So, you’ve spent lots of time and energy thinking about and planning how to start your startup but now you really need to get the momentum going, how do you grow it? Growing a startup business is no easy task. There are plenty of ways to go about it. Take a look at the 5 different tips we’ve researched:
- Get Yourself a Mentor
Depending on where you are in your career, you will be at different stages and mindsets. If you’re reading this article might be either on the earlier side of your career or you’ve got a growth mindset – great either way! One way you can make use of this growth mindset is to find a mentor who can be a positive influence on you. Having a mentor can help you grow your startup business in a number of ways. A good mentor will hopefully have experienced many of the problems you have before and will be able to advise accordingly. In addition, they’re a great source of feedback and constructive criticism. It’s not easy to be self critical, especially when you’ve worked so hard on growing your startup business already.
- Set Up in a Shared Workspace
Coordinating a team is hard. You’ll either have to spend a lot of time pinging out voice notes, emails and calls or find a space where you can all regularly meet. An obvious solution is to rent an office space. However, with the revolution on working conditions during the pandemic, the idea of renting a full time office space is daunting as you have to be so flexible. A neat solution to this issue is to sign up to a shared workspace. It’s a handy halfway house between renting a full office or being a totally remote team. You’ll have the benefits of being able to select what days you’re “in the office” without the need to commit to a full office space. One way of looking at this is outsourcing your building location. If you’re a bit cash poor it can be a very affordable way of growing your startup business.
- Raise Investment
Quite simply, you’ve got to spend money to make money. You might run into a cash flow issue when you’re trying to grow your startup business or things might grow slower than you’d like. A solution to this is to raise some investment. There are benefits and drawbacks to this, depending on the investor. If you find an angel investor, someone who is using their own money, they typically want a slice of your startup in return for their investment. It’s subjective if it’s the right move to give away some of your business in the startup stage. But deciding on tough decisions is one of the pleasures of being a business owner! A venture capitalist investor is looking for a percentage return on their investment in cash. Typically, they’ll agree how much they would expect to see in return each year. If your business is flying this won’t be a problem but if the investment hasn’t had the desired effect, these debts will become the bane of your life.
- Merger or Acquisition for a Synergie With Another Business
Depending on where your business is at, a merger or acquisition could be a great move. Let’s say that you’re a small SEO agency. You’ve managed to get the team set up, have a stable income and fostered a great relationship with your clients. But, you want to offer more to them. You could grow your startup business by merging or acquiring another business in the digital marketing space. An example of this would be merging with a Google Ads Specialist team. All of a sudden, your range of product offering has likely doubled and you can now share your clients and contacts with your new business partners. In theory, it does sound like a good move if you’re looking to expand quickly. You do need to be cautious of cultural differences between businesses and employees – not to mention the legal fees that would be involved. However, it could be exactly what your startup needs to grow and therefore worth all the costs involved.
- Trim the Metaphorical Business Fat
This might come across as an obscure suggestion but it’s worth thinking about. Sometimes in business, especially in periods of rapid growth and change, you may go down avenues that aren’t as good as they seem. For example, if you’re an ecommerce business you might have expanded your product offering in reaction to a change in the market, such as buying lots of PPE equipment during the pandemic. This was a great idea at the time but now it’s not a profitable market. In order to grow your startup business, it is well worth reviewing your business processes and offerings from time to time. Removing product offerings is a very simple act. A more challenging example of trimming the fat would be to review what direction your business needs to grow in. If you’re an app, a hard balance to strike is developing your app or focusing on your marketing. It’s important to get your name out there but if you’re marketing a half baked app, it’ll be a waste of time.
Overall, growing a startup business is hard. It’s meant to be hard. Otherwise, everyone would do it. The key, no matter what you’re doing to grow it, is to be patient and dedicated to your business. It’s best compared to a marathon, not a sprint.
This blog was written by Zac on behalf of Tramshed Tech, The home of startups in Wales.
