How to make your startup business more resilient long-term
Dalip Jaggi
There can be a lot of excitement that comes from starting your own business. You get to take a simple idea and turn it into a profitable business that you fully control.
But if you speak with any successful entrepreneur, they’ll all tell you that while there can be many benefits to owning your own business, there are also considerable setbacks you’ll likely encounter along the way. And even though these challenges are par for the course when launching a startup, this doesn’t make them any easier to deal with.
A significant part of overcoming minor or major roadblocks that arise when building a business is developing resilience. Luckily, there are some proven strategies you can follow to help achieve this.
Develop the right growth mindset
Regardless of the type of business you’ve established or the industry you’re in, continuously adapting as you move forward is critical. There is a common saying that states: “If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backwards.” This is especially true when you’re trying to build a business in a highly competitive market.
Keeping your business agile as you grow is all about having the right growth mindset. If you’re always challenging your own ideas and looking for new ways to improve, it’s much less likely that you’ll be left behind.
Make continuous learning one of your business’s core values. This helps ensure that every employee maintains the same growth mindset in everything they do. Building this type of company culture can help you more proactively address issues as they arise, with everyone ready and willing to make important changes when needed.
Build a healthy business foundation early
The first few steps you take when growing your new business are the most critical. This is why it’s essential to ensure you establish a strong foundation to build your startup on.
This process requires a few fundamentals you’ll need in place to help you grow sustainably. First off, you’ll want to create an organized business plan you can refer to as you hit certain growth milestones. Just like when renovating a property, you need to take the time to create a detailed budget, which helps you manage your finances responsibly from the very beginning.
While many new business owners aren’t always sure how to plan for long-term growth, the more proactive you are in this area, the more successful you’re likely to be.
Source and hire great leaders
Even the highest quality products and services won’t mean much if you don’t have the right people helping to market and support them. This is why taking the time to build a great team is a crucial investment for your startup business.
When you’re first beginning to look for employees to join your business, it’s important to prioritize individuals who have the potential to become great leaders. Think about what your business will need 2-3 years from now. Chances are you’ll have at least two or three departments, each of which will need quality leadership to manage different team members.
As you begin your talent search, try to find individuals who have a range of skill sets they can bring to the table. There’s a good chance at the early stages of your business that you’ll want to hire employees who are capable and willing to wear multiple hats. Try not to rush your initial hiring processes, since the employees you choose to hire can often make or break your early startup success.
Create a strong network
Forging your own path as a business owner is one of the most exciting parts of launching a new startup. You have control over all critical business elements and have the final say on all decisions.
However, this mentality can also make you feel like you’re on an island with very little support to fall back on if the decisions you make aren’t the right ones. This is why it’s essential that you learn to lean on others whenever possible to help make your business a success.
This doesn’t just include your employees, but also other professionals in your network that can provide you with some much-needed advice. Whether you’re a construction company wanting to connect with home renovation experts or a commercial organization needing legal advice from an outside firm, never feel like you should tackle every business decision on your own.
Regularly audit your risks
Being prepared to address potential challenges as they arise is a valuable quality that all business owners should possess. However, it can be much more valuable to your business to take the necessary steps now that can help you avoid many of these challenges altogether. This is where conducting regular business risk assessments can help.
Risk assessments involve taking a deep look across multiple areas of your business, including operations, finance, sales, and customer support, and identifying potential risks that certain processes (or lack thereof) pose.
One of the most commonly used methods to achieve this is conducting a SWOT analysis of your business. This focuses on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that can impact your startup as it grows. By taking the time to understand and document all of these, you will be able to develop specific mitigation strategies to help reduce the impact of any weaknesses or threats your business encounters.
Look at each setback as a learning opportunity
It can be incredibly discouraging when things don’t go as planned for your business. However, one of the most effective ways to build resilience for your company is to view these setbacks as learning opportunities.
There is no doubt that when you’re in the middle of a crisis, it’s hard to view them as “opportunities” for improvement. But given some time, there are a lot of valuable lessons you can learn from them that will only make your business more successful in the future.
After addressing a larger business issue, take some time to reflect on the situation with your staff to determine what could have helped avoid the setback. Often, these issues may not require any immediate changes. However, on many occasions, you’ll likely discover some important areas of improvement you can implement that will help you address the situations more efficiently next time around.
Help your business stay more resilient
Launching your own startup business can be incredibly rewarding, but it also requires a significant amount of hard work to achieve success. By following the strategies mentioned, you will ensure your business remains more resilient in the long term, enabling you to navigate obstacles more effectively and capitalize on additional growth opportunities.
Author: Dalip Jaggi
Entrepreneur, technologist, and passionate business leader sum up the core of Dalip Jaggi, co-founder of Revive Real Estate, a PropTech company with a goal to democratize house flipping. Since its 2020 inception, Revive has become the smartest solution for homeowners to maximize their home’s value across the nation.