Trying to skip necessary steps and get too big swiftly is the commonest mistake made by most entrepreneurs when kick-starting their own business. Through this article, however, I would love to curb you from making these same mistakes already made by a plethora of people in the past, so you can avoid the avoidable, and experience steady growth, rather than rapid downfall.
Here are some tips, don’t hesitate, keep on reading:
There’s no gainsaying in the fact that starting up a business might seem like a real big gamble if your research isn’t done deeply and adequately. Thus, it is of paramount importance that you do the necessary research based on facts if you don’t want to crash up like most small businesses that failed before they even got the chance to start. In fact, most of these businesses often fail in less than 5 months. This is absolutely pathetic!
However, when starting up a new business, location is the most important factor that should come to your mind. Finding out if other competitors are in the vicinity you are planning to launch your business is a necessity. For instance, if you are opening a photography studio, you don’t want another photography studio to be located next to you. You need to have it at the back of your mind that occupants of those areas are your ‘number one’ clients if you are exclusive to the area. Thus, when there are vendors offering the same services as you are, then the turnover at your office is massively reduced, and you would even be force to dish out your services at a very lowered rate since there is someone near you that is posing great threat, doing promotions every now and then just to entice those who are normally meant to be your clients.
After location, the next thing you should consider is your supplier. You should have several places you get supplies from, rather than just one place. That’s why many startups fail. You can rest assured that you are getting supplies or making orders at lowest prices available if you have more than one supplier at hand. In fact, the competition would be higher if they are well informed about each other. None of them would want to lose customers, hence, they will try as much as possible to outdo each other.
You also have to ensure that the services or products that you will be providing are greatly desired and generally accepted. It is very dangerous to open up a store or an office without carrying out the necessary market research like playing craps, unless you are very sure of what you are doing.
Advertising is also of great essentiality. Don’t be stingy to spend. You need to realize that you are not losing money anytime you invest on advertisement. The money you expend on advertisement can be made easily once you start getting orders or making sales through that same advertisement. It’s a win-win situation for you because it’s the end that truly justifies the means. You will undoubtedly increase your sales from your opening day when you spend money on advertisement.
Nonetheless, rather than doing your adverts by yourself, it is best you pay a professional to assist you with it since there is no point expending funds on advertisement if it is not going to be seen by anyone in your target demographic. A very good example would be an instance in a poker game, when you use facial expressions to bluff against blind players.
It is sometimes better to have a better selection of items when picking your stock, and maybe not many of each item. In this manner, you can visualize the bestselling item and consequently make orders for more of those items that are quite popular, and of course, less orders of the ones not usually desired.
Another point to be made is that, for startups, you must have experience running a related business before you should decide to open a particular business. Experience is highly needed to do things correctly. So don’t just think you know how to do it if you really don’t know how to do it.
Try to play smart! Don’t put all eggs in one basket. It’s a simple rule of life, “look before you leap.” Like I said earlier, I am sure you won’t want to make the same mistakes made by people in the past. Rather, learn from their lessons and let their story be an impetus for your own fortune. You will always win.
Stay focused!