7 lessons you learn in your start-ups first year
Start-ups by their very nature are exactly that; just a start. The journey to building a successful business is often equal parts energizing and anxiety-inducing. The creator of Little Sale Birdy Laszlo Szabo shares his experience of operating a successful start-up and reveals the hard truths that he learned in his first year (that they won’t teach you at marketing or business school).
- The first year of a start-up is an emotional rollercoaster. “Year one in business is the toughest and it will be a more difficult than you could have ever anticipated, not on you; it will affect everyone around you. Prepare yourself and your family and friends for a turbulent period of ups and downs.”
- Capital is hard to obtain. “”Securing seed capital is a difficult process but it is critical to marketing and operations, therefore you need to persevere and when you do get it, make sure it is working effectively and efficiently.”
- Your team may crumble. “Not everyone is suitable to play the start-up game. It is imperative that you bring the right people and businesses on board. When you make the wrong choice (and it will happen at some point) by recruiting an unsuitable colleague it will cost you a lot - financially and emotionally.”
- Customers are hard to recruit. “When believe so much in your idea, it is easy to fool yourself in to thinking people will quickly follow suit. Be prepared for a long road of not only finding customers, but keeping them.”
- Plan for failure. “Your marketing strategy should entail a Plan B. And Plan C. You must have an exit strategy before doing any business because statistics prove that the majority of start-ups will need one.”
- Your perspective does not matter. “Many marketing strategies are tailored to please the person who created it. Don’t fall in to this trap. Engage with your target market, and find out what they want.”
- Negative feedback is gold. “You’re going to make mistakes. Daily. Use your team and target market as a source of information; implore them for feedback and advice on to how they’d negotiate the situation. While negative feedback can be difficult to take, it enables you to learn what works and accept what doesn’t.”
Is your business in its infancy? Have you survived your first year? Is your start-up still on the drawing board? Please share your experiences via our Twitter and Facebook.
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12 Jun 2014I think you have observed some very interesting details , appreciate it for the post.
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