It is universally accepted that startup founders, dancing on big dreams and shadowed by the daily hustle, can be blind to potential business risks. The main intention for startups to rise is to disrupt established business models, leveraging new technologies and solutions towards exponential gains in efficiency. For a better understanding, startups exist to make our lives easier.
But why do 90% of startups fail after the first few years?
How do you avoid such failures after putting in your brain, sweat, and tears? And more importantly, how do you become the 10% that succeeds? While some of them fail because they don't provide the right product or services that people want. A more significant portion gave up as a result of poor execution of their growth and marketing strategy.
Growth is key! But growing a startup is tough
Many entrepreneurs have trouble figuring it out. What makes it even more difficult is the overwhelming amount of methods and "one-size-fits-all" hacks from successful leaders on LinkedIn or articles that tell us how to manage our own business and marketing initiatives.
While these are good advice, many fail to realize that they are meant to be an inspiration. Many founders take them as a step and apply them regardless of the difference and context of their product or target audiences.
Aiming to be similar or better than the unicorns, we all want to ask: "What's the best marketing channel for us to leverage to find our dream customers?" Getting this answer right will help you establish a growth process involving experimentation, measurement, data analytics, keeping up with trends, and learning to get your growth machine up and running.
It might seem easy to talk about building a functional growth machine, but how does one start this process from scratch?
1. Make sure the market needs your product/services
Many companies are confident that their product or services will be loved and used by everyone worldwide. Innovation matters, and companies can indeed make a name for themselves. However, it only matters if the market needs or wants the products or services that you offer.
Providing potential buyers with something of interest after your market research and fully understanding your industry is the first good step. Understanding your market will be the driving force behind providing a beneficial option for consumers in your niche.
2. Focus on wins – Not experiments
Almost every successful startup or business obtains most of its engagement and scale from a single channel. Nowadays, with so many channels available, most entrepreneurs are tempted to attempt a little bit of everything rather than feeling up a lot of one thing.
However, doing so is similar to shooting oneself in the head because it will take longer to educate yourself from all the experiments you're doing, making it more challenging to decide whether to give up on a channel or keep it alive. As a result, it gets harder to concentrate on the quality of content you wish to generate for your audiences.
3. Can't measure it? Then you can't manage it
Not only startups but even SMEs also can't develop a sustainable business model if you cannot determine your KPIs and metrics. Measuring the performance of your business holds everyone that is involved accountable. You are forced to deal head-on with the inconvenient truths and will always troubleshoot to look for ways to improve the results.
It's crucial to define and track your growth metrics constantly; you could be tracked on a:
Daily for daily growth
Weekly for weekly target growth and,
Monthly for monthly target growth and planning for upcoming efforts
This helps you to sync with your Objective Key Results and goals, which you'll track and report daily. Remember, acquiring customers without a clear set of plans is just a random activity.
4. Marketing strategy pushes your growth.
Your business won't be able to scale or become profitable fast without marketing yourself properly. Making sure your marketing and advertising strategy is up to standard is one of the essential strategies for new business. For example, if you plan to run an advertising campaign about your transportation company, you will need to build/hire a team with a good track record strategy for the right audiences to help you get results.
Set aside a marketing budget to ensure that your company is presented in the best possible way to be shown to the rest of the world. Many companies end up wasting tons of money as a result of rash marketing decisions. You'll be able to figure out which aspects of your marketing are worth investing in and which should be scrapped if you take the time to create a marketing budget.
5. Apply for Startup Accelerators
Startup accelerators, also known as seed accelerators, are mentor-based programmes that provide financial assistance and company management advice in exchange for a fee or equity. However, the good news is that free accelerator programmes are available from non-government organizations, corporations, and other providers.
So, how might startup accelerators assist you in growing your company? Accelerators are beneficial to companies because they provide resources to help them grow and succeed. They even assist companies that are having difficulties funding themselves.
Conclusion
Every day, new businesses emerge, and most of them are desperately required in their market. On the other hand, some fall short and fade away when entrepreneurs fail to conduct adequate research and take proper safeguards to keep their businesses afloat.
But, this doesn't have to be you. Apply some of these startup tips for your business to help you get on the right track. Moreover, subscribing to mentoring programmes enables you to overcome challenges and develop strategies to leverage growth opportunities in their respective industries.
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