6 Strategies for Successful Entrepreneur Start-ups

To become a successful entrepreneur requires more than just a passion for what you are doing. You may think that you have come up with the next best business idea in your industry. But will it stand the test of time? To help boost your chances of success, you will need a clear strategy to establish your business.

According to some reports, 20% of all start-ups in the US don’t make through their first year. From the businesses that have longer staying power, about half still fail within 5 years. In many cases, underestimating the competition, expanding too quickly, or not having a good team are factors that negatively impact on start-up success.

Let’s look at 6 strategies that will help you find success with your fledgling business.

Know your competition

First, you need to know what you are up against to find early success that you can sustain. One mistake some entrepreneurs make is that they fail to know their ‘enemy’. This leaves them trying to find inroads into a competitive and saturated market.

So, try to find out as much about your competition as possible. This start-up strategy will help you find a niche where there is a demand for your services but few providers. This also can help you find answers to some important questions such as:

• What problems do my services or products solve?
• What makes me unique in my industry?
• Do my target customers really need what I’m offering?

Build a reliable team

Much of your success depends on the people you have around you. To increase your chances of start-up success, it’s important to develop a diverse team.

Building a successful business from scratch doesn’t happen overnight. You also don’t have the skills, know-how, and experience to manage every aspect of your business. Getting trusted employees who are prepared to work hard will help to build a strong foundation to build on.

Work on communication

With so much to do starting your own business, you could fall into the trap of not communicating effectively.

With start-ups, there are two types of communication that you should be aware of – internal communication and external communication.

• Internal communication requires delivering a clear message to your team. Your employees need to know what is expected of them and your business goals. It is likewise important to communicate with employees to show how you value them.
• External communication is the messages you send out to your customers. You can promote your message through your website, email campaigns, press releases, or features in magazines. Your brand will become an important way that your loyal customers recognise your business.

Secure enough funding for your start-up

To make sure that you can get through the first few months, you need adequate capital. Of course, the amount of money you need varies from industry to industry. However, you should have enough money to pay wages, overheads, and make future investments.

It’s important to continue fundraising, even when your business is up and running. Promotions, networking, ongoing product development are just a few ways of keeping funds coming in to boost your startup success.

Don’t expand too quickly

A reason why some seemingly successful new businesses fail is that they expand too quickly. In fact, in some ways, fast growth can be as dangerous to your start-up as no growth at all. Some of the pitfalls of fast business growth can include:

• Losing track of your finances
• Making cash flow mistakes
• Hiring the wrong people for your team
• Not scaling up customer service

So, it’s essential to manage growth wisely and build slowly on your previous successes. This way you can stay focused on growing a business that will be successful over time.

Never stop learning new things

One of the most important things you do if you are an aspiring entrepreneur is to continue learning. Markets change and the needs of your customers change. Therefore, try to avoid getting into a rut with your business practices.

To keep up to date with current market trends, try to elicit regular feedback from your customers. Also, embrace new technology and use the latest forms of digital marketing. This way you can help to ensure success for your new business venture.