Launching a startup from scratch isn’t supposed to be easy, but it doesn’t have to be extremely difficult, either. By implementing certain methods and taking the right precautions, you can safeguard yourself from most causes of business failure. While it is true that the majority of startups close down within their first 3 years of doing business, it’s also true that persistent entrepreneurs who get up and try again have a higher chance of becoming the owner of a successful business in the long-term.
While there are never any guarantees, success in any industry is always a number game, and at any given time you have a certain percentage chance of achieving a desirable outcome. In other words, a person who doesn’t do any due diligence might only have a 25% chance of success, while someone who is already an expert in the niche might have a 75% chance. In this guide, we’ll introduce you to steps and strategies that will help you ensure a greater than 90% success rate in any business endeavor:
1. Get a Degree in Business Administration
Earning a degree can never promise anyone success, but there’s no denying that a trained business manager will probably be better prepared to deal with the obstacles along the way. There are various kinds of business administration degrees, so try to find one that specifically caters to your industry. For example, Kettering University offers an online MBA for engineers. By gaining an education that will equip you to perform optimally in any managerial role, you’ll be in an ideal position to make well-informed decisions and avoid amateur mistakes within every process.
2. Conduct Market Research
In-depth market research should serve as the cornerstone of every business project because it shows you what you’re up against and what you need to do in order to compete. Take a few courses on topics like competitive analysis, SEO, market research, and content strategy development to learn how to gauge any niche with the utmost accuracy. This is an extremely important step because, without it, you could be walking blindly into an endeavor that is practically destined to fail. Essentially, before you launch any product or service, you need to verify that there’s significant demand for it first.
3. Understand Advertising Methodologies
If you can create effective and far-reaching advertisements, you can succeed in any kind of business. Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of relying fully on an advertising agency or other third-party in this regard. While there’s nothing wrong with outsourcing to boost productivity, you should also be doing your own studying so that you’ll be able to pay a more involved creative and executive role in the management and direction of your campaigns. In essence, a person who knows nothing about advertising is far less likely to succeed.
4. Build a Presence on Social Media
Any brand that has a strong presence on social networking sites will have a higher overall chance of succeeding. Sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube are capable of generating hordes of viral traffic and mounds of brand awareness practically overnight. If you can produce highly shareable content and spread it out through the social sphere, you can make most of your targeted audience aware of your brand within a matter of days or weeks instead of months or years.
5. Create Impressive Branding
Make sure your product packaging, logo, website and the other visual components of your brand are top-notch, as consumer do tend to “judge a book by its cover.” If you can’t personally create aesthetically pleasing graphics and designs for your brand, investing in third-party design services is one of the most critical investments you can make. You might think that taking a budget-friendly approach is the best strategy initially, but you don’t ever want to start driving traffic to a brand that doesn’t already carry a high level of appeal, as that could scare away a portion of the customers/clients that you could have appealed to during that initial wave of momentum.
6. Leverage the Advice of Experienced Consultants
Guides like the one you’re reading are great for finding a sense of direction and creating a solid game plan, but when it comes time to solve very specific or advanced technical problems, having a consultant in your corner can be a huge difference maker. Many consultants are available on an hourly basis. That means you can create a list of questions that you have about a specific process or task and then instantly receive a very detailed answer to those questions from a real person, all while only paying for a 1-hour consultation. While some consultants will charge hundreds of dollars per hour, paying for their time is worthwhile when you consider the value of the precise and expeditious guidance it can provide.
7. Never Over-Invest
The most common mistake made by entrepreneurs who wind up failing is spending the majority of their budget within the first few weeks of starting the business. This strategy, often called “going all in,” can sometimes work wonders after you’ve established proof of concept. However, committing your entire budget to something that hasn’t yet proven itself will only set you up for the possibility of losing everything and gaining nothing. Make sure you have a solid influx of sales and traffic coming in before you really start to mobilize your budget. The only major expenses you should be covering in the beginning should be related to design, branding, and development. If you are every worried about having too much of your cost go to payroll then consider hiring part-time employees. There are plenty of services for a part time CFO in Denver, most of which are able to work remotely which is great.
Take a Gradual and Calculated Approach
Finally, one more bonus tip that will help you avoid problems is to avoid rushing into anything. Many overzealous business owners are so excited to get their endeavour off the ground that they make hasty decisions. Take your time in surveying the market and analyzing your own current success to understand where you should be putting your focus, rather than haphazardly attacking every possible angle as quickly as possible. With steady and calculated approach, you’ll have a much lower chance of making mistakes.
