Did you know that 70% of startups crash and burn in their first five years of operating? Did you also know that 90% of all new businesses fail? That’s an intimidating pair of statistics if you’re looking to start a business. Don’t fret, for there is a silver lining to these figures. While not every entrepreneur is adequately prepared for the logistics of founding a business, you can be part of that 10% survival statistic by reading our list of 10 key steps to launching a successful startup.
1. Access to Capital
Before anything, you cannot continue without access to funding. Your employees will need to be paid, you will need to be paid, the things you will be doing with the company require funding. The majority of startup failures occur because they exhausted their capital. Make sure you have adequate funding for the scope of your project so that you don’t run out.
2. Addressing a Demand/Creating a Demand
To ensure the success of your business, it is crucial that you are addressing a market need. Even if you have adequate funding for a project with clear goals and boundaries, you need to be addressing a demand or creating a demand with your startup. People won’t pay for something they don’t want or need, and investors don’t invest in something that will not pay them back.
3. The Right Team
A productive and loyal team will see your vision through even when you aren’t there to stay on top of things. Your team must listen to you and believe in either the project or company, and what they bring to it. Customers trust a product/service that its employees stand proudly by. If you hire the right people, demonstrate to them that you are the right choice of employer, they will repay you with dedication.
4. Clear Vision
Founders and their businesses need a way forward, a light at the end of the toil tunnel. A ten year plan, a projection of what they aim to do, and what will come of it. No investor or potential employee wants to be a part of something that doesn’t know what it is or what it will become. Your idea must be comprehensive, cohesive, capable of coming to realization with hard work and dedication.
5. Stay Informed
You must be “ahead of the curve” in terms of information. Your finger has to be on your industry’s pulse. To become a successful startup you have to be capable of adapting to any change. You and your team might need to pivot to a different business model if threatened in this early stage, or else you lose interest and crash. Stay ahead of those competitors!
6. Ambition
You need to care about your startup and show everyone else that it is something to care about. You need to be a leader for others to follow. Your ambition will inspire employees, convince customers, and attract investors. Without ambition, you’re a lazy dud in the water, bobbing around waiting for handouts. Show that there’s reason to care.
7. Team Expertise & Versatility
Your team isn’t all about cohesion and getting along. They need to be able to do the job they’re hired to do, and well. Otherwise word will get around that you’re an incompetent company and, likely, an incompetent founder. You don’t want that on your rap sheet. Ensure your team can perform their duties as desired before signing on with them. Seems obvious, but you could be surprised by the people who manage to lie and slip their way through the cracks!
8. Networking
Networking well will surround you and your company with supporters and free word of mouth advertising. Building trust in your business will propel you and your employees forward. Use social media to find conferences and contacts to grow your network. You might also find entrepreneurial communities online. Don’t stop at expanding your own network! What works for you should work for others. Connect your team with like-minded groups that will grow their skills and productivity!
9. Proof of Concept
Your investors, customers and employees need tangible proof that your idea works, in whatever way. You are not selling dreams or concepts or visions, what you are offering is as real as real can be.
10. Work-Life Balance
No one survives burnout. Not you, not your employees. Your startup won’t succeed if its employees are not working well, or at all. If you respect you and your worker’s time, they will naturally offer that respect back through diligent work under your guidance.
Well, those are our steps, that’s the end of our list! Ten key steps that will keep you and your startup from drowning. Do you think we missed anything in our list? Share your thoughts on how to keep entrepreneurs’ heads above water and comment down below!
