out here, really do. Make it your mission to resolve this pain. Then create a product, not to dazzle but to speak directly to solving this pain like yesterday. Push your solution, because that is what we need. A solution.
A product or service is merely the tool by which that solution is given and quite frankly, we do not care about the features of your app.
# 3: Knowleth Thy Client, Doeth Ye A Survey
Most entrepreneurs create products they think customers need, but what customers do not really want. The only way to understand our customers is by speaking directly to them and understanding their challenges.
A lot of times even they do not understand their own problems, so this engagement will have to be ongoing. A survey is one way of going about it but essentially what we are trying to do as a startup is to truly understand the job to be done.
# 4: Test Thy Product, Seeketh Feedback
And after speaking to your clients, take on their feedback and use that to improve your approach to solving their problems. This isn ' t easy. Some feedback can be punitive, personal even to the point of triggering.
Nonetheless, this is the only true way to build actual value into our final solution. If we do not follow this route, we will base our product development on competitors ' hearsay or our own assumptions and just get more frustrated on our business journey.
# 5: Gaineth Ye Some Traction
One thing I tell most of my established business mentees is that their business should have consistent cash flow no matter how small. First for their own personal upkeep, secondly for a sense of self-esteem, and finally for a justifiable framework that a co-founder, shareholder, or financier can latch onto. Erstwhile known as ' skin in the game '.
Traction in terms of customer pipeline and MRR( monthly recurring revenue) is important, no matter how small. It proves your business has some life and where there is life, there can be growth.
Do not seek funding or financing to start a business if that business has not shown any small semblance of a life of its own. Money should sustain a business, not be its parentage.
# 6: Be Ye Clear On Thy Marketing Channels
How do you engage your customers, talk to them, update them or even appreciate them? What does the strategy behind that look like? Is your communication random or do you have a sales and marketing calendar and budget for the year?
A startup business has to have a deliberate customer engagement model if it is serious about growth and scale. The ability to grow and scale is really predicated on 3 things: the number of customers( what we call pipeline), the frequency of engagement, and the messaging.
# 7: Target Thy Revenue And Thy Cost Models
You will be amazed by just how many businesses owners do not have annual targets for their revenues nor budgets for their expected costs.
Do raise your hand high up in the air if this describes you? And do not be ashamed or frustrated. We are many! The thing is that a startup business cannot definitively grow if this growth has not been quantified or tracked prior. This is because accountability and discipline are crucial components of any serious business owner or successful startup founder and these same financial targets subconsciously keep one on track whilst acting as an impartial judge on daily effort vs returns.
So, to prevent being unnecessarily busy, bitter, and broke let us commit to at least set revenue and cost-based targets for our startup business today if we have not already done so. That would be a massive success in the right direction.
Jan Okonji is the founder, Business Growth Solutions and an entrepreneur with a passion for turning ideas into profitable businesses. He can be contacted for business support services and advice here, or through his email at: Info @ bizgrowth. club.