Seven Secrets to a Successful Start-up

At the age of 28 I’d had enough of working for someone else, putting money in their  pocket and decided to start building my own dream! Since then I’ve been running my own businesses and over the years I come to understand what it takes (IMO) to start up a new business and make it a success!   Ok so do I really think I can show you how to build a successful business in as single Steemit post?! No, this post is designed to help you realise the type of person you need to be in order to be successful. Enjoy.   

Why? Do you need more money to pay your bills? Do you need a bigger car (or 2 cars)? Do you want to buy your first home or pay off your mortgage? Whatever you “why” it must be a true and honest reflection of the reason you are starting your business. When someone says to me “I want to be successful”, I ask them “why?”. Only by understanding the source of your “want” will you find your reason “why”. I don’t care if your why is so that you can afford to buy a £10,000 Rolex watch, as long as that is what drives you every day until you get it, that’s a good enough reason to me! One way of doing this is through vision boards which I will be posting about soon. 

What? So what’s your product/service? Can you tell me about it in 30 seconds in such a way that I can both understand what you are offering and get as excited about it as you are? There’s a popular sales acronym known as K.I.S.S which stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid. When I sell, I sell on simplicity as it gets my message across quickly and in such a way that I can hype up the product to get the customer’s attention and wanting to know more. If you can’t do that then you’ve overcomplicated the product and likely lost the interest of your customer. Humans naturally do not want to be sold to so you have to grab your customer’s attention quickly. Make your pitch short, sharp and snappy and spend time getting it right, then memorise it. You never know when you will be on the train or at a networking event and get asked “so, what do you do then?”. You need to be ready with your pitch; you may well be sat next to a potential customer or even an investor so the last thing you want to do is mess the whole thing up by sounding like you don’t know what you’re talking about.   

Where – Ok, you have your pitch but do you know your stuff? You might be able to tell me everything there is to know about your product and how great it is, but do you know about your competition in your area and their product? What makes you and your product more appealing to the customer than your competition. You will need to focus on your USP’s (unique selling points) and ensure that explain why that USP will offer value/benefit your customer. I hear it all the time when I get those telesales calls at home; the salesperson will bang on about how awesome their product is and all the features they offer. I’m like, “that’s great but you’ve not told me how that’s going to benefit me, I shouldn’t have to arrive at the conclusion on my own, that’s your job”. This goes back to knowing your customer and why they will buy from you. You also need to know your industry and especially how that industry fairs in your PMA (primary marketing area).    

How? – Having start-up capital can certainly help; great websites do not come free of charge (unless you build it yourself) nor does stock if your business needs it to get started! You need to understand precisely how you are going to achieve your success. Planning out your strategy will help you get a grip on whether you need a loan, set up a crowd funding page or simply pay it out in drips over time out of your own savings. I love lists! I found a cool app called Wunderlist that I use to put together a “to-do” list and set a completion date next to each task to make sure it gets done. To-do lists are a great way of staying organised and for budgeting.    

Who? – Who is your target audience? And don’t say “everyone”! Does Virgin Atlantic target “everyone”? No! Firstly, they don’t fly everywhere, hence their partnerships with other airlines e.g. Delta. Nor do they offer budget flights to compete with Ryanair/Easyjet for example. You’d also be somewhat wrong to think that they are a global leader (Maybe no. 2 in the UK but way behind other US airlines) No, they cleverly market themselves towards the “right” kind of customer who uses them one or two times a year but Virgin retains their business in the future through a great service, promotions and selective marketing. You need to understand who your customer is and in doing so you will better understand how you will be able to market to them so they will come back to you time and time again.   

When? – Start right now! Don’t wait! If you have the idea of a lifetime and you believe you’ll to be the next Steve Jobs, you cannot afford to wait because someone else could be hot on your heals with a similar idea. Whether it take you 10 months or 10 years to get your idea off the ground, it doesn’t matter as long as you can honestly say that you have put your all into it but finish reading this post and to work!   

Why? – (yes I’ve used this twice but that’s just to stress its importance) Do a lot of start-ups fail? Of course they do, no one said it would be easy and not everyone is cut out to be their own boss! From my experience of seeing businesses fail (and I’ve seen a few!) they all have the same things in common: The owners didn’t understand their “why” and lacked/lost their passion. They often let outside influences get in the way and cloud their vision of why they wanted to be successful in the first place.   

So, capital, planning and product/industry knowledge are crucial but having the courage, motivation and passion to plug away, day in and day out, is the key to it all! It's what keeps you focussed along the journey that is undoubtedly going to be tough but ultimately worth it! 

So before you set off on the journey ask yourself the all-important question: DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?! If the answer is a resounding  "YES!!!"…welcome to the club and I’ll leave you with this:   

I am excited to hear from anyone starting their own business to see if the advice above has helped put things in perspective and motivated you to either get started or encouraged you to keep going. Comments from other successful business owners are also welcome to support my post or challenge some of my ideas.