What Skills Do Startup Founders Need Most
From the ability to successfully build a network to the willingness to constantly learn, here are some of the requirements for start-up founders to be successful.
To build a profitable start-up, founders need the ability to develop products, such as technology or content, and the ability to market those products, such as through search engine optimization (SEO) or other marketing skills.
Of course, not every founder is a natural talent in all areas and teams with different skill sets also face completely new challenges in start-ups. It is important to apply the principle of just-in-time learning. When identifying problems, building prototypes, experimenting with business models and marketing to potential target groups. How do I do that?
Constantly learning
The willingness to learn is a key qualification for start-up founders. In summary, every founder must develop a solid understanding of the following areas:
- How to develop a good solution (product)
- How to position and present the solution (marketing)
- Where you can find and contact potential customers (sales)
- How to optimize and, above all, automate your processes (operations)
- How to manage your financial situation, complete and automate bookkeeping (finances)
1. product
To develop a product, it's not necessary to learn every technology or skill from scratch — that's why there's a team or specialists that are easier than ever to find in an international pool of remote talent. What is important, however, is the ability to develop an awareness of where you're making mistakes and the ability to adapt what you're doing as quickly as possible to find the most efficient solution.
A good way is to start with 1 or 2 small products whose development process takes no more than 2 months. The founder should then start monetizing. The approach of first developing and selling a small product has many advantages:
● It can be delivered faster than a big project
● It saves time and gives you a head start
● You earn money quickly (cash flow)
● You create a foundation that you can build on
● It helps to open up initial target groups
2nd marketing
Knowing how to get attention for your product, or knowing someone who can, is a top resource for entrepreneurs who want to start a business. Networking can become a key success factor, not only to increase awareness of the product, but above all to receive feedback, testimonials and ambassadors.
Successful marketing starts in a closed space. Here, you should first consider how best to “pitch” the product, i.e. get it across as comprehensibly as possible in 3-5 short sentences. Startup founders should practice this pitch before jumping into networking events involving meetups & co. Because it can quickly become frustrating when you meet a potential cooperation partner but are unable to summarize the product in a few words.
You perfect the pitch with feedback and inquiries from your network and prepare it for presentations and press releases. You should definitely include the first testimonials you have gained on the project website and in social media.
One of the most important questions that marketing must answer is: Who is the target group (s) and how do I best reach them? Even marketing professionals at a start-up start from feedback from the network and then from trial and error until the most easily accessible target group for the product is found — the so-called early adopters, who are characterized by their interest in new things. As founders, you should focus on these first — where the target group is active, you will also become active. This applies to social media, events and many other activities.
3. Sales
No income = end of start-up That is why sales are a top priority. Even founders who start sweating at the thought of a sales pitch must concentrate on addressing their potential customers directly.
Things that you need to learn as a founder include understanding the added value you create and what this added value is worth in monetary terms for different target groups/customers. This results in pricing. Negotiation skills help and are important to learn, because you also have to charge money for your services.
Many founders complain that they are “not good at sales.” Yet very few people are “born salespeople.” Practice makes perfect! Most founders must develop and practice the ability to sell until this skill set is taken for granted.
However, studies have shown that acquiring a new customer is six to seven times more expensive than retaining an existing one. So if you're interested in improving your profitability and reducing your marketing costs, customer loyalty is the right path and the easier way for many founders.
4th Operations
Once customer acquisition has started, it is important to focus on customer satisfaction. This is because research shows that regular customers generally spend around two thirds more than first-time customers.
In order to create smooth business processes that guarantee customer and employee satisfaction, the first step is to sharpen intuition. Which suppliers and cooperation partners can you really trust? Who can really deliver? Who is really good — and who is just pretending?
The processes in a start-up must be able to be adapted quickly. Time is money, and you can't afford to get things running smoothly through trial and error.
5. Finances
The good news first: Mastering financial accounting is no longer a problem for start-ups with Numarics.
Startups stand for innovation, dynamism and rapid growth. The biggest challenges are rarely the lack of ideas, but inadequate cash flow management and resources for financial planning and reporting. Accounting and financial planning software is outdated, time-consuming and expensive, and outsourcing to a trusted service provider is also carried out. Some people supposedly try their hand at bookkeeping themselves - the simplest solution - because in addition to your time, it can cost you more than you would like if you're not really familiar with it.
Start-ups stand for innovation, dynamism and rapid growth. The most important challenges are rarely a lack of ideas, but inadequate cash flow management and insufficient resources for financial planning and reporting. Accounting and financial planning software is outdated, time-consuming, and expensive, as is outsourcing to an escrow service provider. Some people try to do the bookkeeping themselves, which seems like the easiest solution, but if you're not really familiar with it, it can take more time and money than you'd like.
It's important that you find a way to organize the various accounting and economic aspects of your start-up. Between accounts receivable management, payroll for you and your team, cash flow and budget planning, and taxes, any startup that cannot find an efficient solution for these tasks can lose a lot of time and money.
Algorithms and qualified economic and financial experts from Switzerland work in the background on all questions relating to your start-up. Your trust experts are available to you at any time at the click of a mouse. Numarics replaces the traditional trustee and offers you resources that otherwise only financially strong companies can draw on: All the services of a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) paired with management consulting for medium-sized companies. This frees you up to implement your ideas and time for what really counts. Your customers, your product, your success!
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