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When you’re getting ready to launch your very first startup, you tend to ask yourself question after question after question, all of the rhetorical. Will it work? What makes your idea good enough? Is the market ready for your product? How long can you realistically last without generating a revenue? Can it become as big as you hope it can? All of these questions buzz about in the newbie entrepreneurs head like an itch you can’t satisfy until you finally tell yourself that there is absolutely no way of knowing until you go and try.
If only this was the case.
There are more ways than you may have realized in which you can prepare yourself for what is needed and what is going to happen. Ways in which you can test your concept and make all the improvements needed before you launch. Ways to maximize your launch so that you hit the ground running. And ways in which you can prevent your first attempt at entrepreneurship becoming a failure. What’s more, the earlier you go through these steps the better for your startup.
Spy On Your Industry
The earlier you can get a handle on this the better, so long as you don’t forget to keep it up from this moment out because the more you understand about your potential industry the better. It could be that you don’t know what industry you want to go into yet, which is totally normal. A lot of entrepreneurs get into entrepreneurship because they don’t like working for other people, or they are ideas people and need to run on their own course for fear of going insane. If that is the case, then what you should do is look at two areas and see where you fit. The first area you should look at is you; know what your style is, what your real interests are and where your real talents lie. Once you understand this, start looking at what industries are exploding, and what could explode off the back of these. Interactive technology is a big one at the moment, such as apps, and so is this concept of healthy lifestyles and wellness. By knowing what you have and what the trends are, you can see where you are best placed, and that is a big chunk of the battle.
Eyes On The Competition
When you know what industry you want to get into, whether that be a market in general or a specific niche, the best place to start is with the competition. These are the guys and girls that are already doing it and so you can get a good understanding of exactly what they are up to. Go to their stores, try out their products, find out where they get them made, look at what makes them unique and figure out what you can do to be better. The more information you can get on your competition the better. What we recommend you do is make a list of things that matter. This will probably include what competition is out there, what competition is in your area, what do they offer, how much does their product or service cost, and what are they doing to stand out from the crowd. Once you have done this, become a customer. Get the experience they offer. If they are a restaurant then go and eat there regularly. If they are a service provider then sign up to their newsletter and subscribe to their website. Google them, not just to learn more about them as a company, but to see who their affiliates are, their alliances and suppliers. The more you know the more you can plan how to be better.
Become An Expert In Marketing
Okay, you don’t actually have to become an expert, but you should have a genuine interest in this side of things because it will be your secret weapon. Look at Ed Sheeran. He is a musician and his sole focus lies on making the best album he can. But once he has that in the can, boom, his marketing hat comes down. He thinks of ways to become a talking point. Thinking Out Loud is the perfect example; he went from the scruffy kid who wears hoodies all the time to a heartthrob in a tux that knows how to dance. What happened? It went viral. That is what you should strive to be like with your business. If there is a term you’ve heard then look it up and understand what it means and how it could apply to you. It could be affiliate marketing or programmatic advertising, what is programmatic advertising. In order to know what is relevant to you, though, it is imperative you know who your target audience is first; that will prevent you wasting time and money learning about the different approaches and then using the wrong approach to your target audience. The other thing you’ll want to get to grips with from the ground up is what affects your SEO and how you can improve it, as well as how to use social media effectively, yes, but also quickly. Remember, time is money.
Let That Doubt Get To You
The worst thing you can do is think you have this whole startup thing in the bag, which is a natural attitude of a newbie entrepreneur. It is such a mistake to think like this, though. Just because you have a good idea and a basic understanding of programmatic advertising does not mean you are going to have a viable business. You need to know this and let that doubt motivate you into trying harder, to cover more bases and to refine your concept even further. However, making sure you are prepared for failure is only one side of the fickle coin. What about if your good idea does turn into a viable business, and quickly too? That’s when you need to have a plan in place because it can quickly get out of control and you can start feeling like you are treading open water.
Don’t Stop Thinking About Money
There are so many options open to entrepreneurs and then don’t get much narrower even when you know what business you want to start. In fact, they could get wider. Can you start a crowdfunding campaign? Maybe you have enough money and resource to bootstrap your business? Will you need to get yourself a small business loan and will this be secured or unsecured? What about the repayments? What about Venture Capitalists? Wait, what are they and how do I find them? Yes, we are playing devil’s advocate a bit, but that doesn’t mean these aren’t thing you should be thinking about – religiously. This is going to have the most impact on whether you are a success or not and so the earlier you know the options the more informed your decision can be when the time comes. It isn’t just getting the money thing you need be thinking about either, you need to think about you are going to hold up in the process. You see, if an investor is going to reach into his or her pockets, they are going to have some serious scrutinizing to do first. You need to be prepared for that. You also need to be prepared to give away more of your business than you probably realized. Just remember, it is better to have 10% of something successful than 90% of something that folded. Whatever you fancy doing, start thinking about it now, as early on as possible. Do your research, explore your options and only approach an investor when you have all the answers and a strategy that stretches into the future.
Give Your Idea A Little Run Out
We posed the idea at the beginning of this article – there is no way of knowing if you’ll be a success until you go and try – so why not go out and try? If you are still in full-time employment, then start trying to sell your concept, product or service on the weekends, or in the evenings. If you are not at that stage yet, then you can always use surveys, opinion polls and focus groups to your advantage; see what they say about your business idea and then use this information to refine your concept. Not only will this let you work on your business idea, it will also allow you to get a better understanding of what your customer is like, and that is the goal here. So the more information you can get out of a test run the better. A test run doesn’t have to mean a cold-launch; it can just mean putting feelers out. Going on chat rooms, joining online communities and utilizing social media to see exactly what people are discussing.
You may think that it is a little early to be doing some of the things we have listed here, but you’d be wrong to think that. All of these things should be thought about from the earliest moment possible because they will all shape your concept, your business, your approach, your launch, your working capital and, most importantly, your chances of success. The earlier you start thinking like a seasoned entrepreneur the better.
