Many people dream of owning a business one day, but they often don’t realize what it takes to run a successful company and achieve business growth. The success rate for small businesses is actually not as high as you may think, and the lack of preparedness is usually the main culprit behind an owner running their establishment into the ground. How do you build a successful business from scratch?
How to Grow Your Business From Scratch: 7 Valuable Tips
Sometimes, catastrophes happen through no fault of your own. This is not an excuse to give up on your dream and go right back to your 9-to-5 job. Business development from scratch — as guys at Husky Hamster say — needs to involve a certain level of creativity and the ability to improvise in crisis situations. Let’s take the COVID-19 pandemic as an example: countless businesses have gone bankrupt during this public health crisis.
Those that persevered were ones whose leaders were smart and flexible enough to adapt to the new reality by moving most of their company’s activity online or pivoting in another direction that would allow them to remain operational throughout the lockdowns. If you’re just beginning your journey as an entrepreneur and are looking for valuable advice on how to grow your business and start making money with it, this article is a good place to start. Below, you’ll find a rundown of some of the basic tips you’ll need to get your company up and running.
1. Be Patient, Your Business will Grow
Young entrepreneurs often mistake patient and calculated behavior for inaction. Nothing could be further from the truth. Taking the time to do the market research, finding the best potential candidates for employees, and getting a basic rundown of your initial operational costs will allow you to build a solid foundation for the future.
Marketing can help your business grow, and with clever marketing and a good online presence, it is possible to land a major client within mere months of creating your startup. However, without putting in the initial work to ensure that you’re ready for customers, the chances are that your product or service will not satisfy their demands, which may have a negative impact on your reputation and brand recognition.
2. Get a Grip on Your Finances
It should go without saying: sort out all of your financial affairs before starting a business, and stay on top of all money-related things in the future. While it might not be the most pleasant of endeavors, visits to the bank should be as routine as grabbing a coffee at your local Starbucks.
Contrary to what some people may tell you, handling the company’s finances all on your own is a quick way to burn yourself out and getting in trouble with the fiscal authorities. It’s a good idea to hire a professional accountant once you start making a decent income. They will keep track of your spending, gains, make sure that your employees are paid on time, and, perhaps most importantly, handle all tax matters for you. With a good accountant, not only will you stay on top of these matters, but you might also end up saving quite a bit of money, too!
3. Build a Trusted Team
You won’t get far in any industry if you don’t surround yourself with people you can trust to get the job done. Many companies end up in serious trouble because their owners rely on cheap, often unqualified workers instead of hiring a dream team.
If you want to be successful, every department of your new business must be run by competent, trustworthy individuals. From social media, through sales, all the way to human resources, the people who work for your company should be experienced, creative, and motivated to contribute to the continued growth of their workplace.
4. Invest in Your Employees
Investing in the people who work for you doesn’t only entail paying them decent wages, although it is definitely a good starting point. However, it will only get you so far. The best entrepreneurs understand the value of investing in the personal and professional growth of their workers, which is what you should start doing as soon as you can.
This can mean anything from providing access to online course platforms such as Coursera or Udemy to securing a healthy catering firm to deliver lunches to the office. This kind of approach will result in a morale boost and let your team know that you care about them. That, in turn, will improve the overall productivity of your business.
5. Lead by Example
You can’t expect your workers to meet their objectives and work as hard as possible if they see you slacking off or not putting in the necessary effort yourself. If you come to the office with a lackadaisical attitude and expect the people around you to bend over backward at work, you won’t get very far.
To effectively lead a team, take on some of the responsibility yourself, and make sure that you always have something to do at the office. Be willing to lend a helping hand to a struggling employee. Drafting a business plan is the easy part. However, its execution is the ultimate test of character for any entrepreneur.
6. Don’t Be Afraid of Delegating
Being actively involved in the affairs of your startup is a double-edged sword. Of course, you need to be proactive and take on responsibility for your company’s actions. However, you need to be careful not to turn into an overprotective control freak who needs to do everything by themselves. It will make your employees feel like you don’t trust them, which inevitably leads to a lack of confidence in their competence.
You should not be afraid of delegating specific, important tasks to your workers. Empowering your employees with specific and important tasks is a sign of trust. It is also a great way of testing if they are cut out for taking on more responsibility in the future and will help you grow the business.
7. Keep the Long-Term Vision in Mind
Positive Future Vision
A strategic mindset separates wannabe business people from business owners whose companies become the very definition of success. Writing a business plan for a startup doesn’t have to be difficult. Your business plan, while clear and concise, should reach far into the future and align all of your firm’s actions in the present to ensure the business is dedicated to meeting your long-term goals.
To achieve your goals, build a solid business structure for growth:
- Create a business plan for your vision
- Secure funding for your vision
- Build relationships with the right people
- Institute business policies and procedures
- Develop your marketing plan
- Build your customer base
- Plan to pivot to take advantage of opportunities
It is critical always to redirect your focus on the long-term objectives. That is the only way to make sure that you’re on the right track and a great way to identify any shortcomings that may transpire along the way.
Build a Successful Business from Scratch
Now that you know the basics of what it takes to start a business and lead it toward a brighter future, don’t hesitate to apply that knowledge in the real world. Of course, there are many other areas of business that you should learn more about, such as making sure that you’re in the clear when it comes to any legal questions or delving deeper into the process of drafting a business plan. Hopefully, this article helped you understand what you need to keep in mind to get started on the way towards making the dream of running your own business come true!