What should a beginner startup focus on?

Question

Marketing

I asked myself this question the other day. A large number of startups in the form of various services appear every day, but some of them exist for a very long time and move to a new level, while others close. What should a novice startupper pay attention to, what should they direct all their resources to and what should they never do? Share your experience and recommendations friends. How to survive in the market?

Answer 1

How to survive in the market?

Solve your customers' problems, not the problems you made up.

Answer 2

1. Make sure not to be indebted to anyone and make all necessary payments on time (customers, bank, taxes, servicing services and organizations: rent, domains, accounting, etc.).
2. Designate working hours (not when you are awake, but when you can process any incoming request within 15 minutes) and clearly respond to all declared public contact channels: telephone, mail, chat, etc.
3. Follow the trend of the chosen direction and always be ahead.
4. Properly distribute the load in order to always get the maximum result with minimal costs for employees.
5. Remember: the client does not owe or owe you anything! You must show with your product / service that you give more than you ask in return!
6. No need to advertise what is not transmitted through "word of mouth" - money and time thrown away.
7. If this is a thing or software - let the client get acquainted and touch / "feel" the interface to make a decision before purchasing.
(these are the minimum rules)

Answer 3

where to direct all your resources

Sales, marketing, advertising.
Don't care about customers.

Answer 4

Well, you found where to ask. Everyone here works for a paycheck. The main thing is experience, advice will not help you. At the same time, try not to get into debt and not lose your health from overwork and nerves.

Answer 5

in order of importance, as experience suggests:
1. study the mistakes of startups so as not to repeat them
2. determine the target audience and clearly position yourself. Proper positioning and knowledge of the target audience will help to make sales even without spending on advertising.
3. closely monitor competitors, their efforts, which product / service they invest more in promoting, you can go on this - initially it’s easier to sell what the target audience already knows and buys from your competitors. If your product / service is absolutely unique and they do not know it, you risk investing a lot of resources in promoting and familiarizing the target audience with a novelty that they will not like. In this case, it is better to promote by explaining, showing analogues of already known t / y.
4. What should never be done - register a legal entity. face and rent an office before the first sales, this is where the clouds of startups end.
5. Do not rush to invest in image advertising and brand promotion. First start with selling and / or informing advertising (just don't try to combine these 2 types of advertising in one medium - efficiency drops)
6. Don't spend too much money on an unverified advertising distribution channel - a very common mistake my clients make. First, try different advertising tools, analyze their effectiveness, very often, even for the same product, the same advertising tool can have different effectiveness from competitors. Having found an effective channel, and discarding the weak ones, scale it up, increase the circulation, size, terms of this advertising tool. And again analyze the effectiveness.
If something is not clear, write, ask, I will expand in more detail.

Answer 6

All resources are only for the most necessary, for the primary.
No "business games" - coffee machines, etc.