This is not a tutorial but it's one of those things university professors neglect to tell future businessmen. Professors are professors - they will teach you about business, economy, market, and management - all valuable and helpful but not nearly enough. Don't kid yourselves - getting a degree at a university doesn't automatically make you an expert or a businessmen or what have you. It's a good place to start your journey and get some insight. Nobody can teach you about starting a successful business - because everybody is not you. You need guts to do it, sometimes you need luck and to be in the right place at the right time, you need resources and to be resourceful at finding those. You will need money (regardless of what you're doing, trust me you will need it). And you need an idea or a solution to a problem. And you need humility - you need to recognize the fact that you may not be the best in the world and you won't get things done, well, just because it's you and you believe you're awesome. So lose the sense of entitlement if you have it, and let's talk about where is a good place to start a successful company.
First of, think about how many other companies there are out there doing the exact same thing as you. And I mean really think of them - some are very established with years of experience and excellent experts - they are renowned and trusted by the customers. People don't have to give it a chance - they know that if they pay an X amount of money they will get what they bargained for. You, as a starting company have to work hard to convince those people to come to you instead. So, you must offer something special, something that others don't have. And for the most part "oh we do the same thing as all those other companies do, just better and/or cheaper" is not the answer. That's good if you already have a name and some clientele.
A smaller example of it is a blog - you can have the best design and awesome development behind it but if the content or the idea is bad people won't go there. Same with computer games - bad graphics are more excusable if the content is good. Same with apps, programs, websites. You need to have a good solid idea behind all that. And that isn't going to be that easy.
Sometimes a good idea is a new solution to existing problem - something revolutionary and innovative. So, start looking for a problem that people face. There can be a number of solutions to it but none of them are good enough. Take a look at it from a different angle, think outside the box.
Alright, now say you have a great idea, or a fresh solution to a problem. Next step? Get a reality check. Is it doable? Do you see a way of doing it? Talk to some experts on the field, do some research, find out if anybody else has already figured it out, know your competition. If experts say 'yay', and get all excited about it, then you're on the right track. Now think about time. How long will it take to turn your idea into reality? Maybe by the time it gets done nobody will care about it? If that's the case either find a way of getting it done faster or maybe let it go and think of something else.
Research should never stop - you need to be up to date on what's out there, on the tools you're using, on people you have, competition, reviews, market, economy. And most importantly always look for ways of bettering your product or idea. Don't immediately throw everything out the window though - stay on the track and just know what could be done to better but take into consideration your resources and clients. Just know about possibilities and paths you can take, think, and decide whether or not to take them.
Implementation of the idea is very important. Think about who is going to use it, who it's for. You can't please everybody. But if 790 customers out of 800 love it, you're doing great. Focus on them, Don't focus on the 10 that hate it.
During the development phase you will be constantly faced with making decisions of what's important and what to sacrifice. It will be easier when you know who your clients will be. One important thing to remember though is it's better to deliver something quick and let people use it and THEN add features and better it, rather than releasing something perfect 5 years after you had the idea. However, when you release the first version, you need to have the key elements in place. You need to recognize what is key and what's a "I would love to have that added!"
Also, if it's something specific get a couple (or one) experts on the field - somebody from your potential clients who will be using your product and knows about the industry where your product belongs (as in doctors, teachers, etc). Alternatively you can have one of your people go study the industry - and it will be important to have somebody who both knows the industry and is directly responsible for creation of the product - but don't overdo with this. If it's a programmer then they better spend most of their time programming and not learning about how to breed fish (it's an example :) ).
Once you have your shiny finished product you can start marketing it. A lot of people start marketing when they just have an idea. Talk is cheap - everybody is bursting with ideas. It's difficult to sell it though. It's like a designer with no portfolio trying to convince you that they are the best and the right person for the job.
What I'm saying is when you start marketing, you need to have something done - and not just a pretty picture of what it could be. A very basic product - but product that works.
And your marketing should be aimed for finding at least one client that will love the product, buy it, use it, tell everybody else about how great it is. Aim for that. Go door to door if you have to. Marketing can be very expensive and you need to have some income before you can start spending. Start small. Find clients. If you have a product that's great for certain people you have to find them and tell them about it, rather than trying to tell the whole world about your product and hoping that your clients will find you.
