You have done it! You have seen a gap in the market for a unique product or service offering. You have taken the bold step to start your own business and with excitement building, your start-up opens for business. Successful entrepreneurs differ in opinion as to how long, on average, a new business takes to get off the ground. One thing that is certain is that it can take time and the decisions that you take, particularly in the early days, can significantly shorten or lengthen the timelines to success for your business.

To help your business grow and prosper, here are 5 easy-to-implement tips for helping your business to get and stay off the ground:

1. Cash is King

Ensure that you have a financial partner that understands your business and its cash flow needs, so that you are able to successfully navigate unexpected challenges, including seasonality in sales and fund your working capital requirements.

2. Active Marketing

Develop a marketing strategy that ensures potential customers choose you as their service provider, and stay with you.  Your strategy should address:

• What your key points of differentiation are from competitors and how you are going to market that.
• Ensuring customers cultivate an emotional connection to your personal and business brand.
• Fit-for-purpose channels to communicate your brand.
• Sales and service protocols to serve growth in recurring (rather than once-off) business.
• How you will test the success of your marketing plan on an ongoing basis, and make modifications thereto.

3. Hire with caution

For your company to survive and thrive, your team needs to be talented, experienced and (most of all) share your vision. This means that you will need to hire individuals with competence, that fit the culture of your business and team rather than hire and then attempt to mould the new employee.  Ultimately, this approach will only lead to frustration for both you and your new hire.

4. Attitude and hard work will be key

The old adage of “what you put in, you get out” couldn’t be more true than when starting your own business.  Hard work is one of the top components to running a business, closely followed by cultivating a positive attitude. 

Says Mike Andersen (CEO and Founder of the National Small Business Chamber), “If you keep going and never give up you will arrive where you want to be.  If you have a bad business model or it isn’t working, change direction.  There is no straight curve, and it’s important that business owners understand that.” 

Along the way, you will take inevitable knocks – get up, shake yourself off and keep going.  Your personal resilience and attitude will be the two ingredients that will help you over any hurdle in your path. 

5. Partner wisely

If you choose to take a partner into your business, ensure that this person shares your vision and has an equal burning desire to succeed.  With the right partner at your side, you will have access to an expanded network, stress-testing and refining of your ideas, as well as adding to your toolbox of skills through those brought to the table by your partner. 

At the MMS Group, our team of management consultants has “seen it all” – we have journeyed with businesses that have failed and who have succeeded. And we know why those that succeeded achieved just that. If you want to talk to a team that is experienced in helping your business to succeed, reach us though the Management Consulting webpage.