What you need for a good, high-quality startup
Be careful: there is a lot of text under the cut, someone may be in a rather complicated presentation. I also apologize for the quality of the drawings, there are no funds on the laptop-top = (I will come home and correct it.
When I collected my thoughts to open my own business. He walked around a dozen investors, the procedure for communicating with them is a separate topic. But it was precisely this that prompted me to share my thoughts on whether a startup needs money? Interesting opinion habravchan about this. Although you can find 1000 opinions here, but still ...
In fact, this is asmall note about how difficult it is to work. Especially if you want to do your job really good, and not just another “Fast Start-up, but ...”! About how much you need to take into account and provide.
')
And so I think important when creating a project. Anyone not necessarily an i-shop. But my example will be all the same on the online store.
And so in order. The first thing I would like to mention is the "Brand". By the way, many people do not believe in the so-called "branding miracles", but in vain! I would say that this is the main rake of any project. Many people perceive the brand as “name”, “domain name”, “logo”. It is also wrong, although here you can argue with me, because many people write about the brand in different ways, but I am not going to start a global discussion.
How do I see the brand? What is it for me, and with what I will eat it? And everything is quite simple. For myself, I define the brand as nothing more than the mood of the project. It is the mood. You can call differently, wave, style, for some reason, my option is more convenient for me.
From the mood, in principle, everything goes. Design, logo, name, company behavior. Not unimportant moment in branding is the positioning of the company in the market, focus on a specific market segment. The brand is the flagship of your project that sets the course.
For example, you can target a project to the VIP market segment, and of course your brand must meet certain requirements. Paphos, greatness, taste, presentation of the project at the level of High-High! Or your project is focused on the most ordinary people. In this case, the project keys are simplicity and friendliness.
Even the advertising campaign of your project will be set by mood. And if the project is served with High-High sauce, then naturally you will not make a cheap, medium-quality video clip, or banner. You will not make business cards on the usual melovke, but try to make them as original as possible. Mood sets everything.
Therefore, I believe that this issue should be approached more closely. From the definition of the mood of the project will come out and design style, and logo, and some aspects of the behavior of employees, managers with customers, etc.
Well, of course, the brand needs to be recognized, to be correctly perceived. Therefore, it turns out that the logos of most sites, even if they are good, are not imprinted in memory. Since the logo is just a picture that is associated with something only once, it is sometimes remembered but ... not in the sense in which it is necessary.
For example, I know one and-shop in Ukraine. "Socket". I make purchases there. I sometimes try to remember their logo ... but without success, I just have to go to the site to recall this face)) But in reality, the store brand is the very word "Rosette". Which most associate with something electric. Is not it? Another of the sockets is a friendly green color, and an adequate response from managers to anything. That is, this is what is beating in my memory, at least for me. This is the mood of the store - its brand.
And in some i-shop, intonation, accent, in a brand can be completely different. For example, the main focus is on usability of the site and accuracy of information. The site can be all mega-convenient, and there will be no non-quality information, or repetitive.
Here a good example can be given on the Apple technique. When you go to the MacBook section on some website and see 7 MacBooks, with the same description, not counting several numbers in the configuration, the same with pictures ... and the point of loading a person with repeated information?
Where it would be easier to make a page with a brief description, detailed and choice of the same type of models?
On the example of the page iPod nano, just clicked on the desired radio button and that's it.
Agree so much more convenient and more correct than this:
And I ask to pay attention that if the brand focuses on this, then its technical model is quite prepared. But this is a conversation about something else, and more complex and capacious.
The technical base is the foundation of your project, whatever it is. And the store is a social network ... it does not matter. It is important that your technical model work. Even if it is not equipped with all kinds of ryushechkami and gadgets there ... the main thing is the performance and the feeling that the project is completed, and not in the stage of eternal development.
Many people say this: it’s better to start one time than two years. I agree with that. But they only perceive this phrase differently, and in fact it turns out that they wanted the best, but it turned out as always.
The technical model on the example of an i-shop is not only a working site. It is also the organization of document circulation. This is the organization of customer accounting and warehouse accounting. And imagine the situation ... an online store, selling equipment (for example), before many distributors gave goods for 1-2 weeks in installments. There was a situation in my memory when a distributor mistakenly assigned 2 computers on top. Everything then was decided by long conversations and mockery of the brain of all employees, trying to recall images of how much we dragged into the office mini-warehouse of boxes, which were at the beginning and at the end.
