Start-up Success

What is the secret to success in a business? We hear that question an awful lot, especially from relatively new businesses.

The answer is that in fact, no one thing ensures your business is successful.

Firstly, on starting up – it is impossible that you would know everything, and no-one would expect you to. It’s about testing the water to see whether the idea behind the business works, and it is an opportunity to learn from other businesses – and your clients. It’s important that you listen, and take on any feedback that you are given. Too many people focus on what they want, without necessarily looking at the business demand and client requirements, and on top of that, whilst the excitement of starting up your own business may take over, it is sometimes all too easy to focus on the bigger picture and lose sight of the smaller things.

It is vital that you invest in your relationships – whether that is with your client, or with businesses you will be required to work with. You never know when you need an urgent favour!

This takes us onto the next point quite nicely; don’t delegate tasks straight away – when establishing your businesses, you need to be involved in all of the decision-making – even a slight deviation from branding could be detrimental to a small start-up company. And while we’re on the subject of branding, ensure that your branding is consistent and above all, protect it.

Your branding is a way of being recognised – and even if your service has an interesting story, you must be able to ‘sell’ the idea behind that service.  So, if you can’t ‘sell’ that service – employ someone who can.

Lastly, make your business something that you love. It is all too easy to get bogged down and forget why it is that you have made this happen; there will be many ups and downs, but if you can fight through and learn from your mistakes, you’ve got this in the bag.