How Do You Make Your Startup A Success? By Neville Gaunt CEO Mind Fit
For the most part Mind Fit as a company works with larger organisations that have many employees, and work with teams focused on business growth and improving performance. The process starts (Mind Fit Foundation Programme) with changes that individual players make and then proceeds towards team performance and business goals.
But start-ups are really no different as fundamentally it’s all about people being the best they can be. So this article has a focus on startup businesses, or as we would hope to encourage the preparation you need for considering a new business startup.
History of Startups
New businesses are starting up at an unprecedented rate and yet experience tells us that 80% or 4 out of every 5 will not succeed.
The excuse for failure when it happens is usually put down to a lack of cash – “we ran out of money” – is the cry. Of course it’s easy to blame one thing at the end when you ran out of your savings, the banks wouldn’t lend you any money or something else around the same thought.
But the reality is, running out of money was the consequence of a combination of other things and most of the time it’s the lack of planning and an understanding of what makes businesses tick and succeed that is the root cause.
So here’s what we would say are the important foundations that you need before you start your new business.
The 3 Keys to Startup Success
Many businesses would have been better had they never started. Why? Because it’s that same 80% of startups that fail. If you watch Dragon’s Den you’ll regular hear a dragon saying,
“You haven’t got a business, I’m out!”
But why is that when there are so many marketing books out there talking about the 5Ps and the 7Ps of marketing? They all tell you exactly how to do market research to see if you have a product or service that will sell. In other words helping you decide whether you have a business or not.
Startups are no different from any other business and the simple facts are there are only 3 questions to you have to answer:
It may sound surprising – but, just because you’ve a unique alternative to others already in the market doesn’t mean there is a market for yours.
Take an example of fixing a laptop or desktop computer – there is certainly a need to have great technicians fixing PCs, most high streets will have a shop offering the service. But market conditions where PCs are so cheap to replace and other cloud based options currently available just may make your repair offer redundant or worse still in a declining market. I say worse still because you may join a declining market before you realise it!
This TedTalk by Amy Lockwood reinforces the simple point – know your customer
There’s a point when everyone laughs in the video, because it’s funny. But why are they laughing? It’s a key point so you may just want to think on that.
A lot more can be said about marketing but let’s look at the next and final key.
But just a note of interest before – none of the above can be taken in isolation. You get Financial Acumen by experience and doing something until you have that expertise. Likewise you
get Marketing Prowess by understanding your market, your customers and clients and testing and practising until you master it. They will have an impact on each other. And the one that is always there bringing them together is the third and final key – Your Mindset.
Your Mindset
Notice it’s not just Mindset – It’s Your Mindset This is where the Henry Ford saying is so apt
“If you think you can do something, or you think you can’t do something, you’re right.”
Whether a young person, a startup, an employee, an owner or a director you will be successful if you are…
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