And all because for the account, no one wanted to use the data or simply correctly organize the accounting of income-expenditure. Damn it's so easy! There is no possibility of 1C, well, you put a local server, and write browser software, more cheaply and flexibly. No, they bought expensive foreign software, which no one could use, and as a result there were a lot of confusions. And to keep records in the same XL, too, who did not think out, everything was in the folder, with a bunch of invoices. But the responsible person lost the invoice ... due to the fact that the load on him was great (a bunch of imaginary additional functions). Of course, over time, and the invoice was found but ...
I mean that the technical model is this collection of certain activities in the organization of your business. It is even possible to competently organize work with paper invoices; this is a matter of approach.
Even with a clear model, you still can’t avoid difficulties in organizing, and if with these difficulties there will be failures in your technical model ... write it is gone =)
As for marketing for a startup, it is worth understanding that these are initial marketing moves, they should not be spread over a large time period. This should be quickly and efficiently. Push! The first step, exhaust, so to speak. This is a very important point.
Let's think about what methods of advertising in theory are applicable to the e-store.
Network
offline
Of all these methods, the most suitable for a starting push, I would single out the points: 2, 4, 5, 6 - with a bold budget and 2, 4 with a minimum. But this is at the seed stage, and at the final push stage - 1.
Why? How? Everything is quite simple. If we consider that this is a start ... then the main thing is to get a little familiar in the eyes. Therefore, it is important to visual perception and nothing else. And the visual, but not informative. Naturally, this visual is better to issue well, entrusting it to the designer for more experienced.
On the example of the online store selling New-New High-Tech Gadget's. A successful combination of activities sequence of actions can be called the following.
Printed products and billboards
At the very start of the project, we determine the market segment on which we will navigate. Well, who needs Gadgets? For businessmen, yes, but it’s hard for them, and it’s complicated here, IT and IT are more suitable option. More suitable for what? For item 4 - printed products.
This is all good because IT-shnik constantly arrange themselves all kinds of conferences, camps, etc. This is a sin not to use for the distribution of cards, business cards with a single information element - the name of the project. Visit a couple, three of similar events and distribute printed materials, telling about a certain "project H". In parallel, I would place billboards in the center of the city (of course, if there is a budget), and not just in the center, but where large traffic jams form.
Just an important point is what they will be looking for on the Internet. We handed out cards, hung billboards around the city ... the key word "project H". Therefore, we will create a page on the Internet, not a site, but a page.
By the way, the other day I stumbled upon a terrible example of a site plug =))) I sometimes express myself, but in this case, the plug for an advertising agency does not seem to me very much.
But a more acceptable option.
And so with the text on the site, people who were interested in what kind of “Project H” is, will go on this page. It is important to give the visitor information about the opening. Counter, or just the date ... no matter how. You can arrange it as you like, in terms of design, it's me so schematically =)
The same applies to the business segment. Do we have all kinds of events where business people gather? No, not enough. Again, flyers, business cards ...
Sponsorship
Sponsorship ... uh pancake swung ... Yeah. That's right! It is sponsorship. This is a small and tricky enough action to talk separately, it is possible to write a separate post. But some other time. Immediately write the idea itself, and I once proclaimed a similar opportunity (through no fault of my own) and its competitors took advantage of it.
Like working in an online store, an aunt came to me with an offer. They say there will be a celebration in the club, there are contests, prizes ... would you like to give prizes? The fact is that the holiday was in my love day. Youth in a fairly prestigious club in Kiev. Then we refused, and competitors took advantage. So if you are interested in the eve of the opening of your project, whether there are such events, then be sure to try to donate 2-3 iPods or a mobile phone. Believe it is a great PR. And for a start, it's super.
And so the seed went. Further actions open the site and store and start contextual advertising. Well, even further competent marketing, work ... in general lyrics.
I, like you, are probably interested in startups. There are so many interesting startups. Very interesting. But I always had one question in my head: Where is the money? I began to ask people who create this or that project. And from where is the money? To which there were almost no answers.
