Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
10 tips for astrong startand not die tryingadapted from Brad Sugars in entrepreneur.com
start-up success or failure
depends on the how and the why of taking action and which steps to take next
01. Offer what people want to buy, not just what you want to sell
it’s better to have a small slice of a large category than a large slice of no market at all
do you think your product will be successful?
is absolutely essential to feed bottom-line profits, so you need to find ways to jump start cash flow immediately
cash flow is the lifeblood of business
02. Get cash flowing ASAP
03. Always find new ways to keep costs low
all the cash flow in the world is worthless if it's not positive cash flow; find creative ways to finance transactions
you have to bring in more cash than you pay out
04. When planning, always overestimate expenses and underestimate revenues
being conservative in your numbers doesn't mean you are willing to accept those numbers, it just means you are arming yourself with information you can work with and work over
you will have more expenses and less revenues
05. Focus on sales and marketing manically
create a marketing and sales system that you can work, test, measure; one that anyone in your company can utilize
in business, nothing happens until a sale is made
06. Find ways to exponentially increase profits
getting more leads, converting more leads into customers, increasing the number of times those customers buy from you, increasing the average price point of your sales and increasing your profit margins
focus beyond revenues and expenses
why keep literally throwing money away on an ad campaign that costs thousands of dollars but doesn't bring any people through the door?
you can't change what you don't measure
07. Test and measure everything
if you've never run a million dollar business, you don't know how to run one, but you can learn to run one if you’re committed to learn as much as you can about sales and marketing and operations
learning always comes before "earning"
08. Accept that learning more equals earning more
create added value propositions all the way up and down your product or service line, look to hold your price points, increase your margins with the low-cost or no-cost extras
you will be taking money from your bottom-line profit
09. Don't discount, add value
we think we have all the answers and are the only people who can really get things done, but another set of eyes can work wonders for how you operate your business
someone objective you can rely on for business advice
10. Get a coach
Recap
prepare as well as you can, knowing you will need to make changes and corrections
01. offer what people want to buy
02. get cash flow
03. keep costs low
04. underestimate revenues
05. focus on marketing
06. increase profits
07. test and measure
08. be commitment to learn
09. add value
10. get a coach
2. flickr.com/photos/seanlloyd/3. flickr.com/photos/pinkmoose/4. flickr.com/photos/id-iom/5. flickr.com/photos/slice/6. flickr.com/photos/classblog/7. flickr.com/photos/coachsingleton/8. flickr.com/photos/julianbleecker/9. flickr.com/photos/jgarber/10. flickr.com/photos/telachhe/11. flickr.com/photos/firestone-light/12. flickr.com/photos/56649865@N05/13. flickr.com/photos/mgifford/
photo credits
