What's the Best Advice for an Early-Stage Startup?

What is the best advice for startups so that they can kick-start their business & stand out from the crowd?

 

Dedication and Passion. Period.

 

Thanks for sharing your valuable advice! Passion for a business and the dedication for making it a successful brand are important points.

 

What kind of website are you looking to create? is it an AdSense site, an eCommerce site?
For all websites I would suggest these three things:
1. Content: You must deliver valuable content for the user.
2. Website design and structure: The user should have a great experience browsing your website.
3. Marketing and SEO: You should know how to market your website and that is by learning SEO.

In case of SEO, you have to choose between two things ... you can choose one of the methods or the two.
1. you can target long tail keywords, the more you have the more visitors you will get.
2. Or target a keyword with high volume and get ranked on the first page.

You can focus on one or you can focus on both.

Hope that helps,
Farris

 

Dear @FarrisFahad , the question is about how an individual (wanna be an entrepreneur) prepare himself/herself to start a successful business. What are the things that someone should know for nurturing the business?

 

If you mean an online business, I would say SEO, Social media marketing and if you wanna go deep you should know the languages of your website. HTML, CSS, Javascript and so on.

 

There are many online sources/websites that are packed with valuable information about startup guide but I want to suggest you http://www.entrepreneur.com/. It is the best one that I found till now. Here, you will get opportunity to read real experience of entrepreneur who are well know name in the industry. I hope, it will help you.

 

it takes more than passion for a business to succeed. you must do your maths well. take time to study the market and understand what is missing and how you can fill this gap. if you have passion for business but start it the wrong way, you shall fail. also learn from others. thank you

 

Well Said! For an individual to succeed in the market, he/she must proactively implement the relevant marketing strategies.

 

Whatever your start-up is you need a TOP NOTCH business plan. Without a business plan you will be most probably out of business soon after starting.

Research EVERYTHING regarding business plans. Make a big one as detailed as possible. Find ALL pros and cons of your business, how you can profit, what makes you stand out of the crowd, why are you better than your competitors, who are your competitors, demographics - who will be your clients, males or females, <20 years old, or older, marketing plan, what are you doing for promotion, where will you find the money, swot analysis, trend analysis, what are you expected profit and losses for the first 3-5 years etc etc.

Business Plan is the ALPHA and OMEGA of a new start up.

You can also create an Offering-Reasoning that you can pitch to potential investors who can finance your project for a Rev-Share.

Good luck out there and don't give up, and have passion for work.

 

You can read "100$ start up". It is a good book for learn how increase your revenues without capital.

 

doing work constantly in any condition.

 

Don't slack on staying on track implement some sorta of universal To-do list that everyone in the company can manage in order to keep things moving & not steamroll over important smaller projects!! This is imperative to success & development from my experience in my own startups~

 

For myself I would tell the Person who is looking to start the Business, that the main things you need are

1. Passion for what you are doing or Selling

2. A Business Plan

3. A good Mentor

4. Goals, Both Short and Long term.

5. Knowledgeable in the area they are working in.

6. Have Customer Service Skills

7. Do not give up, Keep pushing have perseverance.

8. Do not over extend yourself, If you have questions or concerns Speak with your mentor.

 

If you already have the business model and idea down, then it's all about managing your finances and cash flow well. Depending on what you're doing, it would also be about engaging your audience on a level that gives them an incentive to convert.

 

Try to boost your social media signals, promote your brand like crazy, sell, sell, sell....

Floyd Arthur

 

Patience, there's really no overnight strategy unless you are fortunate enough to produce something that goes viral in a big way.

 

Great Share! Websites like entrepreneurs.com, forbes.com, inc.com et al are the good sources to learn.

 

Watch your spending very carefully. It is very easy to get excited by the potential of your business and invest unwisely in nonproductive activities early on. And remember that the acquisition of qualified prospects who convert into paying customers is the key to success!

 

As others have said you will need dedication and patience. Usually it will take time to build your business. It is useful to network with other entrepreneurs, not just for business but also so that you have people who have experienced similar things. It is often hard to talk about problems you are facing as an entrepreneur with people who do not have entrepreneurial background. Remember to listen your customers feedback and change your business plan based on that. Don't think you know better than your customers what they need or want.