GETTING THROUGH THE INITIAL DAYS OF ANY BUSINESS

“Well begun is half done” - Aristotle

We must have tried beginning many things in our life whether it’s reading a book, our favorite hobby, or any kind of side hustle. Every time we start something, continue till a few days and then leave that half-way through and finally forget about it. 

The process of beginning sometimes looks so hard, that we just drop the idea about starting anything and in case we make it through, we find ourselves struggling to finish it.

But when it comes to starting a business or startup, we cannot take any kind of risk. From choosing the business name to opting the business structure, once the doors are open, you cannot look behind. 

So, to help you with that, I am going to start a series of steps which will help you to settle your business in the market.

In this blog, we will talk about the phases through which a new startup company goes through in the initial days and some steps to get through these tough days.

Initial Days Of Business

Everyone has ideas. Some of the ideas might be awesome, while others might not be so good. 

Even when you have a great idea, there is a huge difference in having a good idea and starting a successful business or startup company. Once your business is official and visible to the world, the first 60 days and the first 20 customers of your business plant the foundation for its successful survival. 

During these days only, you get to know about customers and the world of business. After that, you get a little bit of track and momentum to hold the things better. 

Finding Your Target Customers

Once you have jumped into the market and are ready with your products and services, the next big thing you have to do is finding your target customers. It’s one of the most important steps for the foundation of all the elements of your business. Your target customer cannot be “everyone”. So, finding the customers who can identify your niche is your main task. You can begin with small steps, to find the target audience which are:

• Compiling data on the customers using similar services as f yours
• Look into the social media and website analytics
• Check out your competitors
• Understand the value of your services very well
• Connect your content to your products and services

Knowing Your Customers

The second step is to know your target customers. Lots of people make a massive common mistake of creating all sorts of marketing plans and also launch the products without having a full understanding of what they are actually selling and to whom. 

You need to do a PhD in understanding your clients, their goals and their challenges. You should know the motivation behind whatever they are doing which may be directly or indirectly related to you and your business. 

Instead of knowing the “What”, it is more important to know and understand the ”Why” behind their every action. The more you understand them, the more accurate you will be with your marketing strategy as you are the one who will communicate to the people.

Convincing The Customers To Use Your Service

Customers don’t buy because of your product features rather they use your service as they discern some “benefits” to those features. 

Sadly, most of the marketing strategists talk about features of their services rather than the benefits of their customers. I am sharing certain steps which will help you to develop interest in your customers and convince them to buy your service.

• Knowing your customers very well, their socio economic data, their interests, their problems, etc.
• Knowing the difference between a feature and benefit
• Emphasizing on the uniqueness of your firm and services
• Building a trust in them that you are there to help and serve them only

While beginning a business tests every social, mental, financial and physical aspects of our life, it also tests how strong we stand against the most-windy days of our business. And, once we make our way through this, it will be difficult for others to uproot us and while doing this, we need to keep the two most important facets of our business, “our clients and our services”. 

Stay tuned to my next blog, where I will be sharing about the different ways to know and understand your clients well.