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A common startup is always striving towards perfection, both in the technological advancements of its products and the quality of its business model. Entrepreneurs are constantly looking for new opportunities and ways where they can add value to their target market and successfully grow their business to the big giant corporations like Google, Amazon, Netflix, etc. However what kind of business startup checklist did they have on their own?
Well to tell you the truth they didn’t have any concrete one neither they already knew the path that they were going to take. They did it with giving and take, by constantly experimenting and observing what suits the market. However, we analyzed most of the stories that lots of our and public successful startups had and we came up with this article.
Without further ado, let’s see what kind of milestones and what kind of business startup checklist one should have to guarantee at least a successful leap through the hidden milestones!
Steps to accomplish your business startup checklist
Form a business idea
The formation of an idea begins with some kind of a business problem that your target market is desperately willing to acquire. And it’s not some kind of a common issue that someone else has already solved. It can be like that but you’ll need to provide unique value, something that other companies prefer to ignore and you have secretly found out about it. Or at the very least, you should identify a specific market section that is yet to be found and try to introduce your concept into it.
Here are a few steps you are advised to follow when you just begin to form your business idea:
- Idea Validation – Try to make your business idea unique and valuable enough to make your target market not only accept it but encounter something they have been looking for for so long.
- Evaluate your target market – Study and research how exactly you can fit in the gap of your targeting audience while trying to outcompete your rivals.
- Learn how to start a business – Make sure you know what you want to do: use online courses, social networks for startups, attend various meetings for entrepreneurs, etc.
- You truly have a desire to implement your idea – If you want to do your business idea because of money but without passion or with a passion but without a monetization system, forget about it. You need to have both of these characteristics to run your business.
Seek your Market Fit Option
The second point of your company startup checklist is to sort out who your customers are or draw out the social profile of your future clients. If you will know who they are, it will be easy to determine what exactly attracts them so much and how you can affect them with your business model. After all, when your current users are happy with their customer experience to share their experience, you will eventually bring even more business than before. Here are some of the other factors that you should take into consideration:
- Focus on your USP – Don’t try to focus on every single customer’s feedback to satisfy all of their needs. You need to understand that you have to offer your key value proposition and only once your revenue wheel is starting to gain significant terms, you may try to offer something else apart from your main product.
- Value proposition – Stress out the key value that your users are going to get. Make sure that it is different from your competitors as that is what makes your entire company so different and one of the reasons that keep your users engaged.
- Find your approach – Don’t think that if you have successfully found a perfect market niche once, you’ll be able to do it a second time with no hard time. Try and repeat as many times as you will necessarily need it. Be flexible to your target audience’s needs and try to find out the solution that will suit them the best.
Organizational Structure
One of the other core things you need to do before going from one stage of your startup to another is to get all your company processes in order. That’s important because if you have chaos in your organization, you’re going to scale just that. And there are several factors to look at here. You need to have an audit to see if the startup has any real or initial problems. An audit of financial statements is necessary to minimize the risk of claims from regulatory bodies.
Initially, there must be a transparent organizational structure, where each employee clearly understands his role and responsibilities. These roles and responsibilities will change as the company grows up, but initially, there must be a clear distribution of powers and responsibilities.
Sources of Investment
When you make a startup, the available external sources of funding roughly fall into two groups: “borrowed funds” and “equity”. By borrowed funds, it means any money which you do not give shares/equity in the company, but you should pay them back (loans). You can also use your savings, sell your car or apartment, or develop your profits from your business.
Venture investments are attracted for the development of the company, the growth of revenue, not for the amazing product development. A professional investor will not give money for just an idea. At the earliest stage, you have to make the most of the available capital to make a minimum viable product. You should go to an investor with it, your team, and an understanding of what will happen next. It’s not worth trying to attract investment if you don’t have an accumulated user base, customers, or proven hypotheses.
Another thing to remember: the valuation of a company depends, in part, on how much the founder believes in what he is doing. Investing your own money is proof of the founder’s belief in the idea. That is why it is useless to attract investment for an idea: they simply will not believe you
Team Motivation and Planning
The motivation of employees is no less important. And it’s not just about material motivation: when things change, the backbone of the company should remain – the people who are interested in the development of the business. So pay attention to why people work in your company, how important it is to them, whether they share the goals of the business.
Another thing is financial and tax planning. Financial planning is necessary for successful business development because you have to clearly understand where and for what money is spent and adjust cash flow if necessary. Mistakes in tax planning or lack thereof are always a loss of profit for the business.
Develop a company startup checklist for your business processes
It is important to declare all of the business processes correctly and clearly. This should be done on paper so that anyone could understand how the company works. Lots of people forget this point, and the result is confusion. An effective strategy also needs to be in place in the marketing and the sales department. You can’t just funnel money into advertising and sales, while not understanding how you’re going to increase your customer base and win the market. Only after all these factors, you can choose the tools for scaling and growing.
For example, one of our big clients in its early days was not a polished software that required huge assistance right from the start. After we have analyzed the target market, researched its competitors, and produced a few prototypes that allowed our client to seek a solid potential in his product, we started the development process. After just a few months of active development, we produced Sortly, a number one inventory software. So not only we helped with the software part, but we also assisted in creating a business model. And they started exactly with our service called Product Development Strategy Session. If you want your business to achieve the same heights that our client did, schedule our free business consultation where our experts will analyze your business idea and put it on the right development path.
Growth & Scaling
The last point on your business startup checklist is scaling. Scaling is always an indicator of a company’s growth, but the forms and goals of this growth can vary greatly. At the initial stage of development, the classic startup or scalp growth is usually applied. In the first case, scaling is a controlled process with a specific result.
Then the startup turns into a skill upgrading. And with traditional growth, the focus is already on increasing efficiency. At this stage, the company has already gained some stability: it has counterparties, specific external conditions, and an organization of activities. At this point, the business starts to grow qualitatively, increase gross profit, and define a strategy for optimization.
Conclusion
There are indeed certain business points that might be added or deleted within this business startup checklist, according to your business structure. We just wanted to point out some of the essentials that every entrepreneur should go through and how a business roadmap looks, at least in the USA. If you want to know how to go through each described step in detail, then you can follow all of the links provided in the article!
However, if you checked out all of the entries on this list and you are choosing the right technological partner, then JetRuby might be the right choice you are looking at. We have assisted the growth of startups during the 10 years of our active involvement. Many of them have already successfully launched their product within their desired timeline and are spending the leftover money for advertising and marketing purposes. So, if you are looking for a trustful and experienced company that understands how startups are operated, contact us today and we’ll discuss your product during a short, but efficient Product Development Strategy Session.
