It is said that only one in ten startups is successful. This trend is prevalent globally. What differentiates one from the rest?. Everyone including me knows that a lot of factors are there to influence the success of a startup. Apart from the factors, even startups with successful startups ideas or that have a huge potential in the market have failed. What do you attribute to their failure? There are certain tactics and practices that must be followed to be in the business, whoever it may be.

Globally, many firms including startups have attributed their success to some tactics and business practices and I have cherry-picked them to present here. You may ask that big corporations and startups have loads of resources to sustain during the test and persist during difficult times. That may be true in some cases but, burning cash for a long time without any clear path has toppled many companies.

Below I have mentioned some practices which when implemented on a large scale can bring a profound impact to your firm and contrary to popular opinion, large money is not needed to follow it.

What are the Tactics that can Help Your Startup Business?

Nothing should be redundant

In simple words, built what is necessary. Many startups spend their precious time and effort on stuff that don’t add any value to them. Do you think anyone would pay for something that has no use to them? Think of this from the place of a buyer. Pulling of such things can be detrimental to your future prospects also. There should always be a symbiotic relationship between the product/service provider and the market.

Step by step innovation

Nowadays startups cannot be devoid of innovation. The problem with many businesses and startups is that they innovate and bring services/products to the table, that is a way to ahead of time. At this point, innovation can be of no use to your firm. Does it mean that you should not innovate and create? No, but step by step innovation by consciously knowing the current scenario of the market.

The best example for step by step innovation is the Apple Inc. They have already built products for the next 20 years. But, they are steadily releasing their products one by one keeping in mind the things that can be adapted by the users.

Such steady innovation brings with it a loyal customer base which is necessary for the long run.

React to ongoing change around you

Change is constant and one who is unable to travel with the change will be thrown out of the race.

As an entrepreneur, you should make your startup backend to be flexible so that, new technologies are adopted seamlessly. An aversion to change can result in a loss of customers and profits. The previous point of step by step innovation goes hand in hand with reacting to change. Always have a buffer to cope up with temporary downfall during change.

Save as much cash as possible

In simple words, be frugal. From the revenue, take some to pay the costs and some more money to improve the startup. Only after everything, you should pay the remaining for yourself. Many startups founders do the opposite and end up broke. Sometimes conserving months worth of operating expenses in the bank will help you survive most unpredictable circumstances.   

Following the Eisenhower method

This may sound weird but it drastically improves your productivity. The Eisenhower method consists of urgent/important quadrant which is used to decide whether a task has to be done now or not.

• Important and Urgent Quadrant – Tasks are done immediately and personally
• Important but Not Urgent Quadrant – Tasks get an end date and are done personally
• Unimportant but Urgent Quadrant – Tasks are delegated
• Unimportant and Not Urgent Quadrant – Tasks are dropped

Have a proper exit plan

There are some things that are not under our control and can influence the operation of the startup. In such a scenario, if your startup had to face an inevitable situation of closing because of that external factor, you should be able to exit smoothly.

Any government that ensures ease of setting a startup should also make sure that startups can exit smoothly because of some unforeseen circumstances. To device, an exit plan, ask yourself questions like, What to do in case of bankruptcy? What to do when we ran out of funds? etc.

Show strength, persistence, and instant recovery

To err is human. Entrepreneurs are also normal human beings and they do commit mistakes like others. An important skill you should possess is to learn from mistakes and continuously improve. It is perfectly okay if you have made bad decisions, just be resilient to the consequences of that.

The entrepreneurial journey would not be a smooth ride but which has so many ups and downs. During that time, you should how strength and persistence. Recover quickly when you stumble in between.

Have some experts at your disposal

Some great entrepreneurs and businessmen are successful not because they know each and everything, but they have some subject experts with them and take guidance from them.

You can also read biographies/books of successful people in the business. In these books, you can gain knowledge from the experience of others.

Delegate works

It is not always necessary that you should do all your works. A perfect leader delegate works to peers. Know your core competencies and try to do work that is in line with your competencies.

In order to delegate works, first prioritize your work and delegate works that are present in the lower rung of your priority list. High-growth entrepreneurs appropriately partner with others to carry out certain works and technology needs, administrative functions, sales, manufacturing, distribution, and regulatory compliance. This enables more flexibility and cost-effective scalability.

Continuous improvement and learning

One of the top skills of an entrepreneur is the thirst to learn. Microsoft founder Bill Gates reads 50+ books in a year. You can gain knowledge from outside by interacting with established entrepreneurs, businessman, executives, etc.

Acquire as much knowledge about the field you are working with. More important is reskill your co-workers and also equip them with the knowledge you have gained.

Even during a downfall, the knowledge you have gained may lend a helping hand. 60% of the startups fail in the first year because of their reluctance to learn.

Expand slow and steadily

If you are stable in the present market, try to expand to the nearby markets. Good business services should always be expanded. Of course, to do it an initial investment is required and investors would love to invest in your startup if it shows good potential for growth and expansion.

The expansion is not necessarily should be big and rapid. Slow and steady expansion using the investment you have got is completely okay.

Whenever you enter a new market, offer something more compelling and interesting to attract the local users. Always keep in mind that, your service/product should be in line with their culture, and beliefs.

Have competent and enthusiastic people as peers

Please don’t take it lightly the process of inducting right people on board. One person alone cannot make a change and it is important to have people who are experts in specific fields. These people always add value to the firm.

Take time to find competent and passionate people even if you need to spend additional resources. Retaining them is as important as selecting them.

Analyze the competitors

Surely there will be startups and business services similar to you. Analyze them and if possible reverse engineer their product to know where your product stands. It is completely okay to follow some successful paths followed by the competitors.

For example, product companies in the automobile and electronics sector use reverse engineering as an effective tool to analyze the core product of competitors. By doing this, you can find out what works for them that didn’t work for you.

Networking

Do you know how the work of investment banking and hedge fund worked in the 90s? They used telephones since the computers and the internet was in the nascent stage. Networking using the telephone was a sure shot hit because of the direct contact.

But now, each and every conversation is done using emails and text messages which refuse to provide a connection between the users and service providers. So, it would be nice if you follow the traditional method of telephonic conversation. By doing this, you may get the network of important people in business, etc.

Conclusion

Following the above tactics and practices require discipline, sincerity, dedication, and consistency, of course, all these traits should be inherent to an entrepreneur and one who lacks any of these traits should do a self-introspection and be conscious of their acts.

As an entrepreneur, you should feel that the world is changing and evolving rapidly. Firms that were founded some years back have reached heights what other traditional companies took decades to achieve.

As I said before that you should concentrate on core competencies. The same applies to your business. Don’t add multiple layers to business and instead, work to improve the core products/services and place it in a strong position.

Finally, one of the most underrated skill in entrepreneurship is the art of negotiating. The ability to negotiate can be one of the perfect qualities you can possess. For arranging finance, striking a deal, and many more, a good negotiation skills are essential.