What are the steps to do before starting an online startup?
India is growing in leaps and bounds in startups every single day. I overheard that we’re now competing with silicon valley for talent and technology.
Boom, Indians have laid all foundations for a bigger tomorrow. And the next decade will be even massive with technology evolution, internet penetration, and comparability young population than any other country.
So, I wanted to pen down and talk about my learnings in a simple framework to set up a business/startup online. What are the must-do things before getting started so that the entrepreneurial journey is smooth and most efficient?
Here you go!
Steps before building your business:
- Set up a Goal
- Define your Mission
- Identify USPs
- Honest SWOT Analysis
- Review potential competitors
- Set KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
- Frame your win
If these 7-things are defined for you, I am sure the direction of your journey is clear and ready to meet your early customers before the scale-up.
- Goals: One of the starting steps for anything to accomplish in the journey of entrepreneurship is setting your goals. Be clear and straightforward in defining your goal for a timeline.
E.g: wining a cricket world cup in 2021 is a goal.
2. Mission: If the goal is your destination, then the mission is your journey to the destination. Remember you can reach the same destination by multiple paths in your journey ( reaching railway station by auto, walk, rickshaw, car, bus or any other means). But fundamentals will always remain the same.
E.g: To win a cricket world cup, we need to score well with bat, bowl well, and field to the best. In simple terms excel at every department.
3. USPs: Unique selling points, clearly take a pen and paper and list down your top unique selling points. This should blend in every single communication possible. And also, should resonate with your early customers. Keep a razor-sharp focus in building your initial USPs and develop over time.
E.g: Tesla is building self-driven cars. Boy! isn’t that a differentiation to talk about with zero marketing spend? And soar high in valuations.
4. SWOT: Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats. Knowing yourself and deep is the key. This 360-degree view will help you be ready with your own past, present and future.
E.g: It is known that retail giant Amazon used SWOT to understand the internal and external factors. And you know what the company is today!
5. Competition: There is no harm in learning the right way from your competition outside. Anyone who has succeeded will teach either the right learnings or can teach what not to do. Your journey can be accelerated 10x by knowing all the pre-work than starting again from scratch.
E.g: The Flipkart founders started Flipkart after working at Amazon, returning to India. Sensing the opportunity to build e-commerce from their learnings is a classic historical example in the Indian startup ecosystem.
6. KPIs: Mind-blowing learning in my last 6-years is if you could measure what you’re doing you’ll nail it out. Go back to your goals, and mission layout the things to do to achieve your mission. And assign owners and single-threaded leaders to these key performance indicators. KPIs should always be measurable, practical, achievable, and provide direction.
E.g: Increase organic search traffic by 5% every month, Increase in referrals by 10% in revenue in a quarter, etc.
7. Win: Once you have set your journey is clear on the above 6 things, take your product to your customers. And start reviewing these KPIs daily/weekly/monthly as per the requirement. Keep it simple, one goal, one mission and crush it.
E.g: Get your initial 1000 customers organic via your USPs. And take a growth route beyond this via advertisements after closing the life cycle of a customer on your platform.
Grab your win and establish your own business online.
I’ve helped 5+ businesses with this framework in the last 365 days.
Write to me, or DM here for more information.
