It’s a sad truth, but the majority of new businesses fail within their first year. It is important to stick to what works and the best practices to increase your chances of making it to the top.
The global economy is slowly getting to its feet, so if you act correctly now, you might be able to boost your own business’s chance of success in the competitive world market.
No new startup is ever guaranteed to succeed, here are 3 of the best things you can do to raise your company’s chances of success.
1. Believe in what you are doing!
You could be doing everything right but everything can go wrong. People don’t fail, they just give up. You will need all the motivation you can get. If you don’t believe in what you are doing, you have already failed.
There will a time you want to give up, don’t. If you believe strongly in what you are doing , stick to your plan but be agile and adopt where necessary. Expect things to get tough, as they inevitably do and stay strong through it and you will see yourself at the end of the tunnel.
2. Keep an eye on your funds
Securing capital for your business is not the easiest thing in the world at the moment, but if you can start and grow your business until you have enough money to run as a trading business for at least 6 months you’ll place yourself in good stead if it takes you a long time to become profitable.
Most businesses run in the negative for their first 12 months, so not being profitable straight away shouldn’t come as a shock, but you should definitely prepare for it. If you don’t have enough money to sustain your business, you’ll soon risk shutting down with no capital.
However you are funding your business, prepare for the worst by planning ahead of schedule and stick a lean budget at all times to increase your chances of having a surplus funds that can sustain for a longer period until you start making money.
Everything takes longer than expected, you will not achieve that milestone in the next six months, it won’t happen! Plan for a year, if you are lucky it could be less. But don’t rely on luck, work for your success and make every day count.
3. Stick to a cost-effective marketing campaign
Branding and marketing go hand-in-hand because to be able to effectively market your business, you’ll need to establish your brand first. The golden rule of branding is to keep it simple.
Don’t over spend just to get out there as soon as possible, take calculated steps towards the market, making the most of free resources along the way.
The most ubiquitous brands have very simple logos – just think of Google, Facebook and Nike as a few well-known examples. Once you have your brand, try to get it out to your target market with an effective marketing campaign.
Take advantage of social media channels like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to communicate effectively at both the levels of B2C and B2B. The best thing about this is that it’s all completely free, and you get feedback instantly.
4. Seek Advice, you will need it!
Businesses work better with experience, if you don’t have all the skills needed to start and run your business, seek advice from as many experienced people as you can before and during your establishment as a business.
Find mentors, experienced entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship networks and get invaluable ideas to help your team. If you intend to seek funding, make sure you partner with investors who have industry experience that can help your business.
Bootstrappers can find relevant information and resources from free professional business blogs and authority sites like Inc.com, entrepreneur.com and fastcompany.com. Gibson Hewitt offers financial and legal advice – both in the good times and the bad.
Take advice from relevant entrepreneurs and professionals who have done it before – even looking at what your successful competitors are doing can be a real source of inspiration.
If you have suggestions about resources or tips that worked well for you when you started your business, let us know in the comments below.
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