Launching a startup is a roller coaster ride. You go from feeling excited and confident to feeling anxious and stressed. There’s always a lot of pressure to succeed, and the fear of failure is constantly with you. You go from feeling the highest high to the lowest low. Sounds like a wild ride, right? The good news is there’s a lot you can do in the early days to avoid the big bumps along the path to success. Here are four practical tips to successfully launch a startup.
Reduce Your Monthly Expenses to Help Fund Your Business
In order to launch a successful startup, you need to take action and put some important things in place. One of the first issues you’ll have to grapple with are finances. When you are getting your startup going it’s going to take a lot of money to pay for both your initial Investment and your early operating expenses. You’ll want to make deep cuts in your personal expenses so you have the funds you need for your business. If you have student loan debt, you can refinance your individual student loans into one, consolidated loan that lowers your monthly payment and helps you save on interest over the length of the obligation.
Know Exactly How You Are Going to Get Your Customers
If you don’t know how you are going to get your customers, you don’t have a business. Mapping out your customer or client acquisition channel and strategy is the key to making your startup viable and profitable right away. Referral selling is a great way to get and close prospects. If you team up with a national company and resell their products to potential clients, you can work hard to develop a trusted relationship with the national firm. Impress them, and sell them on recommending you to their prospects. Then, when you call of the potential customer, you will already have one foot in the door.
Be Passionate About What You Do and What Your Company Has to Offer
There are so many common business risks that you might encounter but having a lot of passion can help you work through any potential pitfalls. When you are making sales calls to potential clients, your enthusiasm and passion for what you offer have to come across. Customers like to buy from those who truly believe in their products and services and are passionate about their business. In-person sales calls and appointments can give you a powerful opportunity to meet with a prospect and let them know the energy you bring and the value of your firm. When you get the contract, do a great job for them and they’ll thank you for your passion and professionalism and recommend you to others too.
Create a Powerhouse Marketing Team
As a startup owner, you are going to spend a lot of time focusing on marketing. You’ll need marketing collateral, a great website design, a social media strategy, and much more. Often, new owners try to do most of this work themselves. It pays to outsource the work, and put together your own marketing dream team. While you won’t be able to afford full-time, top tier marketing professionals on your staff in the beginning, you can use outsourcing to create the right group. Hire the best as your key consultants. You’ll want to look for a public relations specialist, a web design and development firm, a social media strategist and a great copywriter to add to your team.