I am a despicable person ... but this is one of the ways to get more or less correct statistics. I sent letters to start-up authors, posing as a member of the investors association. I don’t need to speak exactly to whom I addressed the letters, I am sure this is not aesthetically beautiful =)
I talked about studying projects, and I’m looking for money for venture investments in order to help grow a profitable project, and thereby bring financial grace to both authors and investors. I asked one simple question. “Do you have a plan, a strategy to extract profits from the project?”
The answers surprised me, some just killed. People immediately began to tell what a wonderful project they had. Just curled me with information about what is and about the development plans of the project. But not a word about profit ... some truth was simply answered: Well, you can hang up Yandex Direct or a runner, it seems to me that there will not be enough profit.
Agree if you turned to investors, they would not be interested in what kind of thing the project will have and how well they will work. No, this is also interesting, but it must be supported by at least something.
For example, you decided to create a travel website. OK! What did they do next? What information will be posted? What are the technologies in the site engine / context? What are the earnings, context and bannerokrutilka, or own bannerokrutilka and special blocks with advertising?
You can also create a website with hotel catalogs with photo galleries and telephones and make money on the SEO + context, or you can do the same with good video and make money on pure advertising + organize the sale of tickets. These are different approaches and different budgets ... But still, it is necessary to envisage in this and that case: at the expense of what exactly will the traffic be converted into profit.
As a result, I think it is worth noting that today there are still a lot of startups that just start. And that's all. And many startups, if they turn out to be without profit, will cease to be interesting for their authors and sooner or later will cease to exist.
It means that when creating a startup, you need to think about what it would be a product, and not a semi-product or a not-to-product. After 5 years, I understood why investors used to ignore my ideas and did not pay attention to my projects. That is why I worked in online stores, web studios, freelancer. But the truth is, I now understand that without financial injections, even the coolest idea is doomed to failure in implementation.
PS Play with advertising options and ways to submit a project, etc. it is possible endlessly, each project is individual and can carry so much of all that is interesting, only their authors would have the strength to implement them. This is not a how-to. These are simple thoughts on this topic.
When I collected my thoughts to open my own business. He walked around a dozen investors, the procedure for communicating with them is a separate topic. But it was precisely this that prompted me to share my thoughts on whether a startup needs money? Interesting opinion habravchan about this. Although you can find 1000 opinions here, but still ...
In fact, this is a
')
And so I think important when creating a project. Anyone not necessarily an i-shop. But my example will be all the same on the online store.
- Market analysis (but I will not write about it, everything is clear, but about the ways ... sorry, confidential =))
- Brand
- Workable technical model
- Push - marketing campaign
- And the main thing is a clear strategy (plan if you want) of making a profit!
And so in order. The first thing I would like to mention is the "Brand". By the way, many people do not believe in the so-called "branding miracles", but in vain! I would say that this is the main rake of any project. Many people perceive the brand as “name”, “domain name”, “logo”. It is also wrong, although here you can argue with me, because many people write about the brand in different ways, but I am not going to start a global discussion.
Brand
How do I see the brand? What is it for me, and with what I will eat it? And everything is quite simple. For myself, I define the brand as nothing more than the mood of the project. It is the mood. You can call differently, wave, style, for some reason, my option is more convenient for me.
From the mood, in principle, everything goes. Design, logo, name, company behavior. Not unimportant moment in branding is the positioning of the company in the market, focus on a specific market segment. The brand is the flagship of your project that sets the course.
For example, you can target a project to the VIP market segment, and of course your brand must meet certain requirements. Paphos, greatness, taste, presentation of the project at the level of High-High! Or your project is focused on the most ordinary people. In this case, the project keys are simplicity and friendliness.
Even the advertising campaign of your project will be set by mood. And if the project is served with High-High sauce, then naturally you will not make a cheap, medium-quality video clip, or banner. You will not make business cards on the usual melovke, but try to make them as original as possible. Mood sets everything.
Therefore, I believe that this issue should be approached more closely. From the definition of the mood of the project will come out and design style, and logo, and some aspects of the behavior of employees, managers with customers, etc.
Well, of course, the brand needs to be recognized, to be correctly perceived. Therefore, it turns out that the logos of most sites, even if they are good, are not imprinted in memory. Since the logo is just a picture that is associated with something only once, it is sometimes remembered but ... not in the sense in which it is necessary.
