5 Essential Tips For Starting A Successful Business
There are many things you need to know when venturing out to start a business, however I will just stick with 5 essential tips to equip you to succeed when starting your business so lets begin.
Tip #1 Is your product or service needed in the marketplace? This is key because many entrepreneurs venture out into unknown territory without testing to see if their product or service is needed, and for the entrepreneur who is bootstrapping their business you are wasting time, money and resources when you put out a product or service that your target market doesn’t need.
Here is a link to an article of top companies that created products that didn’t do well in the marketplace, there are lessons you can learn from the failed attempts of other businesses.
Test first to see if your product is a viable product or service, is their competition in the marketplace? Create a survey form and ask your social media following, as well as friends and family members. This will give you an insight if you are to move forward with the idea.
Tip # 2 Does your target audience need your product or service? The key to running a successful business is to ensure the product or service that you are offering is solving a problem for them.
- Does your product/service bring about a transformation
- Does your product/service relieves them of stress & anxiety
- Does your product/service free up time for them
- Does your product/service provides ease and convenience
Think about the products and services you utilize, think about the apps that you use on a regular basis. Now ask yourself why do you use them, in what ways are they helping you, how are they making life more enjoyable.
Next thing to do is determine how you can help your target audience receive what they need from you without having to find the other component from another business.
Let’s look at Target & Walmart both of these stores’ business model is to be a one-stop shopping experience for their customers.
Let’s just break down what you can purchase from these stores without having to visit another store.
- Grocery
- Bakery
- Housewares
- Toys
- Electronics
- Lawn & Garden
- Make-up
- Jewelry
- Music
- Books
- Furniture
- Clothes for the family
- Pharmacy
- Body & Hair Care
The point that I am trying to make is their goal is to ensure that their consumers have everything they need so there is no need for them to shop elsewhere. I know as an entrepreneur just starting out you don’t have the finances to run this type of business, however my point is in what you are offering to your target market can their be add-on products or service that are in alignment with your business, so your target audience doesn’t have to look elsewhere to complete their purchase.
Example: If you offer a web-design service, can you add on a monthly maintenance service for assisting the client with SEO, and keeping their site looking clean and fresh or adding content to their site to keep their followers engaged, you can always outsource the content creation aspect by looking on Fivver.com for content creators who can do this for you at a low cost.
Graphic Design: Why not offer a monthly package of designs geared toward certain industries like : Real Estate, Coaching and Wellness. You as an entrepreneur have to get creative in finding ways to bring value to your target audience.
Tip #3 Having A Plan In Place: The saying is true when you fail to plan, you plan to fail, because anything that you set out to do should always begin with a plan. When you write something down on paper you are putting a positive energy out in the atmosphere to achieve something in your life and that’s not a small thing. In order to bring that plan to life you have to work the plan, just because you may experience setbacks and moments of uncertainty doesn’t mean that’s the plan is bad, it may just need to be tweaked or some brainstorming may be needed to get the plan to where you are seeing your momentum building.
Setting The Plan In Place
- Write down the idea
- What are the pros
- What are the cons
- How can you execute on the plan with low risk
- What measurements will you put in place to see if the plan is a viable plan?
a. Time
b. Money
C. Engagement
A moment of transparency here, there are times I had the plan written down, but the reason I didn’t see any activity was because of my failure to stay consistent with the plan. Consistency is key when working any plan, as an entrepreneur your goal is to stick with the actions necessary to see any changes are occurring.
Now this can take a while and this is where some entrepreneurs give up because they want instant gratification, and this just does not exist when building a business. It takes years for some businesses to even break even. Don’t allow that to discourage you, just continue to stay consistent even if you have to make changes along the way.
Tip # 4 What resources and skill sets do you have? If you are starting a business and don’t have the cash to invest in your business, then your investment is going to be time, and this is where showing up on a consistent basis is going to be your friend as well as having a solid plan in place.
You will have to get creative here in scheduling out your time to do:
- Videos
- Podcast
- Content Creation (blog posts)
- Build relationships
- Sharpen your skills
- Social media scheduling
This doesn’t have to be an overwhelming task, but you do have to plan for it.
- What days will you create content
- How often will you post on social media
- How will you build relationships with your followers
- What social media platforms will you post on
These questions are necessary so you can sit down and plan out your week or month so you don’t feel pressured to always be posting just to keep up, make a plan and put it on an auto-post scheduler like hootsuite.
Tip #5 Your Mindset Matters, although this is the last tip it’s the most important of the rest, because your mindset will either cause you to move forward in spite of the challenges or hinder your progress and your process.
As an entrepreneur you’re not just growing a business, you’re developing as a leader and mindset is the reason why a lot of entrepreneurs are not further along in their journey, I know because I was one of them that had some many mindset issues that were hindering my process and my progress.
Mindset Issues I struggled with was a scarcity mindset (there isn’t enough to go around) which is all lies, negative mindset believing that I will always struggle to get what I want out of life. These were negative mindsets that were hindering me from moving forward in my business.
I was believing these lies because of (truth be told, what I experienced in my childhood) by not measuring up according to family member’s standards, trying to people please my way through life for people and family to accept me. So no wonder these mindsets showed up in my business.
I’ve said this in other blog posts, but business is about risk, you are putting yourself out there and any issues you have within yourself to achieve goals in your life (unless you’ve worked through those issues) those old tapes will begin to play, you can’t do that you, you don’t have enough education, you didn’t get good grades in school etc….
So whenever an entrepreneur steps out to take a risk to create something that will serve others, I applaud them because it’s not an easy task and certainly not for the faint of heart. So I celebrate you for your courage and tenacity and sticktoitiveness to build a life that you love, and for that reason my business exists to help you through that process to be there to be your cheerleader through the good times and your encouragement through the not so great times.
In the words of Nike, Just Do It!
Recent Comments