Top 10 Tips to Start Your Own Business in 2020
These days, most of the people hope to become an entrepreneur and shine like “the next big thing” in this competitive world. When successful, the advantages of owning a small business are obvious. However, according to a report by the Harvard Business review, 75% of start-ups fail!
So, what goes wrong?
There are many reasons behind the failure of a startup including Business Model, Market Problems, Bad Product Experience, Poor Marketing, Financial Problem and many more.
Want to start your own business this year? Starting your own business is often a learn-as-you-go process. The smarter decisions you make early on; the better chance your startup has for success.
Have an entrepreneurial idea, consider these top 10 tips before jump on the bandwagon:
Starting a new business is like starting a relationship! It needs your time and attention. Thus, the right time to start a business is when you have ample time.
Markets come in all shapes and sizes! Thus, before launching any business, a lot for market research is required.
To correctly position your business in the market, you need to understand who needs your product or services. Even a great entrepreneurial idea or product may fail without proper market research. Hence, whether you are selling locally, nationally or globally, it’s imperative to perform detailed research about the market in advance.
Don’t be overconfident with your idea, listen to others as well!
Ask people about your entrepreneurial idea and try to analyze their mind, do they really like your idea? Or, just pretending to become nice with you.
Encourage the individuals to be honest with you and consider their ideas as well. The collective thoughts you get from peers may be a reflection of how the consumers will react.
Also, take advice from old business owners and experts. They already have gone through this phase. Hence, already know what does and doesn’t work.
Be a smart entrepreneur and learn from the mistakes of other business owners.
This is one of the most important tips for entrepreneurs.
Instead of starting your business with the idea of what to sell, think about what it will solve. It may help you gain a solid customer base easily.
To stay ahead of your competitors, you need to understand the pain point of your targeted audience. Create a powerful message in solution to that particular problem. This is often called the value proposition.
For example, if you are selling anti-snoring products, create an ad showing the frustration a snorer can have while sleeping and showcase your product as the handy solution.
Initially, don’t dream of owning a huge enterprise. Rather, start small…
If possible, self-fund your start-up, instead of relying on any other investment firm or a bank. This may prevent you from many risks including failure, revenue, growth, competition and many more.
Thus, it’s better to invest yourself in your startup. Your own money has no external strings attached to it. You can invest, where you want to. Self-investing has no limitations.
Make a blueprint of your complete business plan.
Your business plan should include an executive summary, business overview, operations plan, market analysis, products and services, sales and marketing, competitive analysis, management team, financial plans, and projections.
Creating a proper business plan brings your entire strategy into focus, which abolishes the fear and uncertainty that can hold back so many rising entrepreneurs.
Do not overcomplicate your business concept. Entrepreneurs who overthink their plan just get stuck soon. Indeed, success is not necessarily easy, but it's likely much simpler than you think.
Always remember, keep things simple but significant! As a new business owner, test your business idea. Keep your products or services simple that should fulfill promises to customers.
Do not include unnecessary features that may weaken your offerings and cost you money.
Have a good hold on the numbers may help you in analyzing the performance of your business!
These numbers may include your start-up costs, sales, predicted profits, time and much more depending on the type of business and how you define success. Tracking these numbers is the best way to evaluate the success of your business.
Businesses can be cut-throat. Every business wants success and don’t care if they harm each other in getting it. Your competitors will always try to bring you down to stay at the top. Thus, to stay ahead, it’s imperative to keep an eye on every move of your competitors’.
Determine, which products and services do your competitors provide? What’s their marketing technique? How they entertain their customers? You need to identify every single detail of your competitors’.
Want to start a small business? Initially, don't quit your regular job. Starting a successful small business is a process.
Create stages and make yourself ready to move from an EMPLOYEE to an ENTREPRENEUR.
It’s obvious, that a startup may take time to earn a steady income. Hence, in the beginning, do not rely completely on your startup.
Continue your nine-to-five job and work on the business during off-hours. Once you have a healthy inflow of cash from your new business, you may leave your job and tackle business ownership full time.
Launching a business is quite exciting but laws are not! Never ignore the business rules, else you could face steep penalties.
From setting up a legal structure to forming an accounting system, you must follow every law required for launching a new business.
The rules may vary according to the business structure and industry. Thus, follow them carefully.
Author Bio:
Sachin Agrawal is an Enterprise Architect and heads up Business & Technology at Tarika Technologies. He carries expertise and a flair for writing on Management Consulting, Software & Analytics and Digital Media.
Apart from distilling his technical ideas into creating innovative solutions, he is a practitioner of Haidong Gumdo and at his leisure, taps the Cajon and strums his Guitar! You can connect with him on LinkedIn.