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Looking for super-efficient ways to grow your startup? Good news! There exists a 5 step process to move in a positive direction! Check it right now.
Do you know how many startups entrepreneurs set up in 2019 or 2020? How many of them continue their successful business in 2022? The statistics are depressing: 41 percent fail just because they didn’t generate exactly what consumers want and 19 percent disappeared due to the irrelevant strategy regarding marketing and growth. The rest 40 percent survived.
Growth is the clue to prosperity but growing a startup is challenging.
Many small business and startup owners attempt to get to the bottom of this. What hardens the issue is hundreds of tactics and the omni-purpose hacks from “business gurus” that dictate the ways we must build business growth.
While the majority of such recommendations are supposed to serve as an inspiration, many startup owners take them as a cure-all and integrate them apart from the concept of their solutions or clients.
The above-mentioned frequently occurs as many startup owners prefer fast ways and fantasize to suddenly take off at a great speed.
Exciting stories people heard about Airbnb or Dropbox make us consider that growth is always about searching for a magic pill that will positively transform the course of a startup. However, what works for one doesn’t work for others.
What will work for 90 percent of startups is establishing a growth strategy that includes lots of measurement, experimentation, and learning to create the growth machine which runs stable.
Legendary companies have something to learn: they possess a powerful leadership team that gets the appropriate results performed with efficient performance habits (many startups lack that and, as a result, fail).
According to Harvard Business School Press, more than 90% of strategies suffer setbacks. In their study, the authors state that the potential to perform the strategy is more significant than the strategy itself. Incapacity to perform not only reduces performance but also interferes with a company to overcome a risky growth inflection spot. They name that spot as No Man’s Land.
Is your small business or startup stuck in No Man’s Land?
The majority of startups come into a phase of growth where their business is too large to be little, and too little to be large. They are operating as quickly as they can but the old method of operating their business doesn’t work anymore.
If that seems your case, your startup has likely got stuck in No Man’s Land (find out the indicators below):
- Your startup doesn’t grow quickly enough; you hammer away, but you get less money;
- You see that your business wedged; it is overly engaged in many things;
- The team is not on the same wavelength; the wrong people obtain the wrong positions;
- You lack enough money and time to perform what you want.
The worrisome fact is that more than 80% can’t handle No Man’s Land and gain growth. The period of strategic chaos and the lack of resources come. So, what is the way out?
Well, it might seem simple and appealing to consider generating a growth machine, but what are the steps for startup owners to start this procedure from the ground up? Let’s look at the 5 steps to quickly (and efficiently) grow your startup.
5 Steps to Quickly Grow Your Startup
Step 1: Try to Get Initial Clients/Sales First
The common mistake that many startup owners conduct is that they consider, “In case I create something, clients will come and buy it anyway.” This is a big misconception. Attempting to sell something is obviously the most challenging stage of startup growth. So, successful startup owners advise acquiring experience selling something before you start globally.
The following strategy will come in handy:
- Ask a graphic specialist to create several product images and generate the options of “preorder” or “subscribe for the beta version”;
- It is not the time to generate a custom website. To economize time, a good idea would be SquareSpace, Wishpond, or LeadPages to create an elegant coding-free web presence. Also, execute Google Search for landing page options;
- Your task is to perform everything you can to sell: Google Adwords, Facebook/Instagram ads, and Kijiji ads. Just be inventive!
In case you failed to encourage several clients to subscribe or preorder, most probably, your idea isn’t worth implementing. However, there is a positive moment here! On the contrary to other unsuccessful startup owners that attempt to sell a poor idea out of overconfidence, you will proceed with trying other things until you discover the idea that sells in a natural way.
Experiment.com and IndieGoGo are considered brilliant options to sell after designing the prototype. But ponder the following:
- Developing the prototype as well as a breathtaking video is a big (and expensive) job. That is why, first, follow the try-to-sell strategy described earlier;
- Pay time and money to arrange a marketing campaign. Ask Google for effective tips to promote. Frequently, they advise generating your social network 2-4 months beforehand.
Step 2: Implement Cloud Platforms
The key to growth is the accent on innovation. That is why, even if it seems extremely expensive, implement cloud platforms. Experienced startup owners suggest using Google Cloud, Azure, BlueMix, or Heroku.
In case the selected platform doesn’t support cloud solutions, it’s time to address Amazon S3.
It’s appealing to think you can minimize costs by implementing Amazon AWS or even your server; however, there is a wide range of benefits that a platform can bring to the quick growth of your startup:
- Configuring/customizing servers;
- Entire IT administration;
- Outreach to scaling;
- Regular supervision as well as scaling two and more database simultaneously;
- Simple plug-ins to all the 3rd party services;
- Core backend analytics;
- Handling your business surrounding.
It is attractive to think that you can perform all those functions on your own and economize several dollars. But your time is the most precious asset by far. It should be spent on more complex things which are beyond the capacity of a machine.
Step 3: Minimize Your Risks
Taking risks is an inevitable step of launching as well as growing a startup. It’s a utopia to try to manage everything, but there is a wide range of methods to minimize external and internal threats to your startup and its dynamic growth.
One of the significant resources to assist you in reducing any risk can be your startup insurance provider.
Small businesses and startups require controlling their growth to prevent interruptions that can deliver business to a complete stop. What are those interruptions? For instance, the theft of client records, employee data, and solution/service designs can ruin a startup, leading to substantial expenses and violating client confidentiality as well as loyalty.
No one startup owner’s policy is applied to data breaches or other cyber-oriented damages. Small businesses and startups must stand ready by searching for insurance solutions that support them revitalize, involving those that absorb the price of lawsuits and remediation.
As small businesses and startups grow, they may include new equipment, add space, generate new goods or services, increase their operating zone, and expand their distribution footprint. That is why businesses should regularly revise their policies and regulations to make sure they possess the relevant coverage.
Note that it is easy to overlook this step in the conditions of rapid growth. However, you don’t want to discover that your startup has outgrown the coverage right at the moment when you badly require it.
Step 4: Never Focus on Many Things at Once
Do not get distracted. You should forget about any kind of side project (or ignore this step at your own risk). In case you possess any other ongoing projects apart from your startup, this should be a decently paid job. Moreover, it should be exclusively for the sake of conducting invoice payments.
Probably, it looks like side projects can be recouped. However, the human brain can’t function that way without any losses. In case you look at such reputable entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates, you will see that both don’t work on several diverse businesses at one time.
The modern business world knows a wide range of serial startup owners, but no parallel businessmen. This statement works for owners of any business type: distributing attention is the path to nowhere.
Step 5: Always Prioritize Client Experience
Clients’ vision of your startup has the power to both create and destroy a business. To grow your startup, provide clients with high-quality goods, services, and experiences, and customers will quickly glorify your startup on social media. In case you spoil something, customers will inform the world even quicker. Dynamic growth hinges on making your current and potential clients entirely satisfied with their experience.
The most successful startups develop innovative solutions and services to release them quicker to the market as well as cherish long-term client relationships. It is vital to listen to your clients and provide them with what they desire. Your task is to diversify your product/service assortment so you can please the clients’ changing tastes.
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