Startups don’t always hang around for very long. Unfortunately, they can fail quickly and sink without a trace. No business owner wants this to happen to their startup business, but that’s the reality that you will need to confront. What steps are you going to take in order to ensure that your business has a competitive advantage over those that are already established? You should aim high and take on bigger companies if you want to gain a foothold and find success.
There are some tricks that you can use to ensure that your business gets that competitive advantage. It’s all about being one step ahead and using your business’s size to its benefit. Running a small business affords you possibilities and opportunities that you simply can’t get if you run a much larger company. It’s time to find out more about some of these tricks and actions that can help your startup stay afloat. Here are some ideas, so read them and put them into action as soon as you can. They could be the difference between success and failure.
Create a Diverse and Varied Workforce
To start with, you should aim to create a workforce that is diverse in as many ways as possible. You need young people with fresh ideas, and you need older people with some experience to offer. You also need people from all kinds of backgrounds and experiences. They will all bring something unique to the table, and they should help the business to reflect its target market. If you can get all these things right, your business will have a definitive competitive advantage over all the rest. Put these people to work in a way that gets the most from all of them. Your business will benefit massively as a result of this.
Build a Team That Works Well Together
Next, you should aim to get that diverse team working well as a unit. This is important because when you run a startup, the team tends to be quite small, at least to begin with. There are two reasons why this is important. Firstly, it can be a big advantage for your company. Bigger businesses don’t have the chance to work as such a cohesive unit because their workforces are simply too big and sprawling. Whereas, you can create a tight-knit group that works well together and knows how to collaborate constructively. Secondly, it can be a disadvantage if you’re not careful. You need to ensure that your team works together well in order to avoid clashes and arguments.
Give Out Free Merchandise to Improve Brand Awareness
When you’re just starting out, no one will know anything about your brand. There is nothing particularly surprising about this; that’s just the way it is. And you will have to do whatever you can to get your brand, its logo and name out there in a way that’s affordable. This is not always easy, but it’s something you will have to give some careful thought to. If you don’t, you will only have further problems later on. One of the things you can do is give out free merchandise to customers or even to people who just visit your store or meet you at a tradeshow. You can buy promotional products and have them emblazoned with your name and logo. And then people will act as walking adverts for your brand.
Create a Brand with Some Personality and Likability
All those big brands with their corporate culture and lack of relatability ought to be exploited by small companies like yours. You don’t have that big business corporate ethos, so you can afford to create a brand that possesses a bit more personality. This is what people want. They want a brand that seems real and personal, so focus on addressing this desire. Have an outlook that allows the brand to connect with its target customers on a more personal level. You can aid this by using social media in a way that is open and inclusive. Have debates and talk to customers. Don’t keep them at arm’s length like most big brands do.
Look for a Mentor
Having a mentor can help your business a lot when it is just getting started. This mentor should have some experience in the world of business, and the sector you’re working in, in particular. They can point you in the right direction, ensuring that you don’t make common mistakes. They can warm you off the problems and challenges to be prepared for as you grow your business. All in all, they can be really valuable for your company. So, don’t dismiss the idea until you’ve given it some thought. There are many ways to find a mentor for your business, so explore all the options.
Be the Best at Using Data
If you want to run a business that is going to be sustainable and ready for what the future holds, you need to be prepared to use data to your advantage. Data is a big part of the modern business landscape. And your business will be left behind the rest if you can’t find a way to use data well. Make sure that you gather customer data and monitor every aspect of your business’s performance. You can then assess the data and look for ways to change how you operate. It will also be easier for your business to keep up to date with the needs and actions of your core customers. When their behaviours change, yours might have to as well.
Stay Lean and Use This to Your Advantage
Staying lean is essential when you are trying to grow your business. If you allow your business to become too bloated and overstuffed, it could become unfit for the tasks at hand. As a small business, you should use your size to your advantage. You need to be able to roll with the punches and move faster than your bigger rivals ever could. This is what being in business is all about. You have to be able to change course and exploit opportunities at short notice if you want to get that competitive advantage that could be so important for you.
Take Risks That Bigger Businesses Can’t
Big businesses have more to lose than you do. I’m not saying that you have nothing to lose because all businesses do. But it’s undoubtedly true that bigger businesses have more at stake than yours does. They can see their entire business sink fast if they take a risk that doesn’t pay off. They are too large and well-known to be able to bounce back from a failure too. So, to ensure that your business has an advantage, take more risks. Try things that could attract more customers to your brand. They won’t all pay off, but that doesn’t matter too much. What really matters is that your business puts itself in a position to get ahead.
Spend Money on Inventive Marketing
Marketing can be a huge cost for small businesses to account for. There are so many things to pay for, and you can cut corners and make savings in many of these. But if there is one area in which you really can’t do that, it’s in the area of marketing. Having said that, a startup’s budget will only stretch so far, and you shouldn’t spend money that you don’t have. So, make sure you use your money wisely on innovative marketing techniques that target people in specific ways. For example, you can target specific demographics if you use Facebook advertising properly.
Exploit the Weaknesses of Your Main Competitors
Start out by looking at your main competitors in the market. And then ask yourself how you could get one over on them and ensure that your business is more successful. To do this, you need to pay attention to their weaknesses and think about how they can be exploited to your advantage. If you manage to do that, your business will overtake bigger competitors in certain aspects. You can show customers how your business is able to do things and offer things that bigger businesses aren’t. That’s a pretty big deal, so don’t ignore how important this could be for your startup. Take advantage of this and show the world why your business matters.
Reject Ideas and Products That Don’t Work Rapidly
Moving rapidly and ditching bad ideas is a key aspect of running a startup. Because your costs are lower and the stakes are generally lower, you can afford to be more agile than bigger companies. You have less to lose if a product starts to fail, and that means you act quickly to change things and put your business in a better position. This is not something that you should ignore. Be sure to have a plan in place for exiting each strategy you take forward. Planning for failure is not about accepting defeat. It’s about being prepared for whatever could be thrown at your startup.