Marcus Richards
It’s hard to get your startup off the ground. You might have a great idea, but there are so many things to do before you can turn it into a legitimate business. One of the biggest challenges is ensuring that you have all of the proper investments and legal rights before you begin investing money or time into an enterprise.
1. Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is a growing concern for businesses, as evidenced by the recent log4j vulnerability that affected Java. In the last year, there have been over 1,100 reported data breaches in the United States alone; this number should give you an idea of how important it is to invest in cybersecurity.
Providers like JFrog and MSP360 have made it easier for businesses to protect their data, but it’s still important to understand what goes into cybersecurity.
Aside from being an industry necessity, securing your business from cyber threats can save you money—especially if you don’t catch them early enough. A recent study found that businesses lose $100 billion annually due to technical issues like these (that’s about $19 million per day). However, investing in cybersecurity can help prevent these losses and protect your company’s reputation and bottom line when done correctly and efficiently.
2. Marketing
Marketing is the backbone of every successful business. It brings new customers to your door and is also the driving force behind business growth.
The problem, however, is that many startups are too eager to dive into product development without considering how they will market their products or services in a way that drives sales and revenue. This can be a fatal mistake that leads to failure or an unnecessary delay in success.
Marketing isn’t just something you do after launch—it should be an ongoing process throughout the entire startup lifecycle. As you grow, your marketing strategy will also have to evolve; as your company changes, so should your approach towards communicating its value to potential customers.
3. Funding
Funding is the first and most crucial step for a startup, but it can also be very confusing to navigate. First, you must decide whether you need funding to grow your business. If so, how much? And how do you go about finding funding?
Funding comes in all shapes and sizes:
- Personal savings – if you don’t want outside investment or loans but want to take an interest in your company’s success and growth, this could be an option.
- Angel investors – high-net-worth individuals who invest their money into startups they believe in with hopes of earning a return on their investment down the road.
- Venture capitalists (VCs) – investors who work exclusively with venture capital firms and invest large sums of money into promising young businesses (often as much as $10 million). VCs look for businesses with solid teams with proven track records of success doing similar things before (i.e., founder experience). They also like companies that are solving big problems that customers care about enough to pay for solutions built by startups like yours!
4. Platforms
Platforms are a powerful tool for startups to get off the ground. Platforms allow you to reach more customers, get feedback from them, and find new employees and partners.
Here are some of the most important platforms that startups should consider:
- Customer development platform: This online survey tool allows you to conduct customer research on your product to gain insights into how people want it designed or what features they’d like added. This can be used as part of an ideation phase or during beta testing of your product/service.
- Recruitment platform: A recruitment platform connects you with potential candidates by ensuring that you’re posting jobs in the same place (rather than having separate job boards). It will also post job descriptions and other details about what kind of person would best suit each position at different companies.
- Marketplace platform: A marketplace allows users from different companies across different industries to collaborate on projects together—for example, designing an app for iOS devices together would require two different vendors who have expertise in both iOS programming and Android programming; however, if these vendors were using a marketplace platform like Toptal then they could share this work between them without needing any further communication outside of their contract terms (which could also include payment terms).
5. Accounting and Legal Assistance
Accounting is a critical component of your startup, but it’s also one of the most crucial areas to get right from the beginning. You want to be sure you have reliable financial reports, an accurate understanding of your cash flow, and good visibility into how you’re spending money. The best way to do this is by using accounting software that provides clear dashboards and easy reporting options.
Accounting software will help you keep track of expenses, manage payroll, and file taxes on time — in fact, these three things alone can save your business thousands in penalties over time!
Conclusion
There are so many different investments that startups can make, but these five are some of the best ones to consider. Making these investments will help your business grow and get more customers, which is what every startup wants.
