How Do You Take Your Startup to the Next Level?
How do you take your startup to the next level? Focus your time on what brings in the money, set one achievable goal your team and investors can celebrate, build up cash, make expectations clear, and listen to your customers. Having a startup is both challenging and exciting. However, the most important thing is to make it rewarding, which is not an easy task. It takes a lot of work to ensure that your company is a well-established and reputable business.
Now you’re ready to make your startup grow faster. This guide covers the habits that separate startups that keep growing from those that stall, plus a next-level checklist you can use to review your own business.
Taking Your Startup to the Next Level
This involves, among other things, keeping track of profit and expenses, marketing, manufacturing, sales, planning and excellent time management skills. Many startups never reach that goal. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about half of the private-sector business establishments that opened in the year ended March 2015 were still operating five years later, and about 35 percent were still operating after ten years (BLS Business Employment Dynamics). That is why it is vital to learn from their mistakes and avoid repeating them so you will successfully scale your startup business. To help you do that, we have prepared the following list of things that require your attention if you want your startup to thrive.
Focus on What Brings in the Money
What is profitable? Most of your time and energy should be spent on money-generating activities, since no startup can survive a long period without sufficient income. That is why you need to focus on new leads, networking, building relationships and selling more than on other activities. These are some of the tips and tricks for starting a business. Don’t spend time on things that won’t make you money directly, since you can’t afford it at this stage.
A simple test helps: at the end of each week, list where your hours went and mark which activities brought in revenue, leads or paying customers. Move the rest to a later stage, delegate them, or drop them.
Set Achievable Goals
Many startup owners have a grand vision and really high hopes. While there is nothing wrong with dreaming big, you should be realistic and identify a win that is both achievable within a year and is something your team and investors can celebrate. This win should be a milestone toward the greater vision. Write it down in your Business Plan Template with a date and a number attached, so everyone can see whether you are on track.
Also, don’t forget to celebrate small achievements, since it will improve the confidence of staff and investors. Research by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer found that, of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work (Harvard Business Review).
Communicate Regularly
While communication is vital to every company, there is something specific about startups. Namely, you need to stay in touch with co-founders and clients alike, often from different places and time zones. That is not possible without a stable internet connection and a shared set of tools: one place for team chat, one for video calls, and one for shared documents and decisions.
Agree on a rhythm as well as tools. A short weekly meeting to review numbers and priorities, a monthly update to investors, and a clear rule on which channel to use for urgent issues will keep you able to maintain communication 24/7 without everyone being on call all the time.
Don’t Stop Working to Build Up Savings
Regardless of the product or service you’re offering, it’s very likely that success won’t happen overnight, which means you need to wait a bit longer. You need to keep doing your job and stockpile cash.
Focus on your performance and have products or services worth attracting funding past your own resources. You might experience some obstacles along the way, but if you’ve managed to save some money, you shouldn’t have problems overcoming them. Know how many months of expenses your current cash covers, and review that number every month.
Be Ready for Surprises
Many things can go wrong for a startup. On the other hand, it’s not uncommon for a startup to experience unplanned growth. This means that owners need to be ready to react to any change that comes their way. They need to be flexible and agile, without giving up on their mission and vision. A short list of what you would do if sales doubled, or halved, next quarter is a useful way to prepare.
Nurture Collaboration
How well your startup will perform depends very much on your team’s ability to collaborate effectively. So, try to establish a culture that doesn’t tolerate lack of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results, since those are the five most typical dysfunctions of a team, as described by Patrick Lencioni (The Table Group). Instead, have open and amicable relationships and focus on the common goals.
Let Everyone Know What is Expected
Setting expectations is another crucial element of success and it applies to you, your customers, partners and employees. Employees need clear goals to know what is expected from day one, and those expectations should align with the company goals. “I know what is expected of me at work” is one of the twelve statements in Gallup’s Q12 employee engagement survey (Gallup).
You don’t want any partnership to end because of resentment over underperformance or overreaching. That’s why it’s important that every employee has a clear job description. If you are starting from scratch, see our guide to writing job descriptions.
Pay Attention to Feedback
The best indicator of how well you’re doing is the feedback from your customers, which is why you need to listen carefully to what they say. After all, running a business is not (all) about you; it’s about your customers. Ask them questions, listen and integrate their feedback into your products or services. That’s how you’ll gain returning customers and brand ambassadors. A Customer Satisfaction Survey Template makes it easier to ask the same questions every time and compare the answers.
Allow Yourself Time to Contemplate
Every beginning is difficult, with so many things to take care of, and you’ll often find yourself short of time. However, you really should set some time aside to think and analyze your performance. It may seem counterintuitive, but finding time to think, reflect and be creative will help you identify problems early and prepare to deal with them.
Startup Next-Level Checklist
Use this checklist once a quarter to see where your startup stands. Each row covers one area, what to have in place, and how to tell it is working.
| Area | What to have in place | How to tell it is working |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue focus | A weekly review of where founder time goes | Most hours go to leads, sales and customer work |
| Goals | One written, dated goal for the next 12 months, broken into quarterly milestones | The team can name the goal and the next milestone |
| Communication | Agreed tools, a weekly team meeting and a regular investor update | Decisions are written down and nobody is surprised by them |
| Cash | A monthly count of how many months your cash covers | You see a shortfall months before it arrives |
| Surprises | A short plan for sales doubling or halving | You can act within days, not weeks |
| Team and expectations | A job description and clear goals for every role | Each person can explain what success looks like in their job |
| Customer feedback | A standard survey and a log of what changed because of it | Repeat customers and referrals are growing |
| Reflection | Time blocked each month to review performance | Problems are spotted early, not in a crisis |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many startups survive?
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that about half of the private-sector business establishments that opened in the year ended March 2015 were still operating five years later, and about 35 percent after ten years.
What should a startup focus on first?
Focus on what brings in the money: new leads, networking, building relationships and selling. Activities that do not bring in revenue directly can usually wait until income is steady.
What are the five dysfunctions of a team?
Patrick Lencioni’s model names absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results. A startup that builds trust and keeps the team focused on shared results avoids the most common collaboration problems.
Take Your Startup to the Next Level
Taking a startup to the next level is a difficult challenge. Otherwise, every company that has ever been founded would still exist. However, if you learn from the mistakes of those who failed and avoid the pitfalls of a business startup, you’ll stand good chances of succeeding, and these tips should help you in that process.
