startup
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By Joydeep Bhattacharya

Startups are booming and everyone is dreaming of becoming an entrepreneur. But, how good is an idea to be feasible and profitable? Most startups fail to realize the full market potential of their idea and ultimately fear shutting down.

Steve Jobs rightly said “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

Here is a 5 step strategy to startup success:

1. Forecast and Limit Your Liabilities

Forecasting is one of the essential elements of a smarter business strategy. Before spending, it is suggested to forecast the costs. I would suggest having a backup of all operating costs for at least 12 months ahead. Also, keep the liabilities to the bare minimum. Nothing to get disheartened if your business starts slow, gradually it will start to pump profits.

From my own experience, I must tell you that invest whatever you get from the clients and keep your own pockets safe. Do not invest from your own pocket or else your backup will perish before you realize and you will be in a horrific situation. If you are investing from the revenue you are generating from your clients, you are doing your business well. Take this advice from me, it’s proven and you will be glad you read this.

2. Make Use of Tools and Services That Helps to Cut Down Costs

Instead of hiring a designer, developer, manager for doing essential stuffs, try and make use of smart and cost effective business tools. For example, for your startup website, consider using a website builder like MotoCMS which can get you a website in a fraction of the cost than what you will spend on a full time designer. Similarly, you can make use of tools like Mail Chimp for blasting emails on a daily basis, Wave Accounting for managing your accounting activities and Skype for video conferencing.

Using the above suggested tools and several other ones can not only help to do the task in an effective manner but will also help to reduce the overall expenses. Remember, expense management is the key to startup success.

3. Don’t Relax and Don’t Rely Heavily on Anyone

What I have learnt in my decade old career as a consultant, don’t rely heavily on anyone if you are looking to become an entrepreneur. I have seen people make the mistake of assigning major responsibilities to people who are either incapable of doing that task or are simply not interested. Ultimately, the entire burden shifts and falls over the founder. In order to avoid such problems, it is always suggested to keep control on every department on your own hands so that in the event of any mishappenings you remain prepared or handle the problem carefully.

Moreover, do not think that being an owner of the company, now it’s time for you to relax and transfer the burden over to the employees. Your major work responsibilities start after you become an entrepreneur.

4- Follow the AIDA Model

AIDA is a marketing model that lists the events that happen when a consumer interacts with the brand. It stands for “Attention”, “Interest”, “Desire” and “Action”.

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In simpler words, businesses need to follow the basic marketing formula of raising awareness, to generate interest, which then leads to desire, and finally prompts action.

5. Make Use of the Lean Startup Method

Mike Tyson once said about his opponents’ prefight strategies: “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

The Lean Startup method is a scientific approach to create and manage startups in a faster and better manner. The core component of this methodology is the build-measure-learn feedback loop. The first step is identifying a problem and then building the minimum viable product (MVP) to begin the process of learning as quickly as possible.

It is important to understand the fact that startups exist not to make stuff, make money, or serve customers. They exist in order to build a business that is sustainable. A startup launch is more like an experiment that allows us to test every element of our broader vision.

Joydeep Bhattacharya is a digital marketing evangelist and author of SEOsandwitch.com. He is a regular contributor on publications like Wired, SEMrush, Ahrefs, Hubspot and several other sites.