For example, I know one and-shop in Ukraine. "Socket". I make purchases there. I sometimes try to remember their logo ... but without success, I just have to go to the site to recall this face)) But in reality, the store brand is the very word "Rosette". Which most associate with something electric. Is not it? Another of the sockets is a friendly green color, and an adequate response from managers to anything. That is, this is what is beating in my memory, at least for me. This is the mood of the store - its brand.
And in some i-shop, intonation, accent, in a brand can be completely different. For example, the main focus is on usability of the site and accuracy of information. The site can be all mega-convenient, and there will be no non-quality information, or repetitive.
Here a good example can be given on the Apple technique. When you go to the MacBook section on some website and see 7 MacBooks, with the same description, not counting several numbers in the configuration, the same with pictures ... and the point of loading a person with repeated information?
Where it would be easier to make a page with a brief description, detailed and choice of the same type of models?
On the example of the page iPod nano, just clicked on the desired radio button and that's it.
Agree so much more convenient and more correct than this:
And I ask to pay attention that if the brand focuses on this, then its technical model is quite prepared. But this is a conversation about something else, and more complex and capacious.
Workable technical model
The technical base is the foundation of your project, whatever it is. And the store is a social network ... it does not matter. It is important that your technical model work. Even if it is not equipped with all kinds of ryushechkami and gadgets there ... the main thing is the performance and the feeling that the project is completed, and not in the stage of eternal development.
Many people say this: it’s better to start one time than two years. I agree with that. But they only perceive this phrase differently, and in fact it turns out that they wanted the best, but it turned out as always.
The technical model on the example of an i-shop is not only a working site. It is also the organization of document circulation. This is the organization of customer accounting and warehouse accounting. And imagine the situation ... an online store, selling equipment (for example), before many distributors gave goods for 1-2 weeks in installments. There was a situation in my memory when a distributor mistakenly assigned 2 computers on top. Everything then was decided by long conversations and mockery of the brain of all employees, trying to recall images of how much we dragged into the office mini-warehouse of boxes, which were at the beginning and at the end.
And all because for the account, no one wanted to use the data or simply correctly organize the accounting of income-expenditure. Damn it's so easy! There is no possibility of 1C, well, you put a local server, and write browser software, more cheaply and flexibly. No, they bought expensive foreign software, which no one could use, and as a result there were a lot of confusions. And to keep records in the same XL, too, who did not think out, everything was in the folder, with a bunch of invoices. But the responsible person lost the invoice ... due to the fact that the load on him was great (a bunch of imaginary additional functions). Of course, over time, and the invoice was found but ...
I mean that the technical model is this collection of certain activities in the organization of your business. It is even possible to competently organize work with paper invoices; this is a matter of approach.
Even with a clear model, you still can’t avoid difficulties in organizing, and if with these difficulties there will be failures in your technical model ... write it is gone =)
Push - marketing campaign
As for marketing for a startup, it is worth understanding that these are initial marketing moves, they should not be spread over a large time period. This should be quickly and efficiently. Push! The first step, exhaust, so to speak. This is a very important point.
Let's think about what methods of advertising in theory are applicable to the e-store.
Network
- 1 - contextual advertising
- 2 - banner advertising
- 3 - SEO and similar perversions =)
offline
- 4 - Printed paraphernalia
- 5 - billboards
- 6 - sponsorship
Of all these methods, the most suitable for a starting push, I would single out the points: 2, 4, 5, 6 - with a bold budget and 2, 4 with a minimum. But this is at the seed stage, and at the final push stage - 1.
Why? How? Everything is quite simple. If we consider that this is a start ... then the main thing is to get a little familiar in the eyes. Therefore, it is important to visual perception and nothing else. And the visual, but not informative. Naturally, this visual is better to issue well, entrusting it to the designer for more experienced.
On the example of the online store selling New-New High-Tech Gadget's. A successful combination of activities sequence of actions can be called the following.
Printed products and billboards
At the very start of the project, we determine the market segment on which we will navigate. Well, who needs Gadgets? For businessmen, yes, but it’s hard for them, and it’s complicated here, IT and IT are more suitable option. More suitable for what? For item 4 - printed products.
