Steps to success in the tech industry

When running a business there are a million different things that you need to focus on. And in an industry as competitive as tech, you need to be on the ball at all times. Manage your money right and keep a close eye on your business operations. Hire great staff and find a place to source your electronic component parts. Have you considered your marketing strategy? It can all seem a little overwhelming. Here are some beginner’s tips on how to grow your tech company and be a success in the market.

1. Build a product – this seems obvious, but you need to focus on building your product. The product you are selling is around 30% of the total work required long term, but lots of other priorities seem to crop up and take your focus away. Make sure you have a solid product before you let yourself stray on to other areas of the business.
2. Hire sales staff – a newer company needs to hire sales staff for where they see themselves in 12 months, not just to meet their current needs. By only hiring the basic staff required at the time you could be seriously stumping your growth as a business. Keep your vision of the future in mind.
3. Focus – every company has dual identities: services and products. To grow into a successful company, you need to focus on one as this will then go on to define every decision you make going forward.
4. Allow yourself to fail – It is important to allow for fast failures as with these failures comes the opportunity to make changes and improve. Recognise your failures and shortcomings so you can work on them and become better for it.
5. Do not compromise for one customer – trying to customize your offering to fit a specific customers’ needs can often cause a small business to collapse under the weight of it all. Do not let your early customers cause you to deviate from your vision.
6. Just dive in – Tactics dictate strategy. Too many companies are held back by continually seeking better information and putting off the decision making too long. Whether it is the product, sales or hiring, you need to value execution more than perfect information.
7. Hire customer-success people – Many companies find that they fall short after the first year or two because they have underinvested in customer success. Sales and customer headcount should be hired and matched at a one-to-one ratio. Do not fall into the trap of investing in sales without building a corresponding customer-success team.
8. Utilize technology partners – if new companies are not willing to partner with established companies, then they are missing out on opportunities to scale. You will need to compete with all the other new starters out there with the same vision and drive that you have. Doing something tangential to them, that can provide scale and attract potential customers that will help newer companies punch about their weight class.