4 Key Quadrants for Early Profitability in Startups: A Guide to Building a Strong Foundation
A lot and a lot of Entrepreneurs seem to doubt their chances of success despite enthusiastic start to their venture. The major reason for this is the missing foundation pillars of doing a startup. As we are enthusiastic about our new idea for our big business, launching it soon to make it big is the only thing that comes to our mind. Although it’s good to start as early as you fetch an idea it is also important to focus on forming structure to your startup. This means how you form a team and other aspects of your startup should be highly considered to reach profitability and make you venture successful.
Our CEO, And Board member wish to share our secret formula from our desk to reach profitability for startups out there. Here are 4 Important quadrants that you should evaluate your startup onto in order to reach profitability at an early stage.
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- Team: The most crucial aspect of your startup is forming the right team without pleasing too much for people to join your boat. First few years of your startup, it’s completely fine for you to incorporate and start working on your fresh startup idea without having partners as you are about to prove everyone wrong and win this game and its risky ride. Therefore I would not recommend forming a team without the desperate attitude of getting a few members from friends and family or known groups just to get started. Go ahead incorporate and take risk of startup up on your own but have a clear mindset that you may require great people to join in with you anytime soon to help it grow. The best way to form a team is through chances and not choices. Wait, wait and wait till you bump into that person who is genuinely interested to join you as they see more growth than what you estimate for your own startup. This way you will have a lot of loyalty from the incoming partner and it will make a very good team.
Team is structured in 4 Major sub quadrants, respectively
Quadrant 01
Q1: Creative, Innovation, General Management and Quality Control.
Creative Team: These are architects and graphic designers like profiles who are rockstar of design. Because when you are doing a startup you need to represent it very professionally in terms of its user interface at various touch points and provide the best branding experience. Have the creative team universally responsible for all the important touch point design systems. These creative folks should be out of the box : For example if you have to find someone for designing your APP, look for an Architect + Developer and not just Designer and developer that knows how to code or use bootstrap tools.
Innovations Team: You cant just have great design and not have logic to each elements of your startup. This means you need to bring few engineer like people who are thinking of new ideas on weekly basis and launching new products or initiatives. Innovations team should be responsible for introducing new strategies and implementing them as well. The day your innovation teams stops working, is the day when your competition will be born.
General Management Team: This team is the most crucial yet most simple team that you could ever come across. As the name indicates all the general functions like HR, Finance, accounts, sales and marketing will come under this team. The General Management team should be very focused on following strategies defined by the innovations team and give their 100% to deliver project outcomes in terms of completing initiatives and ensuring task management is obtained well.
Quality Control Team: This team has special powers. This team is a very important one too. Let’s take an example of Transport business where people can book cabs and go to places they like and visit relatives etc. This team should ensure the escort model is introduced for women safety or drivers are paid fairly etc.
Quadrant 02
Q2: Technology: Software: Hardware: Internet of things
Technology quadrant is subdivided into 3 parts,
Software: Yes as it is now more than obvious that if you are venturing into startup in 2022 you need to have a well backed tech plan whether or not you are into software business. This means even retail business which runs a brick and mortar store requires technology to stay updated and perform best. It’s important for your startup to evaluate what software or portal would be required to execute customer functions.
Hardware: As software app play a crucial role, having a hardware plan for your startup data sizing and other server needs is very recommended. No matter what hardware technology is required from basic office laptops to big storage servers, any technology that helps your startup accomplish big projects is very much considered.
Internet of things: AR, VR, ML (Augmented reality, Virtual Reality, and Artificial intelligence are one of few examples of Internet of things and automation as well can be considered as important Internet of things implementation to your startup based on what is needed the most. Simple QR Code scanning for realising offers or coupons or accepting payments will also be considered as an internet of things initiative. You could consider outsourcing projects to freelancers if you are new to AI.
Quadrant 3: Unique Selling Proposition: USP
Any business which is venturing new has to differentiate itself from its competition. It is important for your Innovations team (Or Founders) to design USPs that are long term and very attractive. Some common examples of USPs introduced by popular brands are home delivery, Smart stores and cashless stores etc as feature or introduction of Virtual shopping experience with Augment Reality are some of the few examples that we can look up to for reference.
Quadrant 4: Revenue Streams:
Revenue streams are channels from where you can activate your customer and get them to pay you for more than 1 type of solutions. For example: A fruit seller just started offering special juice (as a new revenue stream to increase overall profit of the company). It’s important for any startup or business to have at least 2 revenue streams before venturing into business.
This evaluation model has helped our Board of directors in running successful business with peace of mind, which is profitable as we speak. If you are seeking to outsource some of your important business task then I would recommend trying Foito Skill Station which offers business to outsource work to freelancers.
