which is very valuable is learning and discovering new things. It’s even very important to invest your time well in your startup. Another extremely enriching point is to monitor the lessons learned and discoveries and reflect on advances and challenges.
Business tips for startups 6: A good pitch
An acceleration program often ends with pitching startups to a select audience (potential customers, investors, and partners, for example). However, this is far from implying that what should be highlighted are the entrepreneurs’ communication skills, or the slides that will be used. This is still understood as a differential for many entrepreneurs, but in practice there are several more important factors that should be taken into account, such as:
- the argumentative capacity of whoever is presenting;
- the way the narrative was organized;
- what are the business premises;
- how the hypotheses were tested;
- what are the qualifications of the team;
- how proofs of concept are structured;
- how the business model will allow the generation of value, based on market pains (which need to be validated with facts and data, and not just based on common sense).
This is one of the most important business tips for startups about acceleration and, in short, the difference is the content. The packaging is indeed necessary, but it is not what should stand out.
This is an extract from Jeremy Streten’s Amazon best-seller “The Business Legal Lifecycle” www.businesslegallifecycle.com
