By USDR.
Many of us have a dream of starting and building our own successful business. Don’t let a few key mistakes ruin your chances. Forbes reports that nine out of every ten start-up companies fail. Here are tips and tricks, from cloud computing to management, to make your company as success.
1. Narrow your vision
You have big dreams and right there is where things may go horribly wrong. Your company can’t do everything at once. Pick a key niche and concept, do your research and start small. Add other products and services only after your first area is well established and running smoothly.
2. It’s better to start small than to sell yourself short
It can be tempting to heavily recruit investors so that your company starts out with all the space, tools, and resources it might need. Frankly, anyone who has struggled trying to build a start-up can tell tales of the pain of doing without. Being richly funded might save years of hardship during the development stages. On the other hand, partnerships can tie your hands and send your enterprise in a different direction. Investors may also be unrealistic as to the time R&D requires. This can lead to launching a project before it’s been fully tested. You might also in up with a successful business that quickly crashes and burns. Investors might want their returnon investment right away, not appreciating the need to reinvest in research, equipment, and personnel. Make sure you and your investors are on the same page before you sign on the dotted line.
3. Quality matters
Keeping track of the bottom line is obviously important, just don’t let that keep you from creating a quality product. Unless your intent is to cash in on a trend and then quickly cash out, be sure your product will hold up. Having a great idea, poorly executed invites competitors to come along and to better.
4. You get who you pay for
Experience matters. Don’t assume you can hire people cheaply in order to improve your bottom line. Think about how much business you might lose due to mistakes. It may seem easy to train unskilled workers but this can easily eat into your time to do other work. Plus, low paid, quality workers will quickly move on to better opportunities. Companies are usually better off to hire more qualified employees and pay them a fair wage. Be a company that you would want to work for, not a home for bitter, unappreciated workers.
5. Get rich schemes rarely do
Do you want to build a business or simply cash in? Other than pyramid schemes and other scams, most plans to build a company and quickly sell it off fail. If you want to build a successful start-up, you should focus on what would make it a strong business long term. Build relationships with suppliers and contractors and make a plan for how you’ll expand and grow.
6. Stay flexible
The one thing you can expect is things won’t go exactly as you expect. Successful entrepreneurs are the ones that learn from experience and change their plans to meet changing realities.
7. Stay lean
Committing to large monthly payments for rent and utilities can be death for start-ups. Skip the fancy office and large storefronts and stick with the minimum in long-term commitments until you know exactly where your company is headed. That could mean skipping the computer network and running on Cloud-base services,working out of your home and/or hiring employees that telecommute, starting with a food truck instead of a restaurant, or sharing a location with another company until you need more space.
8. Make the most of technology
Smart phones and tablets can initially take the place of expensive cash registers. Sure, Cloud-based software systems can help you back up data but don’t stop there. Photo editing, email systems, word processing, and other software systems are now available on a monthly, per-user basis. This saves you from paying large, up-front licensing fees and makes it easier to adjust your subscription as your company grows. Project management and team collaboration tools can keep your team on track and make it easy for you to be on top of projects. Don’t forget your website and social media. Online posts, blogs, and reviews have become powerful client development tools for start-ups. Having a good online presence is also critical for most companies in today’s world. This requires your company to be actively engaged online to make the most of your opportunities to build your business.
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