Business development tips for startups

Business development refers to any decision, process, or idea that helps your business grow and improve. The goal of most companies is to grow bigger, as this means increased sales and income. If you run a startup, growth is likely one of your primary goals. 

This article will try to provide some business development tips for startups. This advice may help you develop your business more efficiently. We’ll look at several different topics, including:

• Business development and sales
• Think carefully about expanding your team
• Adapt your target market as you grow
• Customers come first
• How Countingup can help you develop your business

Developing your business doesn’t just mean meeting your sales goals or setting them higher. It’s important to keep this in mind when you’re developing your startup, as focusing too much on sales can actually hinder your company’s growth.

Increasing your sales means that your income will increase, and you can invest this income to grow other departments of your business. In this way, increasing your sales is a crucial part of business development, but it is only one part of a much larger whole. 

For instance, to really develop your business, you’ll also need to expand your network. A large network of contacts that can aid your business is essential. The more contacts you have, the more opportunities that’ll be available to your business.

You also need to develop other areas of your business before you can think about increasing sales. For example, you’ll need to improve your marketing to attract new customers. You may also need to develop your internal business processes to make sure you can fulfil the increased sales that you’re hoping to achieve.

As you grow your business, you’ll eventually need to hire additional staff. Even the most competent business owner can’t run a large business all by themselves. If you run a startup, you may already be looking into this, and a big concern will likely be the cost of hiring your first employee.

It can be very expensive to hire an employee, and the cost may not only be financial. You’ll need to devote a lot of time to manage a new employee, as you’ll have to organise their shifts and wages. You might also have to train them, which can take time to do correctly.

Developing your business will eventually mean expanding your team, but you need to do this carefully. Make sure you’re hiring the right people, and make sure you’re aware of what it will cost in time, money and effort to turn an individual into a good employee.

As well as employees, you may consider partnering with someone to help run the business. This also requires careful planning, as you need to make sure that the person you partner with has the company’s best interests at heart. You also need to make sure they have the skill necessary to run your company effectively.

Your target market is the group of people you think are likely to purchase your products, so this is the group that most of your marketing and advertising will focus on. Even your product development will prioritise fulfilling the needs of this group. 

That said, your target market will change as you develop your startup. For example, you might have a very specific product idea that does very well, which causes your business to grow larger. As you can now afford to invest in better marketing and more product development, it’s a good idea to make your product idea less specific. 

Create a related product that fulfils another need for your potential customers, or make something entirely different that’s still in line with the industry you operate in. You can grow your business to a certain point with a very specific product and a small, well-defined target market, but eventually you’ll need to branch out. 

You might develop a great relationship with your target market, and you can always maintain that original group of customers. But keep in mind that changing and expanding your target market is necessary for further growth.

Customers have an enormous influence on the success of a business. It’s almost impossible to develop a business without increasing your overall number of customers. As such, it’s wise to make sure that you always keep your customers in mind as you develop your business.

Keeping your customers in mind doesn’t just mean selling them more products. A big part of business development is continuously improving the customer experience. By improving the experience customers have when they interact with your business, you’ll improve your reputation, as happy customers are likely to share their positive experiences with friends and family.

Making your company appealing to customers is also essential if you’re looking to grow your startup. This means working on your marketing content and researching customers to ensure your advertising is effective. Consider using different customer feedback techniques to find out what your customers think of your business.

When you’re successful in developing your business, you’ll need to spend more to keep it running, but you’ll also make more as your sales increase. This means that managing your finances might become more complex, as you’ll have to keep track of higher income and higher expenses. 

Using accounting software can make this much more straightforward, so consider using an app like Countingup to help you. 

Countingup is the business current account with built-in accounting software that allows you to manage all your financial data in one place. With features like automatic expense categorisation, invoicing on the go, receipt capture tools, tax estimates, and cash flow insights, you can confidently keep on top of your business finances wherever you are. 

You can also share your bookkeeping with your accountant instantly without worrying about duplication errors, data lags or inaccuracies. Seamless, simple, and straightforward! 

Find out more here.