When we startup and want to grow in the early stage, it’s about the big picture, and having a holistic approach. Here's how!

You have decided to startup.

Great!

However, after consulting, training and working with Fortune 500 companies, top MNCs and many startups in my past 18+ years of career; I concluded that intuition and gut cannot always serve us well with niche selection while starting a startup. Intuition serves well only in the absence of data.

When we have hard data, we need to trust the data. Data never lies.

The first step of a successful startup in the early stage is- competitive research.

Competition and their performance always give us a clear indication of market opportunity.

Just because competition exists in a market, it doesn't mean that someone else is taking away your opportunity.

Having competition means that the market opportunity is real and not imaginary. It is proof that there are hungry paying customers out there. And the same customers might also pay you, not just your competition.

Many startup entrepreneurs fail with their startups because they end up building a product or service that doesn't have any real need in the market.

The world's No.1 startup incubator's slogan (Y Combinator) is:?Build something people want.

Simple to say, but hard to implement.

There is a better opportunity in markets with competition because, believe it or not, the competition ends up growing the market size for you.

How I entered a startup consultancy and personal branding business.

When I left my corporate job, I knew I can build and grow businesses. I knew I can connect easily with a large group of audience and being in HR I have picked up the skills to identify the right person for the right job.

The number of startups in India, in 2016, was rising. The Government of India started funding these startups.

There popped up many startup consultancies and training companies with experience founders and cofounders helping these startups generate more revenue in the early stage.

To be precise by the time I am writing this article there are 88,236 startups in India.

I found my competition advantage, and people realize the opportunity in startup consultancy and training business.

Soon...

The competition was warming up the market. If no competitors and no advertisements are being run by the competition, then the market would have been cold.

The customers out there will not be warmed up enough to buy anything (whether from the competitors or me).

It is much harder to convert prospects into customers in an ice-cold market than in a warm market. Your competition is doing the hard work for you. If they do well, you should be happy about it.

You can always differentiate from the competition using your pricing and product. The way your product is delivered can differ from the competition.

Whenever I see a competition's client making a lot of revenue and impact on the market, I am not afraid. I am excited because the competition is not taking away a slice of the pie from my client's market, but increasing the size of the pie itself, which leaves room for others in the market.

When the competition does well, you can also collaborate with the competition to make more revenue for yourself and the competition.

The second part of the story is the revenue model.

So far, we have worked with an #EduTech startup, #AgriTech startup, #Health and #Wellness Startup, #SaaS startup & #E-Commerce startup.

The revenue model of each of the above sectors is completely different, and it depends not only on the TA and GTM Strategy but many other factors too.

?EduTech Startups:

The Subscription Business Model?can be a good where part of the content comes on a freemium basis, and live doubt sessions, and it can provide special doubt-clearing sessions to the paid users.

Pay Per Use Model?can also work for platforms similar to Chegg, where you pay for a question you need an explanation on. This can further yield revenue on a?Markup Model?where you keep the margin between the solver’s take and the asker’s pay.

?FinTech Startups:

Undoubtedly?Commission Revenue Model, the Arbitrage?Model?and?Pay Per Use Model?can be laid down as the source of revenue.

Sometimes, the tech involved in the startup might be lucrative to fellow entrepreneurs. Therefore, licensing the tech and generating?Licensing Revenue?can also be a great means of earning revenue.

?AgriTech Startups:

The ongoing development in the tech behind agri-startups motivates a?Licensing Revenue?Model?in most cases. Apart from that, the Arbitrage?Model?and?Pay Per Use Model?are worthy methodologies to implement.

?Health and Wellness Startups:

For startups operating in the health and wellness industry, the subscription model, as in the case of Innovaccer, is a good revenue model.

We can also use the advertising model?in tie-ups with various hospitals and pharmacies. Also,?the commission model?can be easily laid down, as with online pharmacy startups like PharmEasy.

?Software as a Service (SaaS) Startups:

As businesses in this sector can serve multiple purposes, almost all the popular revenue models discussed above can be implemented.

?E-Commerce Startups:

As e-commerce marketplaces provide a platform where the listing and sales go on, one of the very basic suitable revenue models is the Pay Per Use Model for the customer with a Markup Model (affiliate marketing).

Since the platform provided by the E-Commerce Startup garners a good screen time for the user, it opens up the scope for the Advertising Model of revenue too.

Be Customer Obsessed, Not a Competitor Obsessed.

You remember customers are more important than the competition.

Many businesses become competition obsessed. They keep looking at what their competition is doing, what products they are launching, how much revenue they are making, and so on.

If you become obsessed with your competitors, you will lose track.

Instead, become customers obsessed.

Customers will always pay for a good product or service. If you keep your focus on your existing customers and near-future customers, you will grow. And then your competitors will become obsessed with you.

Looking at the competition is only needed to understand the market opportunity.

But I do not recommend copying the marketing strategy and the product strategy of the competition. If you do that, then you can never grow beyond your competition.

You will get new product ideas only when you become customer focused.

When you genuinely care about your customers and want them to find solutions to their problems, you will sell your products and services with ease.

To do that, start with a specific set of customers in a defined geography. Choose that territory in such a fashion, that you understand how they will behave to the need your product/service is catering.

Understand their deepest desire with this and diversify if you needed to.

If you are a founder and you like this article you can subscribe to my newsletter for more updates or you can reach out to me at [email protected] I will be happy to help.