Making a Startup Successful – The Mindset & Tools Required

Start-ups play a key role in building the economy of the country. It fosters innovation, creates new jobs and builds competition, all of which works to boost the economy of a country. However, creating a successful start-up is no easy task. Research shows that 90% of start-ups in India fail within the first five years. This is largely due to a lack of innovation and starting off with the wrong mindset.

If you are starting out on a new venture, it is important to go into it with the right planning and mindset. Most entrepreneurs have a passion to change the world. However, it takes more than passion to get a business off the ground. There are a lot of sleepless nights, obstacles and mental, physical and financial strain that goes into creating a successful start-up. Build the right mindset and make use of all the tools available, while getting your company off the ground.

Build The Product For The Customer

It is important to have conviction in the product that you are selling, but it is also important to ensure that the customers will like the product too. 42% of new ventures fail because they built a product that consumers didn’t want. As an entrepreneur, you should be open to feedback. One of the biggest mistakes that you can make during the early days of the company is to be too rigid about the vision of what the company does.

In order to ensure that the business develops and grows, you have to adapt to the different needs of the clients. Before investing more into the product, you must work with different clients or pitch the product to customers and adapt based on the feedback. By taking a flexible approach, you will be able to better connect with the target audience and build a product with an interested customer base.

Some of the primary tools that you can use to connect with the customer base are:

• Online Traffic: Make use of tools such as Google Search Console to understand how customers are connecting with similar platforms. Use this information to plan the best strategies to draw more traffic to your platform.
• Paid PR: Tools such as Google Analytics and SEO software such as MOZ and Long Tail Pro help you build high-converting online traffic.
• Collect Feedback: Make use of tools such as Surveypal to collect online feedback and build better relations with the customers

Set The Right Workplace Culture

All successful endeavours have two things in common – effort and consistency. It is essential to consistently work on a project in order to ensure its success, and this extends to the workspace. Many small or new companies forget to set the right workplace culture; this can often lead to clashes between the employees and the management.

Whether you want to flat organization structure, build a fixed hierarchy or keep flexible work hours, it is important to set the guidelines right at the beginning. Having the right workplace culture helps both employees and management teams stay motivated.

Reports suggest that 80% of small-sized businesses have no HR departments. This makes it difficult to maintain a consistent work culture and address the issues faced by various teams. Companies can put in place small HR teams and make use of online tools to handle these tasks. Reports show that making use of HR tools can help boost workplace efficiency and boost productivity. Some of the best HR tools that can be used are:

• PeopleStrong
• Qandle
• Keka HR
• greytHR
• Farsight HCM Engine

Build A Strong Brand

Most entrepreneurs pay too much attention to creating the perfect product before selling the brand. However, it is important to build the brand along with the product in order to improve customer retention. Reports show that companies that presell their productssee up to 6 to 13% improvement in revenue. By preselling, companies get the opportunity to build products in accordance with the demand.

In order to successfully manage tasks like preselling, it is necessary to have a brand in place. The key elements that go into creating a brand are:

• Name: The most obvious element of a company or brand is its name. Make use of online tools such as NameMesh, Oberlo or Namelix to get a unique and catchy name for your enterprise.
• Website: Either hire an agency or make use of tools such as Wix, WordPress, GoDaddy or Shopify to create an online domain where customers can find and interact with the company.
• Logo: A company requires a unique symbol that users can recognize and associate with the brand. You can make use of online tools such as Designhill, Logojoy or Canva to create a logo.

Define Clear-Cut Goals

One of the key elements of setting the right mindset is defining what winning means for you and your company.Connect with industry experts and conduct your own research before you define what it means for a company to be successful. This includes clarifying what targets you see your company cross in terms of the number of securing funding, gaining clients, and increasing revenue.

Although a start-up must always stay flexible and adapt to changing scenarios, having a target can help define a path for the company. Clarifying your goals makes it easier to set clear tasks on a daily, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis. There are a host of tools that can be used to handle different aspects of goal setting:

• Project Management: There are a host of tools that can be used to keep track of the progress and communication with respect to specific projects. Make use of tools such as BaseCamp, Asana or Scoro to keep track of company goals and project progress.
• Office Communication: Maintain an online repository of the important communication elements and shared information with tools like Slack, Biba, Verishow and more. This helps keep track of set targets and past communications.

Embrace The Ups And Downs

A new venture will always face a host of ups and downs, but the key factor is to have belief in your project and consistently work through difficult periods. By adapting to changing needs and building a strong relationship with both employees and customers, a company can pave the way for success.