Say you have a company that seems to be on the successful track and is growing. Are you growing with it? Or did you stop somewhere and decided that everything is good you should just sit back and let it be and collect the profit? The chances are that's when things will start falling apart. If you are the businessman, the owner, the one with the idea then it all depends on you in the end - not on the marketing people, not on experts. Nothing in life stays the same - everything changes and your company will need to adapt to various outside factors. And since you're the one responsible for your company you need to be aware of those factors and watch them and know what's coming or at least try. Update your tools, make sure your experts didn't get rusty and follow up on their field. Go to start up business conferences, look around, see what others are doing, what new things are out there and so on. Stay on top of things!
Idea
A smaller example of it is a blog - you can have the best design and awesome development behind it but if the content or the idea is bad people won't go there. Same with computer games - bad graphics are more excusable if the content is good. Same with apps, programs, websites. You need to have a good solid idea behind all that. And that isn't going to be that easy.
Sometimes a good idea is a new solution to existing problem - something revolutionary and innovative. So, start looking for a problem that people face. There can be a number of solutions to it but none of them are good enough. Take a look at it from a different angle, think outside the box.
Research
Alright, now say you have a great idea, or a fresh solution to a problem. Next step? Get a reality check. Is it doable? Do you see a way of doing it? Talk to some experts on the field, do some research, find out if anybody else has already figured it out, know your competition. If experts say 'yay', and get all excited about it, then you're on the right track. Now think about time. How long will it take to turn your idea into reality? Maybe by the time it gets done nobody will care about it? If that's the case either find a way of getting it done faster or maybe let it go and think of something else.
Research should never stop - you need to be up to date on what's out there, on the tools you're using, on people you have, competition, reviews, market, economy. And most importantly always look for ways of bettering your product or idea. Don't immediately throw everything out the window though - stay on the track and just know what could be done to better but take into consideration your resources and clients. Just know about possibilities and paths you can take, think, and decide whether or not to take them.
Implementation
Implementation of the idea is very important. Think about who is going to use it, who it's for. You can't please everybody. But if 790 customers out of 800 love it, you're doing great. Focus on them, Don't focus on the 10 that hate it.
During the development phase you will be constantly faced with making decisions of what's important and what to sacrifice. It will be easier when you know who your clients will be. One important thing to remember though is it's better to deliver something quick and let people use it and THEN add features and better it, rather than releasing something perfect 5 years after you had the idea. However, when you release the first version, you need to have the key elements in place. You need to recognize what is key and what's a "I would love to have that added!"
Team
Think of who do you need for getting this done. And who you need to put a focus on. Something heavy with graphics? Get more designers. Something complicated and functional? More developers. And when you have your main people on the team talk to them, ask them for opinions and thoughts. However, don't immediately change everything because so-and-so said it was a good idea. Just think about it and make a decision.Also, if it's something specific get a couple (or one) experts on the field - somebody from your potential clients who will be using your product and knows about the industry where your product belongs (as in doctors, teachers, etc). Alternatively you can have one of your people go study the industry - and it will be important to have somebody who both knows the industry and is directly responsible for creation of the product - but don't overdo with this. If it's a programmer then they better spend most of their time programming and not learning about how to breed fish (it's an example :) ).
Marketing
Once you have your shiny finished product you can start marketing it. A lot of people start marketing when they just have an idea. Talk is cheap - everybody is bursting with ideas. It's difficult to sell it though. It's like a designer with no portfolio trying to convince you that they are the best and the right person for the job.
What I'm saying is when you start marketing, you need to have something done - and not just a pretty picture of what it could be. A very basic product - but product that works.
And your marketing should be aimed for finding at least one client that will love the product, buy it, use it, tell everybody else about how great it is. Aim for that. Go door to door if you have to. Marketing can be very expensive and you need to have some income before you can start spending. Start small. Find clients. If you have a product that's great for certain people you have to find them and tell them about it, rather than trying to tell the whole world about your product and hoping that your clients will find you.
Extra mile
Say you have a company that seems to be on the successful track and is growing. Are you growing with it? Or did you stop somewhere and decided that everything is good you should just sit back and let it be and collect the profit? The chances are that's when things will start falling apart. If you are the businessman, the owner, the one with the idea then it all depends on you in the end - not on the marketing people, not on experts. Nothing in life stays the same - everything changes and your company will need to adapt to various outside factors. And since you're the one responsible for your company you need to be aware of those factors and watch them and know what's coming or at least try. Update your tools, make sure your experts didn't get rusty and follow up on their field. Go to start up business conferences, look around, see what others are doing, what new things are out there and so on. Stay on top of things!
