Getting a business started, funded and profitable is usually the central goal of any startup strategy. But some businesses begin with a more ambitious success trajectory. These kinds of startups are designed to advance the business beyond a simple startup into a more elaborate goal or series of goals.
Partnership Suitability
By themselves, startups rarely find themselves in a position where they are easily able to attract the attention of stronger and more established partner companies. However, if the company sets out to make itself attractive for entry into partnerships, the availability of capital and personnel can rapidly produce results for a business that might otherwise require far more time to get from point A to point B.
Planning
The process of starting a business from a blank sheet of paper to profits is difficult enough. Advancing a business beyond this goal to something more advanced will require meticulous and detailed planning. A written plan goes without saying. A highly detailed and well researched plan that has been vetted and signed off on by outside professionals and possibly even a consulting firm or two is even better.
Learn to Negotiate
If your business is going to move quickly, then you and your team are going to have to work with a wide variety of outside partners, vendors, suppliers and funding sources. You will be negotiating all the time. Learning this vital and valuable skill should be at the top of your priority list because if you make bad deals early, they will only be magnified as your company grows. Negotiation isn’t a difficult skill to learn, but it will take time and experience for you to get good enough at it to advance your business.
Inform Your Talent
Too many startups start their lives in a whirlwind of ambition, with little (if any) structure in place to help them reach their goals. This leads to disorder, with the direction of the leadership becoming distanced from that of the talent. For this reason, it’s essential to not only have a plan in place from the foundation of your startup, but to keep your employees abreast of this plan. A specialist from XPLANE says a good process helps employees stay current on their responsibilities and role in the larger process.
Watch for Heavy Lifting
Remember before you do one of those big deals your new, untested and potentially underfunded company is going to be asked to deliver on the promises you made. Heavy lifting is the business term for the thing that will be at the top of your schedule for a long time. It is very important you are certain you can deliver what is required, otherwise the loss of that deal combined with the exhaustion your business may face in the aftermath may overwhelm your limited resources.
Startups are exciting, and are the source of most of the positive energy in our economy. But it can be very easy to over-promise early in an attempt to go too far too fast. Don’t worry about seeming small. Good partners will recognize it does neither of you any good for one company to fail even if the other succeeds.
