There are few things that are as chaotic, intense and wonderful as
having to start a business; it is only comparable to a successful
night at the casino roulette table. Several successful start-ups have been started by people in their youthful stages when leaving campus. Start-ups do not have the financial muscle of established companies to compete on a level playing field; fortunately, what they lack in financial muscles they can make up for in ingenious growth hacking and other radical new ways to drive growth and convert leads gained from internet traffic.
Evaluating potential for a start-up
To survive in the jungle of start-ups, taking into consideration that every three seconds a new business is launched but 80% of these businesses don’t live to see the first one month, requires extraordinary skills, personality, and dedication. A far large group of people have the inspiration to start new business ideas, but they lack the skills to make them a reality. It is no surprise then that tech savvy people can easily get with charging astronomical fees.
To efficiently scale a start-up you not only have to be able to source the original idea, but you also have to have the requisite skills to test its demand in the market. Have the idea and do it. This makes the difference between a dreamer and a “haver” and entrepreneurs are havers, what they want hey have.
Testing demand for a start-up
You can test demand of your product in very few steps so as to scale your start-up:
- Host a scaled down website for your business
- Collect email addresses as a way of gauging interest in your new venture
- Employ tools like Google analytics to determine traffic and conversion rates
Important skills needed when launching a start-up
These skills are necessary even when joining an already established tech start-up if you have to be useful to such a team. Other useful skills include using tools like Photoshop, working on codes in teams and using the command line.
The second thing you need to do in widening the base of your start-up is finding smart people. This may be one of the most difficult things you can do. Settling on ambitious and self driven persons who buy into your idea is not easy. Luckily when launching a start-up, you have the time to start thinking of your circle of friends who may just be interested in the sort of thing you are doing.
Adding to our recipe of ingredients for a successful start-up is passion. As an entrepreneur who is spirited, ambitious and self-driven, passion is a much-needed fuel. You must have strong reasons for why you are best fitted to solve the idea of choice.
Finally, you would want to immerse yourself and tap into your university’s alumni network. This will teach you the necessary person to person skills that are necessary for a successful business start-up. Most start-up founders find themselves needing to hold conversations and building a good rapport as well as asking for large amounts of money from other people. Tapping into a university’s network can impart such skills.
