India has the distinguished honour of being in the top 5 countries in the world for innovative startups. There have been many recent startups in India that have mastered the art of expansion in every type of business from food to community. The booming growth and economic power add steam to this tidal wave of innovation. However, companies need more than money to appropriately and successfully scale up new businesses.
Steps to Success: Build a Brand
One of the most important aspects of growing a business is building a recognisable brand. Startups often begin with a fantastic idea that could change the landscape of business, but without a recognisable logo and value structure, the company is unlikely to drive forward into a larger entity.
Wow!Momo is a perfect example of branding. Their logo is instantly recognisable, even from a distance, immediately attracting attention and attracting customers. This may seem like a difficult task, but there are companies available that can assist you in building a strong, visible brand. Don’t be afraid to outsource!
Steps to Success: Market Targeting
If you have a great product or company, customers are sure to quickly and easily find out about you, right? Wrong! To properly scale up a business, you need to reach out and find more customers. To find new customers, you conduct market targeting. Market targeting will help find your consumer base and let them know your company exists. Successful targeting can bring in new clients by the thousands giving your business the foundation it needs to grow.
Batman Delivers an ideal example of a company with targeted marketing. Using a darker superhero image plays well to the late night video gaming crowd who would use their anytime delivery service. Do you know how to approach market targeting? If not, there are consulting companies (often the same ones that can help with the brand building) that can help you achieve good marketing.
Steps to Success: Finding Talent
One of the most challenging aspects of growing a business and scaling up production is finding and hiring the proper talent. With good people, your business could grow exponentially through the application of skills. The main trouble is finding those people. There are a great many options for finding talented people but if you don’t have the expertise or the time, consider using a specialised company to do it for you.
Steps to Success: Social Media
Nowadays, social media can be either a hindrance or help to scaling up your business. Social media can provide a broad audience and customer base, but if your company is poorly represented, the word can spread quickly.
The key to social media is a polished presence. PassItOn is an excellent example of a company that has a strong social media presence. They have great looking photos and videos and stay connected with their audience. There are many consultants available if you aren’t tech savvy but the most important part of social media is to make sure you’re engaged with people.
Steps to Success: Networking
While social media can lead you directly to the customer, networking can lead you to expansion opportunities. If you are creating a product, proper networking can lead you to stores that could carry your product. Likewise, a service provided well to one company is often recommended to other businesses.
This can be one of the hardest steps to complete when scaling up your business. What do you do if you don’t have industry contacts? Find a company that does! There are consultants out there whose sole purpose is to help network your product to larger companies. Another approach could be to use professional networking sites such as LinkedIn, but cold calls are often ignored when this method is taken.
Conclusion
When looking to scale up and grow your business in India, look beyond funding. Funding is a good start but to be truly successful you will need a strong foundation of support in talent, marketing, branding, and networking.
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