The biggest challenge in the early stages of entrepreneurship is the lack of customers.
No customers, no orders, no payments, nothing!
With customers and repayment, entrepreneurs can boldly borrow money and seek bank loans. Creditors and banks can also confidently lend money to entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurs, shareholders, partners, and teams all have more confidence and fighting spirit.
In the three years of the epidemic, companies with and without customers have experienced a situation of “ice and fire”.
Every entrepreneur hopes to have more customers, but in reality, most entrepreneurs face a lack of customers in the early stages of their business.
So, in this situation, what should early entrepreneurs do?
1. Strictly control costs.
The eternal theme of all start-up companies is “opening up sources and reducing costs”.
In the early stages of entrepreneurship, “open source” is not easy to implement and the uncertainty is very high, making it difficult for entrepreneurs to effectively control.
‘Frugality’ has become the most important entrepreneurial tool in the early stages of entrepreneurship. Because cost cutting is something that entrepreneurs can independently control and has an immediate effect.
Strictly control costs and reflect it from all aspects.
Strictly control costs, with a focus on rental costs, labor costs, and projects with large expenditure amounts.
In the early stages of entrepreneurship, it is better to hire fewer people than to hire more. If you can do something alone, do not hire anyone; If hiring one person can solve a problem, don’t hire another person. Recruiting must be a simple and efficient process. ‘Recruit 2 people, do the work of 4 people, and give 3 people a salary’, everyone is happy!
In the early stages of entrepreneurship, rent and office expenses can be saved as much as possible. Don’t start by benchmarking against “foreign companies and large factories”, as that is a self destructive path.
2. Reduce investment in advertising and promotion.
In the early stages of entrepreneurship, the product, channel, market, and marketing models have not been finalized, and the company has not yet found a profitable model. There is a lack of customers and payment collection, resulting in “large investment but low income” and an imbalance between income and expenditure.
In this situation, entrepreneurs should not recklessly start advertising and promoting, as it is deadly!
3. Pilot first, test more, and find more customers!
Finding more customers is the key.
Who is the customer? Where do customers come from? How can customers be mined and purchase company products?
This requires continuous testing and practical experience by entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial teams.
The process of piloting is insurmountable, but it can be shortened through “rapid piloting and continuous piloting”.
Before the pilot program is successful, entrepreneurs should never expand, expand, or expand on a large scale!
4. Full staff marketing, don’t think about building a complete team in advance!
In the early stages of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs should not have delusions, but first build a complete team; Then each management team will be in charge of their own area, and entrepreneurs only need to grasp the overall situation. This is an extremely naive idea, and in reality, it will also suffer heavy setbacks!
In the early stages of entrepreneurship, the task of the entrepreneurial team is to sell the product as soon as possible, find target customers, and find a suitable marketing model for themselves.
Entrepreneurs, as well as a few partners/core members, work comprehensively around the market and customers, and engage in all staff marketing. No matter if it’s a white cat or a black cat, the one who catches mice is the good cat!
In the early stages of entrepreneurship, apart from the product and marketing departments, other platform departments (including finance, law, public relations, marketing, administration, human resources, comprehensive…) belong to supporting departments and non critical departments. Entrepreneurs should not spend too much time and energy in these platform departments.
What entrepreneurs should do the most is to make good products, sell well, and place orders with customers!
5. Don’t lose the principal!
80% of startup companies die in the early stages of entrepreneurship. Because there is no principal, the funding chain is broken and there is no way to turn things around again.
Entrepreneurs must always keep their cash flow in mind.
In the early stages of entrepreneurship, it is essential to leave sufficient capital for the company. Many times, the 10000 or 50000 principal we usually save may become our last capital to turn things around.
Don’t run out of capital, which means that entrepreneurs must be cautious and even more cautious when undertaking entrepreneurial projects that require large expenditures such as product research and development, franchising, and agency authorization!
Entrepreneurs need to survive and endure before they have a future and opportunities!
