Business Opinions: From start-up to exit – Summing up 2014

“The future is still under construction” – Ikutaro Kakehashi

            2014 started like a good year, after a period of turmoil and crisis we were all hopping for a good, smooth ride. Even the stars seemed they were aligning for a better path. Was it a good year, a normal one or just an awful one? We all have our answers. Why is that? We all have our periods and a period of time will be defined differently from man to man depending on our personal experiences. But in the end everyone got something good from this year. Be it a better vision about his business, more profit or just a new challenge we are all better coming out of the relationship with the year 2014. Nothing is good or bad deep down, we are the ones giving it the attributes influenced by the experience we had and the patterns we live our lives.

Starting in April Elegantine had the pleasure to share with you our Business Opinions. Every week we took on a new challenge, a new subject and tried helping business owners and freelancers to navigate smother the perilous waters of the markets they work in. And without looking at specific industries or businesses let’s sum up the information we shared.

We all have to start somewhere.

          The first ever subject I wrote about was about start ups and the reasons and analysis necessary before taking that big leap. Like any good thing, your business starts about nine months before the actual start. You have that moment when you realize you have a good idea and you start analyzing and building and planning. All this time spent looking at your dream and trying to materialize it will help you reduce the headaches when actually starting.

            I made over the time an analogy between your business and a baby. You don’t just make a baby and say “che sera, sera”, you need to be prepared and want to have a baby. In the case of a business it is almost the same. You start the business, plan and find your clients but after that you have responsibilities. You have to pay suppliers, taxes and keep your customers happy. So don’t make your start-up an impulsive decision.

            A start-up has to be positioned according to skills and passion. Find that thing you are good at, you are passionate about it and love doing and also something you can make money out of. Don’t make the mistake of confusing your hobbies or passion with a future business; this is always disappointing in the long run.Find your place in the market before you start, check out your competition and see what you can do better. Sometimes in order to win a war you need to lose a battle, so don’t try to beat your opponents at every level, just use you competitive advantage.

            Be sure you know what you are getting in, assume responsibilities and try hard every day. Yes, many of the new businesses fail in the first year but just remember Wayne Gretzky’ s words “ you will miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”.

When you are sure about your idea and decide to actually start, after all the planning and analyzing you can say you have a business. At this moment you start working on it and first step should be to take your “baby” out and introduce it to as much people you can. You get partners, customers and advices and feedback from others that can help validate your business. There are a couple of ways to introduce your business to the world. My favorite is networking, because business is done human to human. You can also use advertising, social media or get help from a PR agency.

            When you speak about networking you see the opportunity to tell your story in front of a group of people, most of them interested in finding out about new business and ideas. You get an open minded environment, experienced people and a minimum of rules that ensure that everyone get their chance to shine.

            We need to destroy a myth: networking isn’t about selling; networking is about creating long lasting relationships. Based on trust and mutual interest, these relationships can and will eventually turn into business partnerships, but you must remember to build up and not expect a million dollar deal at your first attendance. You need patience and also to find that community where you fit in and you bring value to the group. Be passionate when you speak about your ideas, give advice if asked and you have the right information.

            Networking will pay you back as long as you invest time, knowledge and commitment. After you become an important part of the community you will have all the members of that community by your side, you get back support, information and even business partners.

            Advertising and social media channels are also a good way to make yourself and your business more visible. Actually as long as you use them well any given channel will help you reach more people. The trick is to use the best channel for your business. We talked earlier this year about LinkedIn vs Facebook, both great social media channels if you know your target public. As long as your business is general you can use Facebook, the more specific and technical you will be better using LinkedIn.

In regards to advertising you must be careful. Treat her right it will become a life companion, make the mistake of treating her wrong you will get a cruel mistress that will leave you exactly when you need her the most. And the way you treat her doesn’t depend on your budget, you just have to be honest and use it ethically and correct. You don’t need Nike’s budget for a clip in order for you to tell the story behind your product.

Build up to see further!

          I found a quote saying that even if you are on the right path, if you don’t move you will get run over. So grow or die. After that great adrenalin filled moment of starting just use the momentum and build your business. One more thing, business development is not about just selling more and increasing income. Just selling more only gives you a chance of a bigger profit; business development assures better results in the long run.

            We have so many definitions regarding the subject and it is more complex than just increased sales and reducing costs. But keeping it simple, business development is the mechanism of creating long term value for the company from customers, markets and relationships. They all have to work together in order to achieve long term goals. So you see, business development is about sales, about partnerships and about hustling. So everyone is partially right defining business development but in reality, to do it better, you have to pay attention to all of them.

When you talk about long term value we actually refer to money, cash flow. Of course there are strategies to make quick money but your goal is to stay in the game for a long period of time and grow, not just catch a big fish and go home. You have to identify the correct strategy so that you can keep cash flow coming and grow from a mountain spring to a big river. You have to commit and work hard, but the rewards are worth it.

Take care of customers, market share and relationships. Customers pay the bills; they are the mountain spring from where the cash flow starts. Market share and new markets are a tougher fight to take on but the results are significant. The last part is about partners and relationships, this means you don’t work alone and the results increase exponentially.

Successful business development is a combination of negotiation, marketing, sales, networking and project management. You need to keep all this in check and balanced. The process works if all the micro processes involved are working well. You grow or you die sounds so dramatic, but unfortunately for those who think they are fine just where they are now it is true. If you are satisfied with your place in the market and the customer base and sales you do now just think that your competition is not. If you are a small plant in a young forest for a period of time you will be ok, you still get some sun, water and nutrients from the ground, but in time all those small trees around you grow. At this moment they will block your sun, get more and more from the nutrients in the ground and they will not let you live anymore.

And if nothing else, you have to remember that the climb is hard but the view is better from higher ground. Try and improve every day, don’t compete against other businesses but only yourself. Make your mission becoming better tomorrow than you are today.