Feb 7
8 simple tips to grow your startup
As you know, building a startup is tough.
In this article I share some critical tips for any entrepreneur wanting to grow their startup.
Be persistent
Never stop. Keep going at it. Keep chipping away at your goals, keep working on your startup and keep building the life you want to live!
Recognise that it’s going to be unbelievably tough but you can achieve anything with enough determination.
Be passionate
As an entrepreneur, you have to love what you do. Show your passion and radiate energy to everyone around you, particularly your team.
That is how you motivate people to follow your mission — by being the person who loves what they do, always has a smile on their face and offers solutions for any issues.
Work hard
Goes without saying. If you want to achieve anything, particularly something as challenging as building a startup, you have to work hard — that often means long hours with little reward.
Take breaks
However, working hard absolutely does not mean that you give yourself no time to rest. Block out time to take a break — watch a film, enjoy your friends and family, work on a hobby, passion project or something that relaxes you.
One of the biggest mistakes for entrepreneurs is working non-stop even on the weekends. Make a clear distinction between your personal and business life and establish clear boundaries.
The best way to learn is to do
Learn by doing. You can read all the books, listen to all the podcasts and watch all the videos you want, but it is only by doing that you will truly learn.
Being thrown in the deep end can be utterly terrifying — trust me, I’ve experienced it a lot, but that is how you learn fastest. With enough pressure, you can learn anything. And sometimes that’s what it takes to give you the boost you need to learn something.
Be patient + consistent
It takes a long time of dedicated, consistent work to build your startup. It’s not going to be instant success. As Eddie Cantor famously puts it,
“It takes 20 years to make an overnight success.”
Anything worth doing takes a long time.
Take calculated risks
By all means, take risks, but always be cautious. Do not do crazy things without thinking about the consequences.
A great way to manage risks you take is talking to others and asking them for their thoughts. Sometimes we become so caught up in an amazing idea that we need to be reigned in by someone else.
This is what so often happens to me — I think of an awesome idea and then I ask someone about it and they instantly shoot it down, asking me who would ever use it. I am so in awe about how great an idea is that I forget to ask myself — is anyone actually going to use this?
You can have the best idea in the world but if no one wants it, it’s not going to work.
Don’t be afraid to fail
I’m writing here on Medium and honestly I have no idea what will happen. It might take me years of producing articles weekly to reach a few hundred followers. All I know is that I’m enjoying the journey and writing about topics that interest me.
If you learned anything from this article, I would hugely appreciate a follow (Charles Calzia), some claps and / or shares.
Thank you for reading and good luck with your startup or whatever else you’re working on!
