Hey! looking for steps to start a small business?
Yes?
I’ve got something special for you today.
Guess, guess..
– Actionable lessons to start your own business.
Exactly what you are looking for 🙂
Note: This article is for you if you’re at a very beginner level, and have no clue about how you should start your business or launch your startup idea.
What am I talking about in this article?
I came up with the idea of this post as I was reading a few books on starting up over the last one month.
Yes, I read the books “The lean startup”, “Zero to one”, “The 7 Day Startup”, “The TCS story”, and a few others (actually, over 2 months tbh). And so, I thought of writing business book summaries, but then they are already everywhere… aren’t they?
Instead of sharing the book summary, I thought why not share with you a framework that you can use to launch your startup or business ASAP, maybe in less than 7 days 😉
From ideation to building website and app for your idea, I’ve tried to cover all the aspects of starting a business.
What inspired me to write this?
Yes, you guessed it right. This is inspired from the startup books and business blogs I read. And the steps I share in this insight are ridiculously simple/obvious. It’s a no brainer framework to launch a business. In-fact, most of us the steps mentioned in this article would appear as obvious steps to start a business.
It takes less than 7 days to startup!
You must be thinking, “are you kidding me? I’ve been thinking of starting-up for years now and yet I don’t own a business. And you’re telling me that I can launch my startup in less than 7 days?”.
Well, umm… yeah!
That’s true.
You can launch your startup in less than seven days.
After reading this blog, and implementing the insights shared, you too shall be in the mindset that you can startup in less than 7 days.
So, if you’ve the intent to start, let’s get grinding.
Get. Set. Start.
Before we share the seven baby steps to starting up, it’s critical that you get in the right mindset.
Focused Efforts –
- Relentlessly chase your customers.
- Take Measurable Actions.
- Prioritize the efforts yielding best results.
I don’t want you to be distracted or confused when you are pursuing your dream business ideas, rather I would request/plead you to put forward your best effort, a well calculated, aware, conscious, intent-led focused effort.
Focused efforts involve constantly scrutinizing your actions, relentlessly chasing your customers, taking measurable actions to improve your product, process, and culture, and of-course prioritizing those efforts which yield best results for your business.
The goal is to grow your business.
You shall be questioning,
Why is focused effort necessary?
Often newbie entrepreneurs get caught-up in the ego-trap.
We as humans always have some bias associated with all the decisions we take.
Suppose, we have to market our product ‘P’ and we have multiple channels to promote the product.
Let’s say, the channels are channel ‘A’, channel ‘B’ and channel ‘C’.
Also, let’s assume channel ‘C’ is your favorite channel and you’re all gaga about it BUT it’s channel ‘B’ which is converting the most number of customers for your product ‘P’.
So, a good business consultant suggests you not to gravitate towards channel ‘C’ but instead focus on optimizing your customer acquisition efforts by focusing on channel ‘B’.
Now, there is another possibility. Maybe, you too know channel ‘B’ is yielding better results as of now but you strongly believe that channel ‘C’ could really fire-up once it crosses certain limitations or thresholds.
In that case, if this belief is not biased, you should decide whether you want to persist on your gut feeling or take a safer route.
Remember, risk appetite & decision making abilities are something that differentiates an entrepreneur from average people.
So, take measured & unbiased decisions.
Next, it’s good and kind of compulsory as an entrepreneur to be in the mindset of taking actions.
Take Actions
To understand this better, ask yourself these questions –
Would just thinking about business ideas build your business? Or do you need to take action?
You, my dear hustler, you are smart enough, and you already have the answers.
You have to take actions in order to validate and build your ideas into businesses. So,
- Stop Thinking About Ideas
- Start Building Ideas
What can you do to start bringing your ideas to life?
Start talking to prospects i.e., potential customers in your circle to assess your startup business idea. See, if they are paying for any similar product/service that you are planning for.
Make sure that you are not biased while assessing a profitable business idea.
Remember, there is a big & clear difference between someone subscribing to your free emails and someone subscribing to your monthly subscription plans. The point is, don’t be biased when you are assessing your business idea on the ground. Choose your business KPIs wisely.
One important note, please do not take feedback from anyone who doesn’t already use/own a similar product or service. Do not listen to opinions, listen to experiences.
There is a thin line of difference in mindset between successful entrepreneurs and filthy successful entrepreneurs.
