Selling a vision is the toughest thing every startup may face. Getting and retaining new business is a challenge for almost any start-ups. Getting a decent traction of the products and services needs a lot of struggle and patience. So, is there a better way to start a business? Below we discuss five effective tips on how to start a startup.
A Killer Product Concept
A killer product/service concept is essential for every startup to thrive. A good product is the one which is designed with the user in mind. It should address a consumer issue, and provide a better solution. A good product speaks for itself and thereby reducing the salesman’s effort in converting a sale.
A lot of effort and market research is involved in developing a great product idea. This is helpful in finding the potential competitor products and how unique and better your solution is. A product made without the end user in mind ultimately gets affected in the longer run, as the customer has a pivotal role in today’s marketing.
A good product also has got the benefit of word-of-mouth marketing. This will boost your sales with zero marketing cost.
Choosing Right Target Sector
Marketing the right product in the wrong target sector will just spoil your time and business development budget. A thorough feasibility study is recommended well beforehand for a better market post. Tracking steps of similar products are also helpful in gaining necessary understanding of the target sector.
It is suggested to filter out your potential customers from a target market and pitch to them rather going on a wide marketing campaign targeting the mass which may not yield the desired result for a start-up company. Generate leads from the same and keep following up until you get a solid ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ from the customer.
Choose The Right Channels For Marketing
Once you had a great product in hand and identified your target market, this will be a critical step for business development. Researching on the target market would provide you with posts on consumer behavior patterns and preferences which could be utilized to develop the marketing framework. Depending on this you can decide whether the marketing should be targeted on print, mobile, social media or through all. This will save your marketing budget as you will invest your money in the right medium.
Nowadays no one can ignore digital marketing as more people are going online. A company with no proper digital marketing strategy will be pushed aside by competitors who utilize the same.
Choose The Right Clients And Employees
Choose the right employees and clients for your company. Your employees and clients act as brand ambassadors for your company and your future clients and employees. Every startup values employees to be qualitative over quantitative. Initial stages of any business thrive on the quality of services provided until a stable level is reached. Also be sure to recruit the correct person for a position; if you end up recruiting a wrong person, he can spoil the whole team and even the company.
Choose clients/consumers wisely. Show courage to say NO to clients who do not recognize the value of your work, time and service. As for a product based company be sure to concentrate on targeted consumers and marketing should be done accordingly. You need to make sure that you get the client feedback from each client once the work is completed. This helps in approaching a similar project in future with more confidence and accuracy.
Keep Persisting
Taking examples of market leaders, these companies were not started as multi-billion turnover firms but have grown gradually. If you take the example of SAP, Oracle, Apple, and Microsoft, they all started in the 70’s with a great idea and had persisted for more than 40 years.
When they started their business, the market was not as matured and demanding as it is today. Even Apple and Oracle had tough times during the 90’s, and they were almost on the verge of bankruptcy.
However, persistence and adaptations according to, changing trends made the companies resurge to its glory days. Apple which is expected to hit the valuation of 1 trillion USD points at the importance of strong belief and persistence in your vision even in bad times.
A startup to a great company = Great Product + Right Sector + Right Channels + Right Clients and Employees + Persistence.
