How to Begin and Run a Startup?

Business LoungeApril 12, 2018

So you got tired of being an employee, and you think it’s about time for you to start your own business? You want to do something you like, something you can dedicate yourself to, something that you will watch grow and become what you dreamed of? Great, we have just the thing for you. It is really not that difficult! Just follow our pieces of advice, and you will succeed!

Ready, set, go!

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Look forward

Don’t think about today, but about tomorrow. Be ahead of your time, never consider things that are already there. Think what we will need in 5 years when technology gets another shock of change?

Find what is missing in the world

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An app, a tool, a service that you think people would use. Find it simply by looking carefully at your own life. Which activities do you find tiring, and not enjoyable?

Write it down

Whatever you think of, write it down. You don’t want to forget a very good idea and then spend the rest of your life beating yourself up. Bounce ideas around, talk to friends, family, and hear their opinions.

Prototype time

Just make one. Even the best thought-out ideas might be proven lousy with one simple prototype. When you build a functioning one, go and show it to 100 people. Based on their reactions you can adapt it. Think about it until it makes perfect sense, and then create.

Get serious

Find a co-founder to work with, and then register your company and split the equity.

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Funding

Look for someone who is willing to invest in your idea, because every start-up has a period when it isn’t earning any money.

Launch

Tell everyone that you made something, make a party, and let them try it out. There’s nothing better than an honest recommendation.

Follow-up

If your users aren’t coming back, you need to launch again. If they are coming back? Fight hard to get to the first 1000 users. Then, keep fighting to get the weekly growth up to 5%.

If you keep that growth rate, in 4 years, you will reach 25 million users.

Now that you’ve built your start-up, you need to know how to run it.

Here are a few useful tips from successful start-ups all over the world.

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A perfect budget – many new business owners think that it is merely enough to find an investor who will give them a huge chunk of cash and that it will certainly be enough for all their expenses. This is unwise. We cannot explain well how important a perfectly detailed budget is. Every penny must be accounted for.

Self-control – Not only when it comes to spending money, even though that is a must. In every manner running your own business requires excellent self-discipline. It is easy to fall into a „we’re just a start-up“ trap. Plan ahead what has to be done. Set up goals not for days, but for months in advance. It will make you pull a few long days, but it is better than being behind your schedule.

Networking – You need crazy social skills. If you don’t have a single investor willing to put all of his trust (and money) into your venture, you need to work tirelessly. Expand your network, seek new connections, make opportunities for powerful people to get to know more about you and your business.

Be flexible – It is ok to make a detailed plan for every future step, but it is not ok to follow it blindly. If some segment of your plan is not working out, replace it, rethink the entire strategy, and, if necessary, even start all over again.

Follow through – even the best plans with most innovative ideas will count for nothing if you lack perseverance, knowledge, and skills to carry it out. Why? Because in the end, it is far more important that you know how to do what need to be done than it is to find out what needs to be done. Be ready to do some heavy lifting, and your start-up just might succeed.

In the end, the key is to start doing something you love, to become really good at it, and then make a business out of it. Don’t expect just to get other people’s money to spend, and don’t expect to get rich quickly. That is the seed of failure.

Now, just positive thoughts, and to the drawing board!