Highly successful entrepreneurs are passionate about growing their business. They invest a major chunk of profits back into the business to scale it to the next level.
So, if you gain initial traction, revenue and profit, do not go crazy with celebrations. Celebrate, but in a calculated and responsible way. But first, invest back into your business. Grow your business revenue and profits to insane levels.
Lastly, do not over burn yourself with startup stress. Entrepreneurship is not that easy, else everyone would have been an entrepreneur. It is rewarding but sometimes really stressful and frustrating as well. You must prioritize your physical, mental as well as financial health too. Remember, your own personal happiness is equally critical for your business success.
The framework To Launching your startup!
Brainstorm Ideas
This would make you laugh. Please don’t.
I told you already, the steps mentioned here are a no-brainer.
Anyways, I have to share because in business we do not assume, we play by the rules (occasionally break them too).
On day one of seven, you have to brainstorm on startup business ideas you would like to pursue. You might already be on day one, if you have been thinking about startup or business ideas for a while.
All you need to do is give your unique business idea a thorough thought, gain some clarity and confidence about one-single idea and be relentless in pursuing it.
Decide on MVP
Next, once you have clarity on the best business idea for you or at least a business domain on a broad level, you need to take up a pen & paper or some digital doodling tool and draw up a minimal viable product for your startup idea, with minimal features to launch.
Remember, if online business ideas like Facebook (now rebranded to Meta) were started the way it is now, it would have been really complex for people to understand how exactly to use it. Facebook might not have been as successful as it is now if it was launched with all the features at once. In-fact, Facebook and several other startups were not launched with the intent or idea of what it became over the time.
Instagram was a check-in app but transitioned into image sharing social network.
Facebook was a university app but it became a social network.
Amazon was an ecommerce site that used to sell only books, but today it is into almost every business.
Similarly, with Google, Paytm, and others.
So, do not wait to launch a polished product, just doodle up the MVP and launch it to test the market. After you have good signs about the feasibility of the business, go aggressive and iteratively build your business.
Register a business name & domain
Registering the name for your business might not be that great a leap but at-least it’s a baby step and it gets counted. Buy a domain.
When you take actions, no matter how small they are, you get tempted and excited to take further actions.
Kind of that law, a body in motion, stays in motion…
So, go ahead and register a good marketable domain name.
Refer startup books and existing startups to help you brainstorm on a good business name.
Build a Website
It’s damn easy to build a website these days, you can use no-code website development platforms like wordpress, shopify, etc. to develop your website without having to understand or write even a single line of code.
Website building frameworks like drupal, magento etc are useful to build customized websites but you do need some acquaintance with coding to use these website development platforms.
You can also outsource your website development if you have the right budget. Countries like India are a great outsourcing destination for website and mobile app development. Top IT outsourcing cities in India are Bangalore, Delhi NCR, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Kolkata.
You may also consider learning javascript or python to code your own website. For outsourcing, you need a budget of around USD 10–20k for developing the MVP and working version of the product.
Plan your marketing
Once you have your website up & running, start reaching out to your immediate customers. Plan out innovative methodologies to boost your visibility and pitch to your prospects.
Remember, just planning out is of no use. Implement those marketing plans.
Use social media, your friends & family circle, networking events, communities, online ads and whatsoever you can to get to your customers. Be obsessed about it.
Measure signups, revenue, evaluate costs, resources etc.,
Once you start gaining some traction for your idea in terms of number of customers, revenue growth etc. Start analyzing and measuring input/output equations. Take data-led decisions to grow your startup.
Launch a startup. Keep an eye on the competitor.
Now, having a great system and attitude in place you can fully launch your startup, plan on hiring, pitching investors and scaling your business to unprecedented heights.
Thanks for reading this, but we shall be more happy if you really start taking actions, and explore your options. If you purchased your domain, planned out marketing, gained some traction or just want to share with the world and the growth community about your actions and business(es) — drop a comment.
Need help in launching your business?
If you seek help with website or app development, reach out to me for a brainstorming session.
Visit blogs where you find detailed articles on Tech, Design, and Culture to grow you organization.
Soon, I’ll be sharing a lot more resources to start and grow your business. I’ll put up videos on how to brainstorm on new business Ideas to launch your own startups, how to spot growth opportunities for your startup business, how to register your domain, how to plan your marketing as well as resources on pitching your startup idea to investors for funding.
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Stay safe & keep growing!!
