10 Best Tips How To Be Smart and Strategic to Achieve Your Startup Goals Now
By: Olha Bahaieva
Tags: Startup, Entrepreneurship, Business, Leadership, Business Strategy

10 Best Tips How To Be Smart and Strategic to Achieve Your Startup Goals Now

This is really easy.

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A lot of people realized that they would like to create their own startup. It allows them to have freedom from the employer, be independent, and build the product/services they are passionate about.

As a Co-Founder of multiple startups, I have experience and definitely able to tell 10 best tips for successful idea realization. Let`s dive into them.

1. Idea and Reality of User`s Needs

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Once you have your business idea, try to think if it`s really relevant to the market. That means a few things. First, if there is a need for people in your product/service? Second, are there ready products/services that already decide your user's needs? And third, do people have a need for your idea?

It is obvious, that startup can survive if there is a need only. If you have a general idea or not specified solution, it probably won`t survive. That`s why it is important to understand it before any further steps.

On the other hand, your startup should be innovative. That means propose non-ordinary solutions to decide particular user needs. Understanding this, you can launch your business successfully and grow it in the future.

2. Planning

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Once you have validated your idea, you need to think about your plan. This should include a wide range of things, starting from business calculation to risks. This will help you to find investors faster, ensure your goals, and results that you expect.

Startups are successful because they foresee it with a precise strategy before launching. It is important to do not only business plans but also think about how to communicate with your future team, plan your work, events to participate in, marketing, research, and more.

A product roadmap is another thing to consider during planning. You should have stages of your business development and stick to them properly. It minimizes mistakes and your future team will have a strong sense of work that they are going to do.

3. Research

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The next stage is research. There are many types of researches that should be done. Here is a list of three research types that should be completed:

Target audience

Specify your target audience. Who are your customers that will use your product? Find as much information as you can. This includes location, income, sex, age, familiarity with a computer, income, and more characteristics, including psychology even.

Competitors

You are going to build your business. Know your competitors! Even if you have totally new idea, find similar or closest to you and analyze them. It will help to understand their audience, strong and weak points. Do not replicate their business model, just take into consideration what works best for them and what does not.

Users Expectations

Make your own survey and ask the target audience what they would like to get from your product/service. Their answers will help to validate your business direction and improve it. People share thoughts about what they would like to have and you can transform it into functionality. Win-win.

4. Risks

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As a new business person, there are multiple risks that should be taken into consideration. Here is a list of them:

Your product might fail because your customers won`t purchase it enough. There is a huge risk of losing your money or property if you will borrow money from financial organizations in the early stages and can`t return them back. You will need to find your Co-Founders and first-team to delegate partially responsibility to them. If you don`t know these people well, there is no assurance about their skills and performances. Of course, you can charge any price for your services or product, but you are new in business, so you can`t establish a price well. If your business is product- or geography-based, then your options will be less in comparison to other entrepreneurs. If you have an international team, you might lose a bit of your time trying to connect with each other. This reduces the productivity of your business. You are tight in budget, that`s why you can`t afford the best-paid team. You need to find your Co-Founders. Make sure that you have NDA for them to keep your business idea. Otherwise, it might be shared and used by other people.

5. Co-Founders

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With an established idea and business plan, it is time to find your first Co-Founders. You can start your business without them as well, but it will be longer and more expensive. That`s why it is good to have two Co-Founders.

As far as you are a business specialist, think about finding a marketer and tech specialist. This is standard and the most successful way to launch business smoothly.

Tech specialists will help you to bootstrap your product so it works online. The marketer will come with great ideas on promotion and company brand. Once these two core people will be added to your team, you can build your product fast and professionally.

6. Your First Team Members

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After a successful product launch and getting the first positive feedback from users, add a few people to your team. You can also consider working with volunteers if it is relevant to you. This is no-cost add-ons to your team.

It is possible to find interns, people who would like to practice their skills, or improve their portfolio.

Another way is to search for paid- or low equity-based specialists. It will take a portion of your income, but it is another way that might be considered. Try to hire junior or recent graduates. They are happy to join startups because they will make an impact on the product, which is not possible for them in most companies.

7. VC

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Venture Capital to VC is the next goal. To establish your product successfully, you need to find investors or VC.

VCs is a great option in terms of support, knowledge and business growth.

But there is another downside. A lot of VC might take up to 50% of your business. Be sure to find proper ones, because startups need multiple investing stages. If you give 50% for $100.000 this would be your biggest mistake. Yes, your startup might survive, but you won`t be able to earn from it in the future, but VC will.

8. First users

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When you get your first users, it is important to engage and listen to them. That`s why beta-testers and first 1000 of them are the most crucial. There are many ways how you can improve your product with their help:

Create your product community

Owning users and have direct contact with them is a great way to know their opinion fast. You can ask them about the product, drop surveys, or do other activities with this massive traffic.

Create features according to their feedback

You have your product roadmap, but it is good to validate the details of your future features with users. They can help you make priorities or save your effort if they do not need a particular feature.

Engage with users via social networks, blog

Redirect your users to your company social media to enhance your media presence. They will be your first followers, commentators, and likes. Also, they will invite friends to your social media.

Start your own events

Create conferences, contests — anything where your customers can be involved. Make them feel important, it is another win-win strategy and marketing path for you.

9. Testing

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Test, test, and test your updates. Use your users to validate product growth, new features, and ask their opinion about everything that you think is important. More engagement with your users makes them feel valuable.

It is important to understand that users might have different points of view about the feature. This should be found from testing before actual implementation. Save money, time, and minimize your risks.

If you don`t have enough users, there are online platforms, which allow you to do remote testing of your product. You will get detailed reports with a success rate, video, and audio materials. Provided statistics will help you to take decision in your startup journey.

10. Growth

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Growing your product is similar to plant growth. The more your startup, the stronger it becomes. Make sure to support its growth with the right tools and methods.

Start with MVP and plan your future improvements. Do not start with everything that you want to have — that is the wrong way. Instead, try to cut as much of your product as you can. After launch, you will validate your concept and then you can start developing it with all ideas that you had before.

Conclusion

Starting your own business is hard, that`s why entrepreneurs need to think about strategy. Applying these 10 tips will save you a lot of time and effort. The journey to your own startup will begin with seamlessly and become profitable fastly.