Take your Startup from Point B to C with 5 Tips

Today was my business planning meeting days with my startup clients. As I discussed with a client the importance of implementing steps for business image now so that the road is paved for later, I thought of a few startup tips to share.

You can go from point B to Point C once you learn these five tips:

Plan to succeed. This is a Catch 22 for some people. New entrepreneurs are often coached to spend less, test things out, wait and see if things are viable....So most people forget the big picture. Keeping costs low doesn't mean positioning yourself as an auctioneer. My advice: plan your business as if you are planning to stay around. When you test out the waters and don't invest in yourself or your business, it is clear to others. And who wants to support someone who doesn't support himself? Approach your new idea like it's a six-figure paying job; stay focused and dedicated.

Go Cheap but don't Cheapen. With all the tools out there, you can get an affordable website or blog for a good price. Don't try to be a designer if you don't know the first thing about designing websites. Get a nicely designed, yet affordable website, great business cards, decent presentational materials. Like Seth Godin states in his book The Bootstrapper's Bible, "spend more than you need to when it comes to making an impression.

Presentation Matters. Guy Kawasaki, in The Art of Starting, says to "shoot for doing things at least ten times better than the status quo. " When you're starting a business, getting new clients is your chief focus. So why lessen the experience? Improve your sales presentation and confidence. If I'm meeting with a professional jeweler who gives me a nicely designed catalog of options, why should you the startup be any different? If another business owner spells out their terms and conditions, there's no reason why you should approach me seeming unprepared and unsure. When I first started my business, presentation is what won me clients. I would meet at Starbucks with decent materials to show, a process to spell out, and agreements to sign. People are visual by nature and they feel better with something that spells out your business in their hands.

Structure your Startup. Everyone struggles with this. For a while, I was struggling with various structures until I forced myself to evaluate what worked and what didn't. Now everyone that comes to see me (for business planning) go through the same process. Don't meet with someone without some clear meaning of what the person needs and how you can help them. And if you end up meeting with someone at the spur of the moment, schedule a second conversation. Don't leave it up to the person, you must ask the right questions. You want to avoid giving someone the feeling that your meeting was time wasted. If you've ever had or do get the opportunity to talk business with millionaire entrepreneurs, observe their strategy: you sit and small talk about family and life while drinks arrive, then more small talk over lunch; this time it goes a little into business life, then after lunch over coffee comes their proposition or if you're proposing, their WIIFM (What's in it for me) talk. It doesn't stop there, they follow up after or expect you to. What if every startup entrepreneur used this strategy and treated every prospect this way? Imagine the business you could have.

Think different. Audi's owner August Horsch, made his cars different by adding an eight cylinder inline engine when it was unheard of. Dave Thomas decided to start a fast-food restaurant that made fresh burgers as they were ordered. Back then, everything was frozen and heated up for customers. With Wendy's you order a burger with no onions, they don't go in and take off the onions from another burger, they make it for you as you order it. These companies were once startups too and they thought different. What can you do to stand out in someone's mind. How can stop being a part of the status quo?

I'll leave you with a quote from John C. Maxwell's book, Thinking for a Change; "If you desire to climb up out of the pile, to rise beyond your circumstances, to move up to another level...then you need to ...become the best thinker you can be. It can revolutionize your life. "

About the Author: Cheryl Isaac is the writer of this blog and a Startup Business Planner & Owner of Isaac Business Services, The Businesss Startup Company. She's also Founder of the virtual business planning online startup The12MonthBizPlan.com