Five tips to run a successful startup business

If you’ve recently started your own business, whether it’s for extra freedom, or you’ve just had a great business idea, here are five tips to help make it a success.

Learn that change isn’t always scary

You probably created your startup business because you had a great idea, either something completely new, or something existing that you thought you could do better than the competition.

It doesn’t always go to plan.

Maybe your idea turns out to be not so great after all, or maybe you’re just running the business in the wrong way.

It’s not necessarily a reason to close the business.

You could think about ways to change or improve your original idea, come up with a new idea, or just find better ways of running your business or motivating any members of staff you employ.

You don’t have to work 9 to 5

There’s no denying that running a startup business, or any business for that matter, is easy.

It often involves long hours of work to make your business a success.

But that doesn’t mean you have to spend incredibly long hours working every day.

Being your own boss gives you a lot of freedom.

Use that freedom to take some time off every so often to spend with your family or partake in your hobbies.

It’s especially important when you have children. They grow up quickly, and you don’t want to miss it.

You’ll probably find that when you start working after a little break you’ll have more energy and be more productive anyway.

Work hard

Okay, so this kind of contradicts the previous point, but turning a startup business into a success doesn’t happen overnight.

So when you’re not taking the occasional time off work, you need to be working hard.

Even when things aren’t going exactly as planned, you need to keep thinking of new ideas until you find something that works.

Know when things aren’t working

If you’re working hard all the time, but you’re still not seeing any signs of success around the corner, you need to figure out what isn’t working.

The quicker you notice any problems with your business or your management style, the quicker you can come up with solutions.

Try setting yourself goals based on what you want to get done, and by when.

If you’re not meeting your goals, ask yourself what you could do differently.

Be a good boss

If you hire employees, learn from all of your previous jobs.

Were any of your employers horrible to work for?

Or did you have any that were great to work with and make you love your job.

Work out what made the bad bosses bad and the good bosses good, and use it to develop your management style and make your employees love working for you.