25 Tips

25 tips: for start-up entrepreneurs
Starting a business is scary in any economic climate. You’re putting yourself on the line – your ideas, sweat, capital, time, and relationships – in the hope that your gamble of starting a business will pay off.
What do you need to succeed in business? Experts say that you need to have loads of persistence, passion, and hard work – and yes, luck. But there’s really no single winning formula that can guarantee the success of your business. You have just to do it, and do it right.
I’ve collected some of the tips we’ve given on PowerHomeBiz.com, as well as from other experts and authors, on what a startup entrepreneur needs to do to increase chances for success. Here are the initial 25 tips:
1. Develop a product or service that people will want to pay. Find out what your customers need and want. Watch them. Talk to them. Understand them. Ask them about their problems, and what types of solutions they think will address those problems. Give customers what they want, and they’d gladly pay you for it.
2. Define your business model. Think how your business will make money. Simply put, first identify where you will get the money (your customers) and then how you will get the money (sales, marketing and other strategies).
3. Don’t reinvent the wheel. You don’t have to invent the idea. McDonald’s did not invent hamburgers and Starbucks did not invent coffee. Instead, they pursued markets that already exist and did everything better.
4. Be unique and “do your thing.” Think differently and resist the urge to be a clone. Your business is unique. Instead of copying others, differentiate yourself through your concept or presentation. You may be offering the same products, but clearly define your unique selling proposition to help users see your business apart from your competitors. It is important to identify and concentrate on making the unique aspects of your business as superb as possible.
5. Work hard to give your customers quality...