Thinking about launching your very own startup business? Congratulations! That’s great news. While running and managing a successful startup business is no doubt a challenge, it can be one of the most rewarding accomplishments of your entire career and a life milestone that you’ll never forget. Indeed, from niche software companies to crowdfunding solutions, the modern business market has been the greatest of successes in small startups all the way to complete disasters. While it would be really nice to grow a brilliant idea and sell it for a massive sum of money, never to have to work again, the reality is that startups don’t work that way.
CFG Can Provide Startups With Account Receivables Financing
In today’s blog post, we’re writing about startups because we have the ability to fund them. Our receivables financing services here at The Commercial Finance Group will utilize your accounts receivables and optimize your cash flow, thereby helping your small business grow. We take pride in taking the pressure of financial matters off the shoulders of ‘busy business owners’ who would rather focus their time and energy on other matters. We completely understand that the cash flow of your company – while being the pumping heart of your business – isn’t exactly how you would like to spend all of your time and energy.
So why not let any of our Atlanta, Los Angeles or Burbank locations take care of you and help rapidly grow your company? Let’s take a look at some of the more common startup myths as they relate to lending for small businesses. To learn more about our custom lending solutions and how they can be a perfect match for your company, click here.
Myth: A Startup’s Success Is Completely Contingent On The Idea
Sure, having an original and fresh idea is never a bad thing, and will most likely give you a leg up on the competition. But you can’t solely rely on a great idea for your startup to take off and make lots of money. In fact, you don’t even have to have a new, innovative idea at all in order to succeed as a startup. Facebook wasn’t the first social media site and Google was not the first search engine. So the main takeaway with this myth is that it isn’t necessarily about being the first startup with the idea; it’s about doing it better than your competition and providing more value.
To reinforce our earlier point, while a lot of emphasis is often put on the idea behind the startup, the idea is only a small part of it in actuality. The reality is that startups also need to go beyond the idea in order to really evaluate the problem and find a solution that fits and will benefit the consumer to the greatest extent possible.
Myth: Founders Of Startups Get To Hang Out And Relax All Of The Time
Actually, for the founders of a startup company, it’s really quite the opposite. There is a long list of people that founders have to listen and often answer to. The biggest group of people are your customers who are paying you, which is a vital part of the success of your startup. In the early days of startups, founders wore many hats including as CEO, product manager, sales, marketing, customer support, and so on. If you think that you can only do what interests you and that’s it, perhaps you should reconsider your decision to found a startup company.
Myth: Your Best Friends Will Make For The Best Co-Founders
Use the movie “The Social Network” as reference for this myth. If you haven’t seen this movie, the takeaway from it as we’re referencing in this blog post is that it didn’t work out well for all of the friends who originally founded Facebook together. Why? Well, most of us act differently in our personal lives and our business lives, which isn’t a bad thing. Depending on how open you are with your friends, your coworkers probably appreciate that you are more professional at work. So, when you’re determining if a friend would make a good co-founder, you’ll want to size up their business personality.
Myth: Pricing Yourself Lower Than Your Competition Will Guarantee Success
By now it should start to become pretty clear that you can’t just do one thing with your startup and anticipate massive success. From having a great idea to building the product and hiring developers to build it, every single aspect of your small business counts.
So what’s wrong with pricing yourself lower than your competition? Inherently, there’s nothing wrong with that, and it’s a good business move to draw business to your company and away from your competition. But to solely rely on the fact that your product or service is cheaper than your competition will not guarantee success by any means. The less users pay, the less invested they are in your product and sticking around for the long haul. So generally, the lower the price, the higher the churn.
Also, ‘price wars’ are something to be considered. What happens when a competitor starts selling for less? If your prices are low, it’s only bound to happen. Logically, if your competitive advantage is just a cheap price then you’ll be forced to further lower the sales price until you can no longer afford to be in business. Ouch.
Myth: Your Startup Must Have A Nice Office From The Beginning
We all enjoy a game of ping pong and a beer here and there, but there’s a time and place for unnecessary spending, and launching your startup business probably isn’t the right time to be purchasing things that aren’t essential. If your team is collocated, we urge you to spend your money wisely. Besides, when you have a great company culture, your team members aren’t going to be as concerned about the immediate office environment – at least, not at that stage of your business. So focus on the office basics first and then, over time when it is more feasible to do so, upgrade things as you and your team see fit. Speaking of culture…
Myth: Culture Doesn’t Matter In The Beginning Of Your Startup
Even in the beginning, culture is always vital to startup success – actually, we might argue that culture is even more vital during the start as it sets the cultural foundation for your company. Company culture and core values as part of your culture are important things that you should take pride in. Early on, you should identify what your company stands for and what you’re working towards as a team.
One of the most important aspects of a healthy work culture is a healthy work/life balance. Another common myth about startups is that each team member must work crazy hours each week during the early stages of the company, but in reality, this is a bad idea. Exhausted team members are unhappy, unproductive, and more likely to burnout and leave early on. So, when you articulate a healthy and transparent company culture from day 1 of your startup’s inception, you not only avoid other myths like the never-ending work week, but this will also motivate team members and help you acquire top talent who want to be a part of what your company stands for. Do you want a wholesome company? Make it happen!
Founding A Startup Might Not Be Easy, But CFG Can Help
Small business owners get a lot of respect because they handle so many different aspects of their company that could be allocated among three, four, five or more people – maybe even ten, or a whole department of people. The point is that as the owner of a startup or new small company, you’re pretty much swamped with all the other aspects of your business that you just don’t have the time or the energy to deal with cash flow matters. Well, that’s what we handle at The Commercial Finance Group, and we can help you with that!
With our custom lending solutions and receivables financing services out of Atlanta, Los Angeles and Burbank, we’ll make sure that your business receives an appropriate amount of funding when you need it. Questions? Get in touch with us today.
