Do you want to take your business to the next level, but don’t know how to do it? These startup founders were once in your place, but they all built large and successful companies. Whether they learned to be guided by their own instincts or strategically established partnerships with other brands, these experts did everything to succeed. And now they can share their experiences.
Follow your intuition wherever it leads you
When Outdoorsy founders Jeff Cavins and Jen Young needed to prove to investors that their idea of creating Airbnb was really viable, they decided to do some market research. So they sold their homes and embarked on an eight-month journey around the United States to interview hundreds of RV enthusiasts. Investors laughed at the fresh Outdoorsy look at RV car rentals. But the trip provided valuable information.
“I learned something that I would never know in a research lab, library, or Google,” Cavins said. They found that ideas about today's RV travelers are out of date. Travelers do not understand well that traditional rental companies do not have sufficient supply and demand for RV rental.
Despite skeptics, Outdoorsy, which currently operates in 14 countries, ultimately received $ 81 million in several rounds of funding.
Make mistakes and learn from them
A successful business requires more than just a good idea, according to Amy Errett, CEO and founder of Madison Reed, a company that sells home-based home paints at an affordable price, made without harsh chemicals. Once you confirm that you have a business, you need to figure out how to grow and retain your customers. This includes reformulation, flexibility and hiring best practices. The most important trait that Errett is looking for to predict the growth and success of small businesses? Elasticity.
“The point is not to not make mistakes. It's all about mistakes. If you pay attention to them and see opportunities for growth in them, then life is changing rapidly, ”said Errett.
Think small, get big
All businesses need customer growth. But sometimes it’s hard to understand where these customers are hiding. This is where powerful people come into play. An influential person is someone who has the right to influence decisions to buy other people because of their authority, knowledge, position or relationship with the audience. But before you make a lot of money for an influential celebrity, listen: in fact, you better work with a lesser-known person, or with a micro-influence, which has a small interested audience on social networks.
Relying on an interested audience of microswitches in business development is a strategy that works well for Pura Vida, the jewelry brand best known for its colorful bracelets made of threads and beads. The brand relied heavily on curated photography and an authentic micro-switch audience to create loyal followers and expand its brand. And it’s obvious that this strategy worked - Vera Bradley just bought a controlling stake in Pura Vida, launching this startup in the next growth stage.
Touch the power of sales of famous retailers
Birchbox has made its name online. The brand’s partnership with Walgreens opens the door to a multi-billion dollar opportunity, said Katya Bosham, CEO, who co-founded Birchbox in 2010.Offline brand expansion to large retailers is based on Boshan's vision. The idea is to look after not a “passionate”, but a “passive” time-hungry buyer — an ordinary woman who represents 70% of the beauty market in the United States. Birchbox's growth also points to a trend that shows that digital brands are growing in regular stores and then entering a wider market.
Invest wisely in your business
Instant Pot inventor Robert Wang, whose extremely popular programmable electric pressure cooker violates the category of kitchen products, does not believe in the power of advertising to help grow his business. That's why advertising has never been part of the Instant Pot business plan - neither in 2010, when Instant Pot made its debut after 18 months of research and development, nor today, as sales continue to double every year, and the number of Facebook subscribers has increased to 1.6 million. Instead, Wang believes in investing in the innovations that fuel verbal advertising. And his multifaceted approach is intriguing.
Come up with something amazing
Sometimes it’s worth inventing a bicycle or, in this case, a grill. This is what the founders (and brothers) Hunter and Griff Jaggard discovered when they created the FireDisc stove - an adaptation of the rural cooking method known as discada, which uses a converted farm plow disk for cooking. Having come up with something completely unique, not a version of an existing turbocharged product, Jaggards have been able to quickly grow their business since launching in 2010. In fact, FireDisc is now one of the fastest growing private companies in the country. With a three-year revenue growth of 1330%, the company ranks 374th on the Inc. magazine list. This is an amazing invention of the founders and their steady prioritization of quality makes them strong. Jaggard said "tired of buying things that fall apart."