How do I start a successful start-up?

So what separates the winners from the losers? How do you guarantee that your start-up is going to be a success and that one day you’re going to be a fortune 500 company? There are a few things that every start-up will need if it’s going to be successful.

A sound business plan

A business plan is basically a strategy for how your business is going to succeed. It contains an overview of every aspect of your business from how much money you need to what type of products you’re going to sell.

Most companies that fail have no business plan. The people in charge have no idea what their plan of attack is, or how they are going to succeed. You cannot do this. If you’re going to make a profit you need to have a well thought out plan for every step of the way.

Investors who believe in you

Unless you have investors your company cannot get going. This is why a business plan is so important. It’s what you show to investors in order to convince them to give you money. If you have a good business plan to back up your ideas, then getting money from investors is simple.

What’s more, you also need investors who believe in you. The people who invest in your company must believe in what you’re doing. If they do, investors will continue to give you money, even if it seems like the business is going nowhere or about to fail.

 A committed team

You need a passionate and committed team. The staff members who work at your company need to treat the business as if it’s their own. They need to be 100% committed to the success of your start-up. Most importantly, you need people who actually know what they are doing. Dozens of start-ups have gone bust because they were run by incompetent people.

A grand slam business idea

The most important factor is that you actually need a worthwhile business idea. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or how much effort you put in – unless you have a product or service that people actually want, your start up is going to fail. This is why it’s so important to do market research when creating a business plan. You have to research the market and test the feasibility of your idea. Don’t skip this step because it’s critical.

A good example of a bad idea was the Juicero company. This was a start-up which sold a $700 juicing machine. They managed to raise over $100 million dollars. The only problem was their product.  To cut a long story short, you had to buy special juice bags from this company. You then put the bags of juice into the machine which would squeeze the juice out.

Here’s the problem: People soon discovered that you didn’t need the machine to do this. This meant that the Juicero machine was completely useless, and the company soon went bust. This is a perfect example of not critically examining your business idea.

If you do all of these things you should have a good shot at launching a successful start-up.

The final step is to believe. Have faith in your dream, work hard and never give up. Mind-set is the final 10% of start-up success. So believe in your vision and keep working!