Finding Success with Your Startup: 4 Tried and True Tips for Entrepreneurs

By Jeffrey Hernandez –

Successful startup companies begin with a great idea and happen with a lot of hard work, but there are also plenty of ways to give your business an extra edge from the start. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, look to the advice of entrepreneurial experts who have been there and done it themselves already. Here are four tried and true tips from startup experts who have found success.

Become an Expert First

Although you might be an expert in your own industry niche, you should understand all of its workings and familiarize yourself with current trends. This will provide a solid foundation and knowledge base upon which to build your new business, and will also inspire even more ideas. It will aid you as you start to go through the necessary processes of setting up your business, such as choosing an effective online store template from the hundreds available on platforms like Shopify, to make sure you’re in an optimal position to start selling your product. Before you set out to tackle the technical and legal steps of establishing your business, though, you should learn as much as you can about your industry and become an expert, according to successful entrepreneur Daymond John on Fundable. It’s easy to become excited about an idea, which is necessary for any successful startup, but let confidence be tempered by reality and hard facts. As you’re establishing your business, check in with yourself constantly to ensure that you’re making informed decisions based on your own industry expertise.

Take It One Step at a Time

You might have a grand vision in mind about what role your business will play in the industry at large and how it will achieve great success. However, you should always remember that success ultimately depends on your business’s ability to make good on what you’re offering, according to Venture Beat. In other words, it’s easy to get ahead of yourself while picturing a lofty goal. Don’t be afraid to go at a slower pace and celebrate achievements incrementally. Most successful brands are transparent about where they start and don’t purport to be larger than they are. The key is being honest, and then letting your success convey credibility. You might start as a small self-employed startup, and you should represent yourself in exactly the same light. When you start requiring more employees because your business grows, that’s when it’s time to claim what’s rightfully yours. The key is to let your success build organically and allow your business to evolve with it. Don’t talk the talk, before you can walk the walk.

Listen to Your Customers

It takes vision to build a startup, but the process of establishing a successful business is also based on the give and take between you and your customers. Understanding what customers want and don’t have allows you to fulfill the demand with supply. You should let your customers lead the way and utilize a responsive customer base by testing products and seeing which ones are the most successful, according to Entrepreneur. The old adage of supply and demand holds true for any business and allows it to grow. The direction in which a company grows should always hold true to the original core vision while being informed by the flow of what successfully sells. You can formalize your channels of customer feedback by integrating mechanisms such as surveys to get a full picture of what your customers are thinking and experiencing when they do business with you. The bottom line is not to ask what your customers can do for you, but what you can do for your customers.

Remember Your Roots

Successful companies retain their identity by focusing on what they’re good at, rather than getting distracted by peripheral possibilities and ideas, according to Nick Bowden, CEO of MindMixer on Silicone Prairie News. It’s easy to get bogged down in all the different things you’ll learn and encounter when you get going with a new business. Aspects of the industry will be distracting, and might inspire other ideas that you never thought to integrate. While this can be a great way to find new inspiration, it can also convolute what you originally set out to do. The reason that many startup companies succeed is due to innovation. True entrepreneurs don’t replicate what already exists, but rather reinvent a concept or come up with an entirely new one altogether. This is what forms the core of what makes your business unique, and it should be your guiding principle. A good way to make sure you aren’t lead astray by the myriad other ideas and advice found in the world of startups is to literally write down what makes your business stand out before you start to build your company. When needed, this is an effective way to return to your roots and rediscover the original reason of why you believed in your startup in the first place. This is a powerful incentive to continue on your path to success and maintain your core values.

Author: JEFFREY HERNANDEZ – Coming from a Humble Background, Jeffery completed his Master’s in Business Administration and now works as an Independent Financial Advisor. He loves playing chess, reading novels and spending time with his wife and kids.