6 Criteria To Consider When Launching A New Startup

Launching a startup is a complex endeavor. From creating your concept to choosing partners, to writing your first business plan, there is so much to consider that it can be difficult to know where to go and what to do.

Starting a business shouldn’t feel intimidating. It should feel invigorating, exciting, novel, and fun. The current economy is an exciting time to be an entrepreneur. Many industries are ripe for disruption, which will create new opportunities for businesses, technology, companies, and workers.

What are some of the biggest priorities when thinking through how to start a new business?

What is your niche?

Speaking of your niche: how well can you define your ideal customer? Do you know what they are looking for online, what they do for entertainment, what problem they are trying to solve, and how your project will help them do it?

During the early months of starting a business, it’s important to continually rework and refine the concepts of brand, niche, unique value propositions, and mission statements. You need to know what you will do, but you also need to know how you will make it happen. Assuming that things will work out is not enough. If you don’t set your brand early, it will happen on its own, but it will happen without your control.

How will you reach your customers?

Whether your business will function primarily online or in a brick and mortar location, you need a plan for how you will reach your customers. Even if you plan to exist mostly on foot traffic, you must find a way to generate interest in your business and bring in your first 100 customers. You might get an active Facebook page, reach out to different interested groups in your area, or partner with another business to manage some sort of referral or partnership program. You might send out press releases and take out an ad in the paper.

There are many different ways to connect with customers. Pick the ones that you think will work best for your business, and start figuring out how to maximize their reach.

Where you should headquarter?

For many entrepreneurs, businesses start in their own homes, in basements and offices and garages. But by the time that people start considering a more formal business partnership, it’s also a good idea to consider the benefits and drawbacks of different areas of the country, or even another country, in order to decide where to locate your business.

Retail locations need to consider foot traffic, parking spaces, and the overall climate of a particular area. Rent and overhead are also obvious considerations.

All businesses need to think about the overall climate of a town, city, or county. Does a community have easy access to an small business association (SBA) office or a Chamber of Commerce that sponsors networking events and mentoring efforts? Is the community generally considered friendly to business, or hostile? Talk to other entrepreneurs in the community; how have they found the business climate?

Sometimes your niche will only work in one location. For many modern businesses, you will have may choices as to where to locate your business. Think about it, make lists, and make a solid decision that your business can live with for years to come.

Balance your strengths and weaknesses

Sometimes, you end up in a partnership with a spouse or a best friend. If you have complementary strength, that can be a great thing. But the best partnerships exist because each person has a clearly defined role that plays to their strengths.

If, for example, both you and your partner are really good at design, and not good at social media or programming, the two of you might enjoy working together, but you would probably have a more successful partnership if you brought in someone who had strengths in different areas. In the early days of a startup, founders tend to do the vast majority of the work by themselves, so having all the partners focused in one area can be detrimental overall.

Balance your family and your career

There is a myth that starting up your business will take absolutely all of your time, and you’ll never see your family again. Do not give in to this myth. In fact, for businesses to thrive, they need to have a solid plan to support a balance between work and the rest of life.

Millennial workers in particular have very strong feelings about needing to have flexibility in their working schedules, the ability to work from home, and the ability to adapt. Attracting the best potential partners and employees no longer means being willing to work infinite hours; it means being willing to stop working, go home, and spend time away from the workplace to gain perspective.

Fundraising is not the first step

Many businesses treat fundraising like it is the first step on the path to successful business building. There absolutely are stories of people going on a show like Shark Tank or meeting an angel investor with nothing more than a concept and getting all the funding they need, but they are uncommon. In reality, investors want to see that your business idea works before they pour money into it.

There are exceptions, especially in the world of technology, but for most businesses, a round of funding isn’t the first step.

When you start drafting your business plan, make sure to plan ahead, give careful consideration to how you’re going to do the things you want to do, and weight those concerns against the reality of your industry. Spend time talking to other entrepreneurs about the challenges they have faced. Find a mentor. Work with other people in your industry to better understand what hills and valleys might appear.

What advice would you give to someone who is just starting their business in the current economic climate?