Successful Startup: Important Things that Must not Be Ignored

Startup is currently a popular trend in Vietnam when more and more young people have a passion for business and a venturesome spirit. However, it is their inexperience that causes startups to encounter numerous difficulties and make a lot of mistakes on their journey. Understanding the do's and don'ts is one of the key foundations for startups to stand firm in the fierce market competition.

What should startups do to make a good startup journey?

Devise clear plans

Every startup idea requires a logical and scientific development process to be deployed and realized. Thus, making a detailed plan, describing each stage of development is indispensable. The plan should include business goals, access to capital and customers, promotion and marketing strategies, financial management, etc. Determining a plan from the outset would help startups feel more confident about their ideas, avoid confusion, and progressively accomplish the desired outcomes.

A specific business plan is a guideline for startups on their entrepreneurial journey.

Stay professional from the beginning

When starting out on a small scale, many startup owners often direct employees to do a variety of tasks that are not part of their duties. However, this will impede work quality and create conflicts as the startups grow larger. As a result, developing a professional management system from the start is critical. To achieve this, startups must divide employees into departments and assign tasks to each group of personnel, plus establish specific guidelines for work content, evaluation criteria, and methods for coordination among departments, etc. A professional and methodical management system will assist startups in increasing productivity and maximizing the capacity, creativity, and potential of their employees.

Build relationships with customers and partners

If marketing and sales bring economic value, building and maintaining relationships with customers and partners is a solid foundation for the existence and long-term growth of startups. Regular customers are an important condition for startups to ensure stable revenue in the long run. Furthermore, in a society that is constantly evolving and market competition is becoming increasingly fierce, forming numerous partnerships is one of the promising solutions that bring ample benefits to both sides, such as increased profits, competitiveness, mutual development, etc. Therefore, startups should try to form as many partnerships as possible, firstly through acquaintances such as relatives and friends, then through events and seminars attended by many reputable organizations and investors.

Good partnerships are the driving force behind startup fulfillment and development.

Develop necessary skills

Skills are crucial to any job searchers especially for young people who want to start their own business. To be successful, young people must work hard to hone and constantly learn necessary skills such as financial management, market analysis, negotiation, communication, leadership, delegation, etc. These skills are essential for startups to confidently operate and control their project.

What shouldn't startups do?

Start your business alone

There's an old adage about startups that says, “If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together.” Indeed, starting a business is challenging and often fraught with danger, thus when first starting out, startups might do business with partners by seeking like-minded people to contribute capital and operate the project. Starting a business with a team not only allows startups to share work, energize, and intellectualize, but it also helps to ensure governance principles when business and corporate governance choices are made based on collective decisions. Furthermore, startups should seek advice from reputable individuals and organizations for recommendations and proper strategies to help the project run smoothly and efficiently.

Don't care about the opponents 

One of the most common mistakes that startups make is neglecting to examine the level of competitiveness of other companies. This is an important step in assisting the startup in understanding the strategy's strengths and limitations, creating a basis for comparison and identifying areas that need to be improved for their project. Furthermore, entrepreneurs must strive to build and innovate products in order to distinguish themselves in the market, avoid duplication, and increase competitiveness with competitors' products.

Analyzing competitors specifically assists businesses in determining their path and developing effective marketing strategies.

Ignore the marketing

In the era of rapid development of technology and media, marketing is an essential and objective solution to assist businesses expand the scope of product promotion to customers. Therefore, one of the critical stages that cannot be overlooked is the implementation of media plans, which vary from word of mouth to advertising on TV and social networks. Startups, on the other hand, should consider choosing types of media that are suitable with their existing budgets. If the budget is abundant, startups can hire professional marketing organizations to carry out the project's marketing campaigns. If the startup's budget is limited, it can use social media channels to increase the awareness of its products.

Social media has become the ideal marketing tool for any startup.

Ignore potential sources of investment and fundraising

Capital is critical to the survival of any businesses, particularly startups. When starting a startup business, startups must invest funds in a variety of activities but frequently face difficulties getting bank loans owing to inconsistent revenue and a lack of collateral. In this case, investors and investment funds become two great sources of capital for startups, assisting them in resolving financial concerns. In addition to funding, they provide companies with a variety of other benefits such as experience, relationships, mentorship, and so on.

Across the country, various investment funds with diverse portfolios, highly specialized teams, and systematic investment processes are currently in operation. FUNDGO Startup and Innovation Fund is one of them. Despite its young inception, the Fund has actively participated in and organized numerous activities and contests to identify breakthrough and promising startup projects. The Fund also connects and cooperates with numerous agencies, departments, institutions, and colleges both inside and outside the region to offer training programs to improve knowledge and skills for young people who want to start a business. FUNDGO is confident to serve as an incubator and reliable partner to any startup on its journey to pursue their dreams and realize their startup ideas.

FUNDGO organizes numerous contests to find young talents while still in school.

Many young people wonder if starting a business is difficult. The response for this question is "Definitely yes,". However, this is inevitable and not frightening if the startup has sufficient information and knows what they should be equipped with. Hopefully, this blog will help startups to be well-prepared to realize startup ideas.