6 Tips that Will Get Your Business Through the First Year
Friday, July 7, 2017, 6:00 AM | Leave Comment
Startups are currently the most popular way of getting a business going and they are heavily based around rising quickly, which means that the first year is definitely the most important one.
While there is no truth to the myth that the majority of startups are built to fail quickly, rapid failure is a reality in small businesses – they are always just as close to major success as they are to complete failure.
With this in mind, here are some tips for surviving your first business year.
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Do thorough market research
This is, without an ounce of doubt, the most important step towards making sure that you survive the first couple of months as a business, let alone the first year.
What does market research entail? Well, using Big Data, for the most part. It’s all about exploration and fact gathering – you’re pitching a product or a service and you need to know everything about your counterparts, peers and competitors.
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Keep up with the market
Just because you’ve done an excellent job with regards to the market research, it doesn’t mean that your job is done in this department.
The market can go through a bunch of fluctuations on a daily basis and it can remain steady for months, even years; the only way of knowing what’s going on with it is keeping up with the market.
Making business decisions based on outdated information is one of the biggest mistakes that a businessperson can make and can easily lead to failure.
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Always plan ahead
There is no wiggle room – you need to keep this in mind. A large corporation can afford to experiment with potentially harmful business strategies – they can abide by the good old “you live and you learn”.
You, on the other hand, cannot. The plan that made sense and did wonders for you during the first couple of months isn’t necessarily right for you right now.
As discussed, market conditions are fluctuating constantly, so revisiting and updating your business plan on a regular basis goes without saying.
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Cash flow and financial management
One of the most important aspects of running a business, regardless of its size is maintaining a good cash flow control.
In fact, for a business that’s still in its growth stages, cash flow control is of absolute essence.
When resources are limited (as they tend to be for the better part of a small business’s first year), you will be forced to pass on promising opportunities, as pursuing each one will starve your business out.
The key to success is knowing how your cash flow is doing and managing your finances wisely, while picking your opportunities and investments carefully.
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Flawless recruitment
You can’t afford bad employees and neither can you afford to replace your workers during your growth period. The only way to go here is by doing a fantastic job recruitment-wise.
Using Big Data can help you tremendously – by looking at people’s social media accounts, from LinkedIn to Facebook and Twitter, you can get a lot of valuable insight as to what a particular person is like as a professional.
On the other hand, your safest bet would be going with experts, such as an agency that specializes in sales recruitment in Sydney – when in doubt, always leave it to the pros!
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Be a family
Your business should be more than a business – it should be a family. You should inspire loyalty in your employees by being a strong, yet understanding leader; people value good leadership more than they value a small raise!
In order to enhance your bets of survival as a startup, your first goal should be stabilizing towards the end of the first year. In order to do this, you’ll have to do thorough and frequent market research, plan ahead, manage your finances wisely and grow and nurture your workforce as a family.
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