Intro
Knowing how to start is the first step to getting your start-up to succeed with the least loss and risk possible. However, as easy as it is to talk, it’s rather hard to walk the talk indeed. Knowing what risks to watch out for, goals to set, plans to execute, and costs to afford can be crucial to ensure that your ideas move from the dream stage to the implementation stage.
Being a start-up ourselves, we know the real tea because we have sipped it already and are here today to share some tips on how to manage a start-up with you. Why?
Great ideas deserve great lightening or else they won’t shine, and worse may never be seen by the world. Today, we walk you through the fundamentals that shouldn’t be skipped and the essentials companies should always keep in mind while managing a start-up. Let’s turn the lights on!
Set The Foundation Right
It’s all about the start, how you start determines how you finish. That said, it’s essential to understand that at this point patience, not rush, should be your friend while making decisions, drawing plans, setting goals, and expecting results. Some of the considerations you could look out for in this stage include:
Conducting A Market Research
Knowing the market you’re setting foot in; this means conducting thorough research about competitors of similar services or products to yours. This will help you identify the gaps in your plan, know what your product or service is offering extra, and inspire you to upgrade what you have in your hands to something better with zero cost. All you need is time and bits of patience to run your studies.
Setting Your Business Plan
Another crucial step that can’t go unnoticed yet many start without having a proper one or even worse not having a plan set at all! Setting your business plan doesn’t mean setting the business goals of the start-up alone but paying attention to the financial capacities & limitations, the security measures you need to keep everything secured, and having an initial release plan for your product or service before the full launch to test the waters first.
Determine The Mission & The Vision
Defining the mission and vision doesn’t mean writing some catchy lines to be posted only. They have to align with your services, target audience, growth plan, and strategies whether they’re short-term or long-term. Knowing where you plan to be headed helps your audience see that with you, and if you’re unable to know this, guess what? Your audience will probably be able to see that as well.
Financial Tracking
Set up financial planning through automated systems to help you run the processes inside better. If you’re only starting, you can start with something simple like InvoiceQ’s E-invoicing management system to issue and receive invoices, and later on, upgrade it to benefit from all system modules or better? Whether your company is already using another system or plans on using one, the integration process can be handled easily.
Risk Management
Great planning is not complete if no backup plans are available to ensure the company can proceed even in situations of threat. Risk management is the backbone of your start-up and overlooking it to save yourself a bit of cost will have you pay double the price of this decision once you’re face to face with actual risk scenarios.
Know What Your Product or Service is About
Depending on the type of product or service you offer, you have to be in the know of what your service requires if it’s going to a local or international audience. For instance, at InvoiceQ, we target various markets like Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Therefore, this means that we have to pay attention to the rules and regulations of each country to ensure our E-invoicing solutions follow regulatory compliance.
Furthermore, considering that we cater to both technical and non-technical users at the same time, the need to develop a user-friendly system has been our top priority right from the get-go. Hence, we developed InvoiceQ in a way that ensures ease of use and dynamicity.
You can’t give users what they need if you don’t know what your product is about.
Would You Rather Build A Foundation of Ambition or A Foundation of Illusion?
Ambition is a powerful force when used as fuel to revolutionize new ideas and solve real problems. And while it’s a fire to get you started, it can easily backfire if you’re chasing unrealistic goals in a short period of time, for instance.
Part of being realistic means choosing a reliable team and realizing each member’s potential to set goals that go hand in hand with the set of skills you’ve got there. This in turn will allow you to refine your products and services better and chase realistic growth.
Entrepreneurs need to distinguish the difference between the two. Ambition is the direction and the hustle, and the healthy dose of reality that ensures the vision is grounded on a solid foundation. It’s about recognizing the need for the thrill of dreams and balancing that energy with a meticulous plan to turn the visions into reality.
Want to learn the difference between ambition and illusion when managing a start-up? Check what our CCO and Co-founder Mohammed Baseet has to say.
