Entrepreneurial tips on how to launch a startup
Why everyone wants to be an entrepreneur and launch a startup? Simple, because everyone feels that Entrepreneurship = Independence + Challenges + Personal freedom + Enjoyment + Autonomy + Personal Satisfaction. However, the reality contradicts the public awareness amongst the young, enthusiastic, and ambitious. Of course, entrepreneurship is not everyone’s cup of tea. But, if you have passion, are ready to take up challenges, and want to excel in your ambitions – go for it! Below are some of the most important entrepreneurial tips on how to launch a startup. These pointers are summation of financial tips, behavioural tips, and motivational tips. In all, these tips will mentally prepare you on what aspects you should take care as an entrepreneur of your own startup. These tips also focus on how to make a startup company successful. 1. Plan, plan, and plan Planning is crucially important to get success. You need to create a well-structured plan that is capable of giving you an edge over the others in the market. Better planning provides better vision. In your plan building exercise, include each of your business aspects like legal, financial, and marketing. Proper planning and preparation prevents poor performance. Stephen Keague Remember, planning is a continual process of visualising goals and choosing the means to achieve those goals. And hence, your plan should not be too rigid, at the same time; it should not be too flexible. You can start with deriving your mission statement and then devise a plan to achieve that. Most of the successful entrepreneurs follow three layers of planning process i.e. strategic planning, tactical planning, and operational planning.
2. Get started with all passion Launching a startup and converting it into an established brand isn’t an overnight job. Yes, this requires patience, dedication, time, and efforts. Brace yourself, since entrepreneurship is a long-term journey. A great leader’s courage to fulfil his vision comes from passion, not position. John Maxwell
In addition, you need to prepare yourself for the extreme ups and downs. Initially, there might be sleepless nights and stressful days. You might feel alone or desperate at times. However, this is nothing but a journey towards success. Keep your hope and enthusiasm intact and hang on to your courage. 3. Deliberate, but not blind optimism Naturally, one who wants to start his journey as an entrepreneur would be highly optimistic and passionate. If you are willing to become an entrepreneur, the very first thing you need is confidence in yourself. Always believe that you can make it irrespective of number of challenges. Your confidence is one of your biggest strengths. And, it is contagious too which will boost you psychologically to get through your tough times. It is always good to stay confident but ensure that it does not transform into your weakness. Confidence is good but over-confidence always sinks the ship. Oscar Wilde Also, never ever become a victim of blind optimism. Always set goals that are ambitious. But, do consider other criteria like the strength and availability of your team and resources to achieve that goal. If you lack the strength that is desired to achieve the goal, you might end up losing trust of others in you. It is never appreciable to lose the faith of your clients, partners, or team just because you have missed out on goals. 4. Time management There are two popular sayings in regards of value and importance of time: Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely - Auguste Rodin Time is money - Benjamin Franklin Of course both these quotes do not pass on the same message but they both are equally true! Your time spent on activities does have a monetary value so use it wisely. Here comes proper planning, skilled people, and strategic processes into place. Cumulatively these three bring effectiveness and efficiency in the way you carry out your business activities. So, always start with a plan that is supported by logical processes and followed by your people. 5. Set SMART goals for both financial and non financial aspects It is difficult to establish financial goals especially when you are a startup entrepreneur. Financial goals not only means X% of profit margins. It is much more beyond that. It includes cash flow goals, business expansion goals, productivity goals, and profitability goals. Don’t keep superfluous goals e.g. “I will turn this startup into a billion dollar
company”. Rather breakdown your macro goals into smaller, attainable, and measurable goals. In short, have SMART goals (i.e. specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timebound). While building financial goals, as an entrepreneur, you can’t risk ignoring non-financial goals. There is a big risk of failure for startups when they ignore fixing their non-financial goals. These goals comprise, but are not restricted to, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, relationship with customers and clients, corporate social responsibility, and business ethics. 6. Cash flow management Since we have already talked about financial goals, let’s discuss about cash flow management. Never take your eyes off the cash flow because it is the lifeblood of business. Richard Branson Cash flow management is perhaps the biggest challenge that each startup face. It is none other than running out of finance. As a responsible and cautious entrepreneur, always know about every single dollar/pound. From where it is coming and where it is going. You need to invest money not waste money. Spend wisely and set up a budget to which you can stick to. Business cash flow is considered as king. Hence, aim to raise finance as and when needed especially when you are in introduction phase of your business lifecycle. In the initial period, financial statements (income statement and statement of financial position) are fiction whereas cash flow statement is the reality. A proper management of cash flow also helps in your accounting and tax management. 7. Restriction on fixed expenses in the initial period Entrepreneur of a startup has to keep expenses low in the initial period. This can be controlled by restricting your fixed costs. Rather than employing a pool of resources, think of outsourcing some of the non-core tasks. It will lessen your financial burden. This is because you need a bigger premise to accommodate everyone and you don’t need to pay them every week/month since they are not permanent resources. 8. Customer acquisition - mere focus Revenue generating is the utmost goal for any business be it a startup or a brand. And, revenue comes from your customers. Hence, have a mere focus on customer acquisition.
Make sure every single employee in your company knows precisely what value your customers are seeking. Tom Krackeler The overall process might take some time to understand how to acquire customers. But once you will have buyer persona and a perfect marketing strategy in hand, soon you will be able to see visitors, leads, and customers across your marketing funnel. To know which marketing channel is working better for your business, you need to perform A/B testing of your efforts. 9. Focus on sustainability If cash is life blood then sustainability is oxygen of the business. Most of the passionate entrepreneurs start business with enthusiasm, but very few convert it into an established brand. Whenever you feel diverted or feel difficult to sustain, think about all great entrepreneurs like Michael Blooberg, Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, Jeff Preston Bezos, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Gary Vaynerchuk, and list goes on. They all have reached on top due to their focus on sustainability. 10. Understand the situations All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them. Galileo Galilee As you go ahead with your entrepreneurial journey, make sure you treat people fairly – be it a client or an employee. Yes, it doesn’t mean that you should not be straightforward and honest.
But, never disrespect your people and their opinions. Maintain ethics and expect ethics. As Richard Branson has said, Happy employees = happy customers. Relationships excel the life of a startup, and hence, cultivate them with care. On the other hand, when you launch your startup, be ready to
recognize your critics the same way you acknowledge your appreciators. Focus on your ultimate goal which is to transform your vision into reality. And, feedback mechanism helps here a lot. 11. Failure is the stepping stone to success Blocks usually turn into stepping stones. Lolly Daskal
Be ready for miserable failures, if they come in the journey of your efforts and activities towards success. There is nothing wrong in failing in your hard work. Whenever you fail or rather whenever your success gets postponed, don’t be disheartened. Feel proud that at least you had the vision and guts to start something new. Boost yourself, have your mission in your mind and get back to your entrepreneurial passion.
At last – Optimism with open eyes and open mind is the key to success You never know what can happen when you launch a startup and become an entrepreneur, so it is best to prepare yourself for the worst possible situation. But be optimistic, stay honest with yourself and have focus on your goals. No one can stop you from enjoying your successes. Get started now and enjoy entrepreneurship!! Feel free to share YOUR ideas on entrepreneurship and startup. We would love to know your views. Title: Entrepreneurial tips for Startup Meta description: Do you want to experience entrepreneurship by launching a startup? If so – great – do read these tips which will make you a successful entrepreneur.