Tips to Grow your young startup business in Singapore
Tips to Grow your young startup business in Singapore - Are you running a startup or planning to grow your startup. There are so many business jargons by young entrepreneurs this days and it might get confusing for someone who is new to the startup or business world.
Running a business is not too difficult. You buy something and you sell something at a profit. You build something that people use, they pay you for the service or the product. You are providing a service that no one else can do, you charge a fee and get paid for your help.
Businesses that are well planned and thought out are able to scale exponentially. Businesses that are well funded can grow at a fast rate and eventually targeted for a buy out and therefore great financial gains.
So here are some of the tips that Koh Management will like to provide to young startup founders on how they could grow their young startup businesses in Singapore:
Tips to Grow your young startup business in Singapore 1: Do your competitors research and find out as much as possible
The best way to get ahead of the competition is to find out who you are up against. When you have done good research on your competitors such as how they do their marketing, whats their pricing strategy like. How do they get more leads, do they engage in other forms of internet marketing?
Once you have learn how they do what they do, reverse engineer and come up with your own improvised strategies so that you can win them. Bring in new strategies and new thoughts into the industry and try to dislodge the leaders.
Always remember to find out the pricing so that when you customer ask, you could answer why you are charging the way you are charging and let them understand that your quality is better or you are charging lower because of bulk, etc.
Tips to Grow your young startup business in Singapore 2: DO NOT forget marketing (especially internet marketing)
Most entrepreneurs think they can just do purely sales and win the day. Most businesses fail because of bad marketing. Marketing helps people to know your business and with that trust your business and also sell your business. To be able to put the word out to the world means you get more leads and that translates to more business and more income for you to put into other parts of the business.
Marketing is something that many overlook in the rush to finish work and deadlines. When one is stuck in doing accounting or operations, you forgot that the customer that could have been an easy reach for you was left out because you did not print that flyer or engage in that Facebook Campaign or Search Engine Optimization.
There are also innovative ways to gain traction among your friends to build your business. We will write about them in our next article.
Tips to Grow your young startup business in Singapore 3: Watch your back end support systems
While rushing to get more sales, watch out on how your accounting is being done. Are there back end systems in place to help you to keep track of inventory. By systems i do not mean just purely IT systems.
Systems such as having a check in check out system. Employees coming in and out timings. Sales tracking and monitoring and alerts. All this matter to the small business you are to make yourself more efficient and productive. Remember you are a one man show, every little bit of time helps you to grow your business.
Make sure you consult friends who have done something before you did and learn from their systems. Read up more on websites like Entrepreneur and find out how other business work to produce such good quality businesses
Tips to Grow your young startup business in Singapore 4: Find funding from those around you first
Many young startups in Singapore enjoy the limelight of "Getting Funded" not knowing that the amount that you give up might end up impairing your growth. Get angel funding from your friends and family first. Or through common friends who may have some contacts that may be able to help you get off the ground and be able to function as a startup business.
If all the surrounding friends and families are exhausted then you should consider getting outside funding. Outside funding might cost you way more than you think and may not be effective for you and your business.
Businesses that give up 25% or more due to funding might end up losing the motivation of growing because you lose control of your board and decisions are done by those that gave you the money that you might not need once you got off the ground.
Tips to Grow your young startup business in Singapore 5: Reach out to networking groups
Join networking groups from your university. Join random groups you find online. Join groups that are part of a trade or clan association. The idea is to get your name and your business name out in the market. When people know about you, they may be able to link you up to people that could help you. They could also give your guidance and some pointers on how to help your business. Networking groups could also be where your potential customers are and that would be a great place for you to spring board your growth and gain new customers to start off your initial inertia of business.
Networking groups are also great social support for the entrepreneur who might face headwinds from those around you such as family and friends who might not be as adventurous as you are and therefore discourage you from doing business. Other entrepreneurs could offer an encouraging word to give you the boost you need to carry on.
We are glad to have met many young entrepreneurs such as Eileen Ang from Kafve Coffee Mobile Coffee Services.
Koh Management is Singapore's leading corporate services provider and we are able to assist you with corporate service advisory for startups and SMEs. Contact us to find out more today!