This is all good because IT-shnik constantly arrange themselves all kinds of conferences, camps, etc. This is a sin not to use for the distribution of cards, business cards with a single information element - the name of the project. Visit a couple, three of similar events and distribute printed materials, telling about a certain "project H". In parallel, I would place billboards in the center of the city (of course, if there is a budget), and not just in the center, but where large traffic jams form.
Just an important point is what they will be looking for on the Internet. We handed out cards, hung billboards around the city ... the key word "project H". Therefore, we will create a page on the Internet, not a site, but a page.
By the way, the other day I stumbled upon a terrible example of a site plug =))) I sometimes express myself, but in this case, the plug for an advertising agency does not seem to me very much.
But a more acceptable option.
And so with the text on the site, people who were interested in what kind of “Project H” is, will go on this page. It is important to give the visitor information about the opening. Counter, or just the date ... no matter how. You can arrange it as you like, in terms of design, it's me so schematically =)
The same applies to the business segment. Do we have all kinds of events where business people gather? No, not enough. Again, flyers, business cards ...
Sponsorship
Sponsorship ... uh pancake swung ... Yeah. That's right! It is sponsorship. This is a small and tricky enough action to talk separately, it is possible to write a separate post. But some other time. Immediately write the idea itself, and I once proclaimed a similar opportunity (through no fault of my own) and its competitors took advantage of it.
Like working in an online store, an aunt came to me with an offer. They say there will be a celebration in the club, there are contests, prizes ... would you like to give prizes? The fact is that the holiday was in my love day. Youth in a fairly prestigious club in Kiev. Then we refused, and competitors took advantage. So if you are interested in the eve of the opening of your project, whether there are such events, then be sure to try to donate 2-3 iPods or a mobile phone. Believe it is a great PR. And for a start, it's super.
And so the seed went. Further actions open the site and store and start contextual advertising. Well, even further competent marketing, work ... in general lyrics.
Strategy (plan if you will) profit!
I, like you, are probably interested in startups. There are so many interesting startups. Very interesting. But I always had one question in my head: Where is the money? I began to ask people who create this or that project. And from where is the money? To which there were almost no answers.
I am a despicable person ... but this is one of the ways to get more or less correct statistics. I sent letters to start-up authors, posing as a member of the investors association. I don’t need to speak exactly to whom I addressed the letters, I am sure this is not aesthetically beautiful =)
I talked about studying projects, and I’m looking for money for venture investments in order to help grow a profitable project, and thereby bring financial grace to both authors and investors. I asked one simple question. “Do you have a plan, a strategy to extract profits from the project?”
The answers surprised me, some just killed. People immediately began to tell what a wonderful project they had. Just curled me with information about what is and about the development plans of the project. But not a word about profit ... some truth was simply answered: Well, you can hang up Yandex Direct or a runner, it seems to me that there will not be enough profit.
Agree if you turned to investors, they would not be interested in what kind of thing the project will have and how well they will work. No, this is also interesting, but it must be supported by at least something.
For example, you decided to create a travel website. OK! What did they do next? What information will be posted? What are the technologies in the site engine / context? What are the earnings, context and bannerokrutilka, or own bannerokrutilka and special blocks with advertising?
You can also create a website with hotel catalogs with photo galleries and telephones and make money on the SEO + context, or you can do the same with good video and make money on pure advertising + organize the sale of tickets. These are different approaches and different budgets ... But still, it is necessary to envisage in this and that case: at the expense of what exactly will the traffic be converted into profit.
Total
As a result, I think it is worth noting that today there are still a lot of startups that just start. And that's all. And many startups, if they turn out to be without profit, will cease to be interesting for their authors and sooner or later will cease to exist.
It means that when creating a startup, you need to think about what it would be a product, and not a semi-product or a not-to-product. After 5 years, I understood why investors used to ignore my ideas and did not pay attention to my projects. That is why I worked in online stores, web studios, freelancer. But the truth is, I now understand that without financial injections, even the coolest idea is doomed to failure in implementation.
PS Play with advertising options and ways to submit a project, etc. it is possible endlessly, each project is individual and can carry so much of all that is interesting, only their authors would have the strength to implement them. This is not a how-to. These are simple thoughts on this topic.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/80963/
All Articles