No wonder that thoughts about creating a startup visit our heads at least once in life. Most of us would like to create something unique and helpful that could improve the world around us.
However, as far as the dreams go, statistics say that over 90% of startups live for less than 3 years due to the lack of demand in the market.
It’s great when you have an excellent idea, but not enough for your business to become profitable. Before thinking about how to create a startup that breaks out into the leaders, it’s crucial to make up an integrated approach.
Next, let’s talk about 7 crucial steps to give your new project a great start.
Defining the Problem You Are Solving
All businesses must solve some problems. That’s the rule while launching a startup. If they’re some projects on the market with already-built solutions, try to find an easier way to solve the problem. Even if the problem is on the surface, it is sometimes tricky to describe it. The advice on this path is to choose the correct formulation of the problem.
Check out the following tips to describe the problem correctly:
- When finding a problem, focus on the pain points of your target audience.
- Don’t aim at several problems at once. It takes time and disperses attention.
- Specifics are important.
- Describe all the pain points that are present in the problem.
- Find a solution to the problem.
Entrepreneurs can determine the pain points of their customers in various ways, such as:
- a social survey in networks
- statistics
- expert opinion.
However, Sakichi Toyoda invented the most effective method “Why” during his work on the Toyota development. The startuppers should ask themselves 5 times in a row WHY they’re creating this product. Ask this question during the first period of startup creation until you get clear answers to the questions that matter. This method will allow you to analyze your product and its interaction with the audience.
Determining Your Unique Value Proposition
It may be complex to find an unrivaled niche in the market. Therefore, when creating a startup, study your competitors. The main reason for analyzing the competitive environment is to find the strengths and weaknesses of other related products. It’s vital to create your unique value proposition.
A unique value proposition (UVP) is a statement that explains:
- Why the project is needed.
- What the project value is.
- How the startup differs from competitors.
A startup’s future slogan, motto, or design may be based on their UVP. It’s crucial to look at two steps of creating a UVP:
Finding out everything about your potential client
Conduct research or create a survey. Here, an important task is to know your target audience to the smallest details.
Creating a UVP draft
It helps to analyze the strategy in detail and correct something before the start. When creating a UVP, try to be concise and clear. A crucial component of your product is the ultimate benefit for a potential customer. What your users get if they choose your project is high quality, convenient location, or a long-term warranty. The main thing is that the value proposition is unique and has no analogs on the market.
Classifying Your Target Audience
The target audience is the key that will help you create the right and effective marketing strategy. Of course, it will be easier for the team to develop a marketing concept if they know the client’s portrait.
Since many startups are limited in budget, it is necessary to cover only the audience that will potentially be interested in the project.
This way, startuppers save money on advertising. Secondly, if investments are the priority, future investors will appreciate the awareness of the ideal client profile. The Ideal Client Profile (ICP) is a detailed description of the person who will use your product or service.
However, do not confuse the ideal profile with the buyer personas. The buyer persona is the type of client that can buy your product. The ideal profile is the best customer who will use your product.
Choosing the Right Business Model
You need to choose a business model for your project before creating an MVP. There are a large number of working business models for a startup on the market.
Marketplaces
This business model allows sellers and buyers to search for each other. The marketplace is highly demanded – more than 60% of all startups. The advantage of this business model is that it’s all about marketing and attracting people
All you need to provide is a platform for connecting sellers and buyers. The marketplace needs to build trust on both sides: buyers and sellers. The market leader in 2024 is Uber with its value of over $94 Billion.
Aggregators
An aggregator is a mixed business model that combines services and the need to ensure the quality and reliability of suppliers. The owner of the aggregator platform is responsible for payments and disputes arising because of the work. The best example of an aggregator platform is Reddit.
On-demand
Many novice startups often confuse the marketplace and on-demand models. They are similar, but there is a significant difference. The on-demand startup is a platform that owns the goods that it distributes.
In addition, the on-demand model requires less marketing effort, because you do not need to sell to owners and service providers, as the market needs it. The best examples of on-demand platforms are Netflix and HBO.
Reverse auction
A reverse auction is a variation of the market model. Instead of sellers offering their services to buyers, buyers create requests for what they need. The most prominent examples are Upwork and Freelancer.
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is another type of business model based on the crowd attraction for using their experience, knowledge, or abilities voluntarily.
The best examples are Instagram, Facebook, and Wikipedia. When choosing a specific business model, focus on competitors and own business preferences.
Creating a Minimum Viable Product
The minimum viable product is the first implementation of your project that has the minimum set of necessary functions.
At the initial stage of creating a startup, entrepreneurs want to attract investment. With the help of MVP, it will be much easier to do.
If you are aiming at creating a custom full-featured product, you will spend more money and time. Moreover, time and financial resources are basic factors when building a startup. Competitors with a similar offer may be hiding somewhere on the sidelines and the first to enter the market. The launch takes only about three months.
Moreover, you can choose from two the most popular types of MVP:
A single-feature product
This is software with the core minimum features needed for verification. For example, if this is a real estate platform, then a property listing will be a vital core function for verification.
A piecemeal MVP
The idea of a piecemeal MVP is to use existing real estate platform tools and solutions to deliver the startup on the market.
For marketplace startups, this is an opportunity to start without huge investments and add necessary functionality after getting feedback.
Getting Feedback
After launching your startup, your project has an opportunity to introduce the product to the market and get feedback from customers.
No matter who the audience is, they can help you create the perfect product. Customers will be able to notice the shortcomings and suggest ways to fix them.
Improving Your Current Product
After the startup is already launched, entrepreneurs strive to improve and scale it. It’s necessary to maintain the right business balance in this process. It means not to rush and not to be late with scaling.
How to make the process of improving your project:
1. Create the right infrastructure for your project
To do this, it is necessary to create conditions under which the problems that arise would be optimized as much as possible.
2. Choose to outsource for the
To create everything alone is complex and financially inefficient. Nevertheless, finding the best specialists at an affordable price is the best outsourcing prospect.
3. Build creative marketing and improve
Marketing and sales work as a team. By implementing the right marketing technical solutions, you can influence the sales. After gaining a certain number of clients, scaling will take place more smoothly.
Conclusion
Want to create a startup that will change peoples’ lives?
Don’t put oh hold this process for better times. It is worth reading the advice of qualified vendors who have extensive experience in creating new products.
Use these 7 steps to introduce your idea to the world:
- Definite the problem the startup solves
- Determine the UVP
- Classify the startup’s target audience
- Choose the right business model
- Create an MVP
- Get customer feedback
- Improve your current product
