7 Daily Habits of Successfully Growing Start Ups

Growing a business from a start-up into an established business can be a difficult and time-consuming task.

Many people don’t know exactly how to grow a business and their start-up ultimately runs out of money. There are a few small things that can be done that would have significantly improved their chances of success. To help you get the best start in business, we have compiled this list of daily things that you can do to improve your small business growth.

Network

Make a daily habit to connect with people who will directly benefit your business in some way.

This can be entrepreneurs and mentors who have experience creating a successful start-up in your industry. Talking to people who know all the ins and outs of small business growth, and being able to ask them specific questions, will cost you almost nothing and bring significant benefits.

Having a range of people with different skill sets with whom you can seek knowledge or ask to help you solve a problem is an asset to your business that will pay dividends in the future. They are also likely to provide influential, free advertising if they believe in what you are doing and may even open up capital growth possibilities. You can also contact suppliers and distributors, firstly to establish who will be the best fit for your business, and then to build and maintain your relationships and mutual trust.

We’re not suggesting you contact everyone every day, that would get very annoying and you would never get any work done. But by spending 15 minutes per day researching or attending networking events, or reaching out to people via social media, email or catching up in person, you create a network of people who can help you grow your business in a variety of ways.

Manage Finances

Many start-ups do not keep accurate and up-to-date financial records. They do not know how much they are spending versus how much they are bringing in. New business owners are often daunted by business accounting requirements and would rather not spend time keeping the books in check.

This common mistake is a major problem that most start-ups face and yet is easily overcome. Successful entrepreneurs know that to grow their business, they need to know their exact financial position.

The best solution for being able to manage your finances is by getting a small business accounting software that is quick and easy to use. By spending a few minutes a day inputting all your income and expenses, this system will allow you to be able to understand the progress of your business. You can easily generate profit and cash-flow statements, create and track budgets, and manage all invoices. These programs will also save you money at tax time, with all the information readily available for your accountant.

Work Within Your Means

Now that you know exactly how healthy your cash flow is, you can decide how much money you are able to spend on your day-to-day expenses.

If you’re working with a very limited budget or are working within an emerging market or with an untested business model, there are many things that you can do to reduce your expenses. For example, working from home will reduce overhead and travel costs. By reducing your costs you will be able to work on taking the time to build your business foundations securely, without having to worry about generating an immediate high profit to keep you afloat.

Prioritise Your To-Do List

Start-ups are fast-moving businesses, with lots of tasks to be done that will improve the business. However, it can be very easy to get caught up doing things that are not very important or are not due soon.

To ensure that you maximise your productivity and get all the important tasks done quickly, you should spend the first ten minutes of your day arranging your to-do-list in order of priority. The tasks that are most important or need to be completed sooner should be at the top of your list, with the less vital tasks below. By doing this, you will limit the time spent on unimportant, indecisive work and increase your productivity.

Break Down Big Tasks into Smaller Ones

Following on from the previous tip, if there are any big and difficult tasks that you know will take days to complete, you should try to break it into sets of smaller tasks that can be completed within a day. They look a lot less daunting and you are more likely to get them done ahead of schedule rather than leave them all to the last minute.

Assess Where Things Have Been Going Wrong

It can be frustrating to spend time analysing your business’ failures, but it is important to understand exactly why things are going wrong.

Everyone says that you will never learn unless you fail, but it’s more accurate to say that you will never learn unless you reflect on why you failed and what you could have done to prevent it. Your business is more likely to grow if you are able to solve problems efficiently and effectively, and prevent the same thing from happening in the future.

It is also important to not ignore the minor problems. Something that may seem small and insignificant can grow into a massive headache that can hinder your productivity and growth. It’s important to analyse or spend time fixing a problem every day to ensure they do not grow.

Open a Dialogue with Your Customers

Finally it is very important to create a dialogue with your key customers. Receiving feedback will give you an outside perspective on how your business is working. Spending some time every day reaching out to customers through email, social media or review sites can give you new ideas in ways to grow your business and help you identify problems early on.