The pursuit of startup success is one fraught with several obstacles and challenges. However, your business growth mainly depends on your ability and willingness to navigate the barriers that separate successful startups from the many failed projects.
Building a promising startup is filled with unease and discomfort and requires you to utilize your creative abilities. From learning how to become an entrepreneur to running your business effectively, there’s a lot to learn. If you’re ready and willing to take this journey, here are five must-know lessons learned from other successful startups.
1. Draft your startup’s core values.
It can be challenging to determine your business identity and purpose without establishing your core values. These values are those definitively established priorities of your startup, which boil down to what your business is identified with. For instance, you can build your startup’s core values around offering superior quality products and services, upholding high client satisfaction while ensuring a happy team. This implies that your business must never deviate from these principles while engaging all business activities and processes that align with these values. When challenging circumstances present themselves, you first have to determine whether the particular situation or opportunity aligns with your established values. Eventually, they’ll serve as a guide for your decision-making processes, like in the case of FatJ, building its brand around providing qualified drivers during the driver shortage.
FatJ, also referred to as FindaTruckerJob.com, was founded in the wake of the 2015 national driver shortage in the U.S. FatJ initially began as a digital marketing service but has now expanded to become a leading recruitment advertising platform for trucking professionals in the United States. With years of experience, the company has developed its specialty in the transportation and logistics industries, empowering thousands of recruitment teams through the US. FatJ, owned and run by Fusion Recruitment Labs, offers an easier way for trucker businesses to post and find drivers in the exceptionally demanding trucking industry.
2. Provide meaningful experiences.
Delivering meaningful experiences is one of the crucial elements to building a successful business startup. The most effective approach for creating value is providing an incredible product while delivering meaningful experiences. Still, not every individual or company can offer superior quality products and services from the get-go. As an entrepreneur and business leader, there may be periods in which your product and service delivery may hit below expectations, but knowing the value you intend to offer should be a sufficient motivating factor to keep you going. Regardless, there’s no glory in providing a painful product or service experience. Support from your clients could even be worth more than your superb product. This has been a critical success element for businesses like Canadian Springs, offering great-tasting water products in various locations across Canada.
Canadian Springs is the biggest, most established, and trusted water delivery company in Canada. Unlike other companies, their organization is more than just a bottled water company as they offer a wide range of water products and beverages from premium brands, like Fiji and Dasani, across the country. Other products provided include a water cooler, water dispenser, and water filtration system checks. With a high-quality customer and delivery service, you can have water delivered to office with ease, a service offering that has seen the company attract several new customers. Learning from existing businesses like these can inform your journey as a startup.
3. Establish clear priorities.
Establishing clear priorities could be the most challenging thing you may have to learn during your entrepreneurial journey. Putting together your clear preferences means identifying those areas to focus on to support your business in making significant progress to achieve targets. The objective here is to provide the best product or service to your clients, which should be your ultimate priority. While it’s practical to find marketing and promotional strategies to sell your product, it’s best to focus on delivering great products and services first.
This has been one of the proven techniques adopted by MLMHI, a home improvement contractor focused on providing your home the style and protection upgrade it deserves. The Arlington roofing company has a professional team of roof experts and inspectors to deliver commercial roofing installations to roof repair, among other services. They cater to all roofing needs while enhancing homes to serve as the first line of defense against natural disasters and other undesirable events.
4. Allow everyone to play their own role.
Although the majority of startup businesses begin as sole-proprietors, they eventually get overwhelmed with work. There’s no option at this point than to hire new hands or delegate some roles to your team. Delegations allow you room to attend to other pressing matters that generate immediate revenue for the business. However, one of the perks of being an entrepreneur is the feeling of being in charge, something that often gets you occupied with jobs that you should leave with subordinates. It’s a familiar sight to see entrepreneurs attempting to oversee their staff excessively. This habit isn’t recommended if you want to keep your team motivated to deliver. You hired them for a reason, so you need to trust in their competencies to get the job done. Constantly monitoring your staff breeds distrust and hinders their productivity levels. If this is apparent in your business, consider reviewing some practical and insightful tips on the best team recruitment and retention practices shared by Vivek Ramaswamy, founder of Roivant Sciences.
5. Explore opportunities even when there’s none.
The outbreak of COVID-19 last year has left the entire world besieged by several lifestyle adjustments and transformations, especially in the business and industrial sectors. The current business climate has prompted the need for startups and young businesses to explore other growth opportunities or risk being swept into oblivion. Recent trends suggest an increase in innovation and creativity among several companies exploring opportunities to thrive all through the pandemic. The most successful companies, especially startups, are those that have identified and addressed specific essential needs. For the most innovative entrepreneurs, now isn’t a good time to compromise on offering excellent service. Compared to significant businesses, startups enjoy a reasonable degree of flexibility in structure and complexity so they can quickly adjust to make room for new opportunities and growth potentials.
Many individuals have learned a lot of valuable business lessons while undertaking their entrepreneurial journey. Chances are you’re likely to get caught in the gray area between success and failure, so hopefully, with the insights shared in this article, you’ll find your ground and work your way to the top.