Startup Principles for Success
Startup Principles for Success
Every startup mentor has his favorite list of basic principles to avoid pitfalls, and I’m no exception. If my experience and insights can save just one founder from the stress, lost time, and lost money associated with a startup misstep, then I’m a happy man. Consider these half-dozen principles:
• Both Theory and Practice. There is no substitute for experience. No matter how well-educated you are, and how certain you are that you understand all the nuances of a business area, it is a good idea to work in a similar business for a few months to get a feel for the market and observe the way in which that business is run before taking the plunge. The same thing is true for students who dream of being entrepreneurs.
• Time Management. It takes practice and effort to focus on the most important things first. In business, “most important” means time to market, customer service, low cost, and beating your competitors. It also means knowing when to delegate, and time for effective communication with your subordinates.
• Adequate Financing. If you have started your business on a shoestring budget without planning for future funds to run the business, then you could be facing severe cash flow problems within a short period of time. This could hamper your business financially and you mentally; and you could soon lose the motivation you need to run your business successfully.
• Reign in Expenses. It is very important to control your expenses. Not being able to reign them in will result in all your income being washed away, and will result in serious cash flow problems.
• More Marketing and Sales. Every new product needs to fight the urge to declare “If we build it, they will come!” Even word of mouth advertising and viral marketing cost big bucks these days. With a billion businesses fighting for your customer’s attention, it takes leverage, effort and money to remain in the public eye.
• Adapt to the Market. Most startups I know have “refined” their target market several times during their rollout. So be alert and be flexible. Focus on a niche. Watch for customers hell-bent on not letting you earn any profits, or wasting too much of your time.
The most important principle is that you should love what you do - passion and attitude will play a large part in defining your success in business. Apply the principles outlined here, define your own rules and goals, and you will be well on the way to creating a successful and profitable business.
Startup Principles for Success - To learn more about this author, visit Martin Zwilling's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
Behind most great entrepreneur success stories is a long list of mistakes! Unfortunately, for every success story you see, there is an even longer list of failure stories with mistakes that you don’t see. But rather than dwell on the failures, I’ve tried to extract a list of principles that embody the successes.
Every startup mentor has his favorite list of basic principles to avoid pitfalls, and I’m no exception. If my experience and insights can save just one founder from the stress, lost time, and lost money associated with a startup misstep, then I’m a happy man. Consider these half-dozen principles:
• Both Theory and Practice. There is no substitute for experience. No matter how well-educated you are, and how certain you are that you understand all the nuances of a business area, it is a good idea to work in a similar business for a few months to get a feel for the market and observe the way in which that business is run before taking the plunge. The same thing is true for students who dream of being entrepreneurs.
• Time Management. It takes practice and effort to focus on the most important things first. In business, “most important” means time to market, customer service, low cost, and beating your competitors. It also means knowing when to delegate, and time for effective communication with your subordinates.
• Adequate Financing. If you have started your business on a shoestring budget without planning for future funds to run the business, then you could be facing severe cash flow problems within a short period of time. This could hamper your business financially and you mentally; and you could soon lose the motivation you need to run your business successfully.
• Reign in Expenses. It is very important to control your expenses. Not being able to reign them in will result in all your income being washed away, and will result in serious cash flow problems.
• More Marketing and Sales. Every new product needs to fight the urge to declare “If we build it, they will come!” Even word of mouth advertising and viral marketing cost big bucks these days. With a billion businesses fighting for your customer’s attention, it takes leverage, effort and money to remain in the public eye.
• Adapt to the Market. Most startups I know have “refined” their target market several times during their rollout. So be alert and be flexible. Focus on a niche. Watch for customers hell-bent on not letting you earn any profits, or wasting too much of your time.
The most important principle is that you should love what you do - passion and attitude will play a large part in defining your success in business. Apply the principles outlined here, define your own rules and goals, and you will be well on the way to creating a successful and profitable business.
Startup Principles for Success - To learn more about this author, visit Martin Zwilling's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
|||
Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
|||
Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Martin's articles
 |
|
Startup Professionals Musings - Selected ideas and assistance to entrepreneurs and startup founders in finding business ideas, funding, executive mentoring, and business networking to incorporate a business, file patents, add an advisory board, and address operational issues.
|
|
 |
 | |
|
| |
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Essence of Leaders Social Bookmarking Guide Performance Improvement Plan Instant Yellow Pages The Human Network |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Marketing Blogs
Top Blogs To Watch In 2008 | |
 |
Top 50 Marketing Blogs
Top Marketing Blogs of 2010 | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
