Success for Startups that look to the future

We’ve all watched entrepreneurs with ‘brilliant’ ideas struggling to make an impact on Dragons Den. Okay, some of the ideas aren’t so brilliant and some are just plain mad but why is it that some truly brilliant ideas fail once they have the word ‘incorporated’ tagged on to them?

At the end of last year Jason Fried of 37Signals gave a talk at Y combinator’s startup school in Berkeley, you can see the summary of Jason’s talk on TechCrunch. Among the many insights into the pitfalls of starting you own company, Jason gave the advice that ‘failure is not a pre-requisite for success or a rite of passage.’

Having worked in and amongst startup companies, I find this advice very sage. Starting a business is a huge undertaking and, to be successful, every step taken needs to be carefully weighed and measured and small successes built upon and expanded.

This considered, the business and its brands should be planned with longevity in mind. It’s easy to put off making big decisions when you are building a business but it’s sometimes those bigger decisions that will determine your success.

A useful and insightful piece of advice for any new company comes from David Liss’s article on brandchannel: “Successful companies begin by addressing the important questions that prove there is a need for their product or service, a market exists to buy it, and that they have the capacity to meet the needs of this market.”

And this is why the process of branding begins by demonstrating that there is a need for your specific service or product in the marketplace. Determining market need and identifying who your consumers will be is a crucial first step for any new business.

Investing time and money up front to explore these issues and create a cohesive brand story alongside your business plan will ensure that your business looks to the future and has a greater chance of success. This is something we are experienced in at thebluedoor, helping you create a brand strategy and plan which will look to the future.