Start-ups. 3 main problems and 3 tips

A really great article and interview with Matt Clarck from amazingacademy.com on Forbes about main three problems and effective three strategies for start-uppers.

According to Matt these are main 3 problems:

1. Don’t expect to be perfect. People make mistakes and learn from them. That is also called “to gain experience”. If you observe any uber-successful entrepreneur you’ll likely see many prior ventures that provided necessary learning experience.
2. Don’t get paralyzed by your fears. Worries often stop prospective entrepreneurs from building any business at all. If you’re just stepping out of the starting gate, don’t squander your mental energy calculating how many thousands of steps you’ll take in the 24th and 25th miles of the race. Worrying prematurely will sap the valuable motivation you’ll need to pull you through the long road to succes.
3. Don’t get derailed by your first setback. When building a new business, understand that you will experience issues on a day-to-day basis. There will be customer service issues, product and inventory problems, employee issues. At one time or another, every area of the business will feel like it’s falling apart. This is the strain that comes from building something that’s never existed before by someone who’s never done it before (that’s you).

And these are the 3 strategies that usualy work:

1. Grow “lean”. Especially at the beginning, focus on building your business with the minimum resources necessary. If you can build your business out of your house with a virtual team, do so. Don’t waste money on an office while you’re still figuring out your business model.
2. Use performance-based marketing. Affiliate and referral programs are a form of performance-based marketing that allows you to grow your new business without risk. But advertising vehicles such as Google AdWords, Facebook Ads or any platform that allows you to measure results to a penny are a way to grow efficiently, too. But don’t spend on what you can’t measure, or you’ll likely see your cash dwindling down a black hole.
3. Use low-cost online resources. Now is the best time to build a business, Clark says, in that you can hire expert staff cheaper than ever from around the world without having to pay the fixed overhead of a traditional, brick-and-mortar venture. While there are also some down sides to hiring overseas staff, such as potential communication issues and lack of control, for a new business owner, outsourcing is a great way to build your business cost-efficiently in order to keep your cash flow as high as possible.

Matt also suggest investing your time into time management and task management. It will allow you to take proactive position, rather then reactive. And that is highly important for the new business.