Everything you need to know before you launch your start-up.
Michael Makdah
Entrepreneur | FinTech, SaaS & Digital Marketing Specialist | Building Scalable Go-To-Market Strategies & Driving Lead Generation
1. Find a niche business idea in an industry you're passionate about, and find a way to make money out of it. "Passion will fuel success."
2. Locate a Market that has huge potential growth relevant to your passionate niche idea. So A niche idea in a market that is untapped. Make sure you are ready to move around and have the flexibility to change your lifestyle around your business. "Example if you do something athletic, you must be able to build a lifestyle around your business idea so you can't be fat and unhealthy, and rather be sporty and healthy."
3. Bootstrap as much as possible. Try and use every advantage you can to get freebies, discounts, a personal favour from family and friend who are experts in a field.
4. Create a cash flow model. Cash flow is key in a successful business. Most startups fail because of bad money management. You need to be a Ninja when it comes to managing cash.
5. Hire a team. You can’t do it alone, make sure you a hire a team. Always remove your weakest person. “Your team is only as strong as the weakest person. Always be hiring, make sure you're in pursuit to find the dream team. Once you hire them, make sure to compensate them adequately. ESOP, Commission, Bonus, and salary raises. ”
6. Develop a business and marketing plan. If you got a niche product you want your marketing team to ensure to understand your niche, it’s eco system, key factors, and big players.
7. Always be selling. Whatever the product or service is, make sure that everyone is selling including yourself. Sales are what pays the bills, and puts food on the table. You must become a sales leader and push sales as much as you can.
8. Optimise your business plans every three months. When you plan your startup, you will be assuming a lot of numbers, reactions to the product/service. You will need to optimise these figures to every three months to draw out a clear picture for your team and for you to get a grip on expenses.
9. Make it fun and build a culture. Start ups can be robotic and loss the element of fun. Make sure you create rituals around your business like taking the team out for dinner when a milestone is achieved, or casual Thursdays or movie night every Saturday.
10. Raise capital. In today's global economies you will want to own 10% of 10,000,000 dollar company vs. owning 100% of 100,000 dollar company. Use Venture Capitalists to elevate your business to the next level.
Bonus tip: Once your all set up, take yourself of the CEO position and find someone to take over your business. Create an advisory board that will assist this new CEO by keeping them in check.
Blending Intellectual Property Expertise with Business Development Strategies
8 年Great article Michael, I would add also make an important insertion, if I may, into item 6 and that is "Intellectual Property Strategy". When consulting with our clients we find that trademark names and registration or any IP matters are an "after thought" rather than an important business decision that should be taken into consideration when you are planning your start-up/brand. When planned properly any company's IP will hold value and will be an important asset to an organization on the long term. Look at the trademark value for Apple, Google and many more at this point.
Head of Marketing | Web3 Founder | Focused on driving growth through web3 marketing & community building
8 年The only thing I would disagree with is "always be selling", no one likes to be sold to especially in the western markets. I would replace that with always ensure you're solving a problem/providing a solution. A startups success depends on how valuable the solutions are you are providing to a particular pain point. Also whether that involves a positive cashflow model is another question. Most startups looking to build massive companies do so with negative cash flow models.