Starting a business could be one of the most important decisions in your life. You no doubt want to pursue a long-term mission that offers value to your customers, improves your creativity, rewards you financially, and improves your experience year after year.
But despite how good that sounds, research shows that many start-up businesses fail within the first five years. This entails that proper planning and mindset are important if you want to start a successful business.
The following tips can help you to prepare yourself in order to build a successful business anywhere in the world.
- Identify business opportunity
Mark Zuckerberg says, “Entrepreneurship is creating change, not just creating companies.” What makes up great entrepreneurs is their ability to solve problems.
You have to consider the problem you want to solve before starting a business. This could involve building a solution from scratch or capitalizing on what an existing business has done.
To identify business opportunities, consider your own needs or your community’s needs. What problems do you have in your personal life or your community, and what solution could solve the problems?
Take the story of Uber, for instance. The idea all started when a snowstorm hit Paris in 2009, which made getting a cab difficult. Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick then decided to solve the problem by creating ride-hailing software.
Your primary goal as an entrepreneur is to make money. Your target audience will only pay you when you know their pain points and proffer a solution. When your business is focused on solving a problem, you can be sure that you will have a market.
- Conduct research
While identifying a problem could signal that you will have a market. It doesn’t guarantee that your business will be profitable. You have to embark on market research or feasibility study to know your competitors and ascertain the size of the market. This will prevent you from reinventing the wheel or entering a saturated market with an outdated strategy.
From the beginning, you need to identify the best way to make a profit. This could involve selling high-ticket goods or services. Where the profit margin is low, you have to focus on strategies that could position you to sell in high volume to your customers.
Regardless of your source of funds – be it your personal income or an investment, you can only remain in business when your business is profitable.
Start by gathering feedback from your target audience to find out if they are willing to solve the problems they face. Do you help your customers to prevent loss of time, money, or other resources? Is your solution more affordable or sustainable? What are the lapses your competitors are facing that you aim to address?
Prepare and compare your pricing with that of your competitors. If you are charging more than your competitors, then you should be offering more value to your customers.
Many new businesses usually focus on charging less than their competitors or offering a solution at no cost in the initial stage. That may not be the right unique selling point for you if you are focused on profitability.
Focus on building a brand that people love. It is more profitable to focus on quality products and services coupled with strong marketing than to pay excess attention to pricing. This is the secret behind the success of Apple and Nike.
During your research, make sure you find out if your idea is viable and if you can comply with the regulatory authority in order to actualize your mission.
- Prepare your business plan
Your business plan is like a roadmap. It guides you in reaching the goals you have set for yourself to attain profitability. A good business plan should provide answers to the following questions.
- How will you operate your business?
- Who is your target audience?
- Who will be on your team and what are their duties?
- How much do you need to start and run the business, and what are your sources of funds?
- What is your financial plan for the next five years?
- What are your products, services, and pricing?
- What is your marketing strategy?
- What are your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) and how do you aim to address them?
These questions will prepare you for funding, organizational structure, and other methods that could enable you to achieve success in your business.
One of the major problems of start-up businesses is the lack of funding. If you have a business plan, it would be easier for you to seek grant opportunities or approach investors to help you take off your idea.
A new business is built on speculation; therefore, you don’t want to choose a funding opportunity that would put you under pressure, jeopardize your personal brand and your mission or limit your ability to grow. It is advisable you start running the business with your money or a favourable grant. You may also offer shares to venture capitalists with known investment history.
- Prepare a work schedule and be flexible
Starting your own business doesn’t mean you will work less. In the beginning, you may need to handle many tasks alone and acquire more and more skills. That means you will work harder and spend more time perfecting your goal.
To enable you to maintain your discipline, you have to prepare a to-do list. Tick off every task you have achieved and move to the next task. Analyze your result and adapt when and where necessary. This also applies when you are working with a team.
- Prioritize marketing
Remember the popular saying that the customer is king.
You can only remain in business when you have customers who are using your products or services. Start off by making it easier for your customers to make purchases. You might need a website, mobile app, or walk-in store to simplify the experience both online and offline.
You can start attracting customers through the following means.
- Building a personal brand on the internet
- Networking
- Word of mouth
- Social media advertisement
- Telemarketing
Create a good customer service experience around your offerings. Your relationship with customers shouldn’t end once you get paid for a product or service. Keep proper documentation of your customer list and nurture a good relationship through constant follow-up. Utilize various means of marketing such as SMS, email marketing, online advertisement, and others to keep in touch with your customers.
Upsell to your existing customers to attract more sales and keep them glued to your brand. Keep attracting new customers and ask for referrals to grow your customer base.
- Engage or hire the right professionals
The second tip in this article suggests that you should focus on building a brand with strong marketing. You can begin by creating a good brand identity. Visit Fiverr to hire a branding expert to manage your branding.
Fiverr is a platform where you can hire various professionals to help you grow your brand. Among others, these professionals can help you with the following services.
- Writing your business plan
- Creating your brand identity
- Creating content for your social media page
- Writing your email newsletters and blogs
- Building and managing your website and mobile app
- Setting up your online advertisement
A virtual assistant with a diversified skill set can handle two or more services among the aforementioned.
Delegate tasks you cannot handle to professionals. It will save you time and enable you to create a lasting impression for your customers. In the end, you want to create a brand that people love.
- Prioritize customers and profitability
You have to build a customer-centric business. If you put customers first, it will make them feel appreciated and loyal to your brand. That will reflect positively on your brand image and make it easier to charge a premium for your service.
While customer satisfaction is important, you don’t want to sacrifice profitability. Focus on delivering premium products and services in order to improve your pricing towards profitability.
- Be patient and stay focused
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Are you willing to stay long enough in business in order to achieve success?
Keep detailed records to track your progress and become accountable. Be dedicated to achieving success in your business, yet don’t put excess pressure on yourself. Any business in operation for less than 3 – 5 years is a start-up business. The longer you stay in business, the more the chances of expanding your customer base. You may need time to win the trust of some of your potential customers.
Be flexible with your strategy and pay attention to market trends to be sure your patience is worth it.
The benefits of using Fiverr for your business
- Fiverr takes away the stress of recruiting talents. You can meet millions of professionals on the platform, and get matched to the right freelancers.
- You can get services based on your budget, which will enable you to save on payroll.
- You can launch your company quickly by connecting with several remote professionals.
- Fiverr help you delegate tasks and boost your productivity.
- You can experiment with ideas with Fiverr freelancers without changing the course of your staff.
To get started with Fiverr, click here. You will be redirected to Fiverr.
