People fear the idea of starting a business. Once you realize that around 90% of all startups fail, it’s easy to see why people aren’t willing to invest their time, money or effort into starting up a business. However, that doesn’t mean that you need to be within that 90%.
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Once you get started, it can feel amazing to have your own business up and running and to even make a profit from your company. You may even have a few employees and actually feel like a boss running their company. But there’s a catch that not many budding entrepreneurs realize and it’s important to remember this one simple fact of business: everything is liquid.
What works for you now might not work in a few years or even months. The employees you have now might not be with you in a few weeks and there’s no telling how your audience will evolve. Starting a business is just the first step and managing to stay afloat for a few weeks is no indication that you’ve passed the startup phase.
To help you out, we’ve put together a list of different things that will help you create a better business. From the mentality you need to adapt to the type of assistance you should be looking for, we’ll cover as many different aspects of business operation that we can in order to help you sustain your success.
Monitoring Your Audience
Don’t focus on building your audience right away–that takes resources. It will cost a lot of time and effort to grow an audience, so you leave that later once you’ve actually analyzed your audience by monitoring them and their activities.
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When we first start a business, we usually think about our ideal customer. We think about the type of person they are, their age, their background and also their interests. We paint a picture of what we want the perfect customer to look like, but we rarely ever achieve it. That’s because unexpected things happen in business and the type of customer we have might not be that ideal picture we painted a few months ago.
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Because of this, you need to monitor your audience. You need to look at the type of products they buy, the comments they leave and you also need to monitor social media to see what type of feedback you’re getting. You might have an idea of what the perfect customer looks like to you, but it doesn’t mean that you’re going to get them.
So in short, monitor your customers and make sure you create a profile of what they’re like. Check out the types of interests they have or they sort of products they buy and aim to satisfy that core audience further so that you can expand it in the future. If you don’t know your most loyal customer, then you won’t make it far past the startup stage.
Growing Your Personal Brand
In addition to having your business brand you should also think about your personal brand. It might sound like a strange concept, so let’s explain it in greater deal by using a good example.
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Steve Jobs was an incredibly influential American entrepreneur during his time. He is well known for his work on the iPhone, but he also worked extensively on Apple’s older lineup of computers and other pieces of technology. Jobs wasn’t necessarily a bigger than his actual company, but the two names were synonymous. Steve Jobs was a name everyone knew and they revered him for his hands-on approach to technology and leadership. Instead of hiring someone to do all of his keynote speeches and presentations, he was there in the thick of it. His personality showed in his products. As someone that was constantly on the edge of innovation and always showing off new products, jobs made a name for himself.
This is what it means to build not only your business brand, but your personal brand. You may want to hide behind your success and forever be just a CEO, but if you get your hands dirty and play a larger role in everything from research to marketing, you’ll open yourself up to a wider audience and there’s a good chance that if your project does fail, your personal brand will continue to grow stronger.
Attracting More Consumers
You might have a couple of customers here and there but you need to have a nearly endless supply of new consumers in order to have a stable business. This means that you need to focus on advertising to the right audience–but that doesn’t come easily.
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By using the first tip (monitoring your audience) you can create a rough profile of what your audience actually enjoys and how they prefer to interact with you. By using this information, you can grow your brand and attract many more customers. However, you can also do this by offering more convenient ways for your audience to both buy your products and services and also interact with you. For example, you can offer different payment methods to make it more convenient for people to buy your products, or you could follow their suggestions and add new products or change existing ones to fit their needs.
Expanding Your Operations
You’ll also have to expand your operations when possible in order to grow your business. Whether this is by renting out another office or building your own retail store, there are many different ways to grow your company in the future. While you might not have the funds now, it’s still a good idea to think about the services you need to rely on and how you can achieve them.
For instance, if you do plan on eventually constructing a building or something similar, then you’ll need to work with services like Helitech CCD in order to build the right foundations for your new structure. This is going to take a lot of time and planning, but it’s essential if you want to have a good chance at successfully growing your business with a physical expansion.
Another way to expand your operations is by taking production into your own hands. Small businesses will typically rely on things like drop-shipping and third-party factories in order to provide their customers with their products. Although you might be making a profit, there’s always room for improvement. You could invest in your own production line which would be incredibly expensive, but at least it offers you more control over the end product and ultimately saves money in the long run.
If you’re thinking of growing your business then you need to think about how to invest your money efficiently. For some people that means creating a production chain, for others, it means investing your cash into something that will give benefits further down the line. Whatever the case, it will require a lot of investment in both time and money.
Taking Care of Yourself
We all know how difficult running a business can be, but have you ever thought about how much stress it puts on your body and mind? Countless nights spent in the office, too much time sitting down and dealing with the mental fatigue of running a business can all affect you in adverse ways. This is why it’s important to focus on taking care of your own health as well as your business.
It’s advised that you should try to follow a relatively standard working schedule when possible. That means getting enough sleep (not working late nights) and taking weekends off whenever possible. Yes, this means working less on your business and working more on your actual health and wellbeing. It might seem like you’re sacrificing a lot of time and wasting it, but you can fix this by working more efficiently instead of just working more hours.
For example, if you don’t already have a working schedule then it’s a good idea to put one together so that you distribute your time evenly among your tasks. This is a great way to stay on track and it helps greatly with trying to stay focused. Removing distractions and quitting commitments that aren’t vital to your wellbeing are also good ways to make more time for your business when it matters.
To Conclude
As you can see, there are many different steps to take once you’ve established your business in the industry. It doesn’t take long for a startup to fail so it’s essential that you follow this guide to prevent your company from collapsing. In short, never stop planning for your business. Never stop trying new things, never stop going the extra mile and always look for ways to improve what you’re currently doing, even if it means investing your capital. Never stop looking for methods to grow your exposure and constantly work to provide your customers with a better experience with your products and services.
