Ten tips to startup success

Local Brisbane Entrepreneur Phillip Di Bella joined us last week in the Labs to share his startup journey over the past 10 years. Like most entrepreneurs we hear about the most recent successes, yet miss the early stories of how it all began.

Phil's journey began in Brisbane just over ten years ago with only $5000, a whole lot of passion and hard work. One key takeaway that we all got from the session was that there is nothing that Di Bella Coffee does now as a global business that it didn't do back in the beginning with a team of two. Customer service is everything, as is  quality product and consistency, and the company's focus has always been on those three things. The first 5 years are key to laying the foundations on which to build an empire.

Phil's visit to River City Labs was part of our  "Enterpreneur's Story" series of events for startups. The list he has shared with us below - 'Top Ten Tips to Startup Success' is something he has applied to every venture to date and continues to develop new ideas on.

TEN TIPS TO STARTUP SUCCESS 

By Phillip Di Bella – Di Bella Coffee

START FAST 

Launching a start-up venture on little capital helps BRW Fast Starters to get to market faster and capitalise on emerging opportunities.  They don’t waste months writing fancy business plans and even longer trying to raise capital.

START LEAN

Minimising fixed costs helps get traction in tough markets and survive aggressive price competition from large players faced with weakening demand.

FOCUS ON A NICHE

Smart start-up entrepreneurs usually focus on niche markets and provide higher levels of service than big competitors.  Fast Starters do it even better.

ADAPT

It begins with building and maintaining an organisational culture that thrives on change and where staff rise to the challenge of volatile, unpredictable markets.  Being able to turn quickly and implement new strategies helps fast starters survive when markets turn against them.

CUSTOMER-LED INNOVATION

Recent start-ups are giving customers more control in product or service design and letting them have their say through social media channels, which in turn provide more comments to guide product design.

INNOVATE THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Many think of innovation in new product or process terms. Yet innovating the customer experience can be just as powerful. Fast starters see technology as an enabler to give customers what they want.

COMPETE ON SERVICE AND PRICE

Start-up entrepreneurs often compete on service rather than price because they lack economies of scale to take on industry incumbents.  Thanks to technology, more are competing with big players on service and price.

CREATE YOUR OWN MARKET SPACE

The most impressive fast starters combine elements of different industries and find their own market space – for example, furniture design and online retailing doing so, they create barriers to entry and build hard-to-replicate asset.

THINK LONG TERM

Traditional entrepreneurial thinking suggests successful start-up ventures start with the end in mind, always thinking about their “strategy” and sale to a bigger rival. But many other fast starters think years ahead, reinvest profits and focus on achieving a huge goal.

EXECUTE BRILLIANTLY

Fast starters are often praised for their clever ideas. Yet the real strength is their ability to implement good ideas and focus on the daily detail. US technology giant Apple, for example, is lauded for its great ideas bust less considered is its incredible ability to organise the manufacture and distribution of millions of pieces of electronic equipment worldwide each year.