TIPS TO KEEP YOUR BUSINESS AFLOAT IN THE FIRST YEAR.

The boxer, Mike Tyson, once said in a press conference “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”. While Tyson might have simply been giving a witty answer in rebuttal to his opponent’s trash-talking, he spoke a profound truth that any business should also keep in mind. That is, for any business, it is necessary to keep in mind that no business plan or strategy is foolproof. For this reason, business schools that teach entrepreneurship teach that start-ups should aim to fail fast forward frequently and frugally. In a gist, the key is to accept that some form of failure is inevitable but, the way one fails is important. Great businesses fail in the direction of success.

First of all, turn your ideas into business plans and your business plans into actions quickly. Do not wait around perfecting your idea and end up losing out on a first mover’s advantage (the upper hand of being the brand that consumers recognize with first), because someone else has beat you to introducing the product into the market. In marketing, there is a concept known as the minimum viable product. The whole idea of the minimum viable product is that you develop as basic a model of your good or service as possible and put it out in the market so that you can see what early adopters think of it and make necessary adjustments as they are brought to your attention. This incorporates the idea of failing as fast as possible. Say you want to create a bendable, foldable eyeglass frame. First, produce as generic a model of the frame as possible and find out what improvements people would like from the product. Another advantage of this method is that capital is not wasted on producing several expensive “final versions” all at once that have not been tested on the market.

Secondly, keep in mind that innovations or new ideas have an adoption lifecycle. Your product is not going to be accepted by a huge number of people all at once. Rather, when developing your product, consider the characteristics of the people who are most likely to be on board from the offset and form your product with these people in mind. These people are the early adopters mentioned in the previous paragraph. When marketing in the initial stages targets these people as well. These are the customers that, if impressed, will attract a greater majority of people to your business. For a new Star Wars movie, for example, early adopters would be people who have already seen the original Star Wars trilogy and who knew all of the older characters, eg.- Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leila, etc. So, in coming out with a new Star Wars movie, the film writer has to somehow incorporate all of these old characters into the storyline.

Also, shocks come from either external or internal sources. You might have a great business plan but, be prepared to readjust it if something changes in the economy. For this reason, business strategies should be flexible, short-term and versatile. This will ensure that your business is able to ride forward from any failure of your business strategy. For example, having a five-year plan for a start-up would not be practical. This notwithstanding, your business can have a vision for the next five years, but it should not have a five-year plan.

Starting a business requires some boldness, patience, and resilience. But, if the business you start is into something you have passion for, dedicating much effort and time to it will prove rewarding.