At Founderli, our passion is transforming ideas into successful businesses, we achieve this through a structured, strategic, and replicable approach.
Here's an in-depth look into our methodology, complemented with actionable advice and insights to guide you through each step of your implementation and execution.
Step 1: Business Strategy
Strategic planning for success
This is often an overlooked step - "I've got a good idea, what else could I need?". The truth is, that every successful business starts with a well-thought-out strategy. At Founderli, we utilise the concept of developing a one-page business plan.
This concise document should outline your core offering, the principle idea behind your business, and should be in the simplest terms possible. Similar to the movie Inception, for an idea to take hold, you have to drill down to the core principle of the idea, its simplest version. Do that but for your business proposition.
It's essential to define your business's mission, vision, goals, and values. It should also highlight your target market, the unique value proposition (UVP), and the business model clearly.
It's equally key to highlight the assumptions you are making that have to be true for your business to succeed. For example, the key assumption Amazon made was that people would buy books online. Before Amazon, this was an assumption, and it had to be true for Amazon to achieve success.
And there's plenty more examples...
Uber - people would order a taxi through an app
Airbnb - people would let strangers into their home & people would sleep in a stranger's home
The list is endless. If your business is truly unique (which it should be), then you must be making some assumptions that have to be true for your business to achieve success.
Engage in brainstorming sessions to explore various business ideas and refine your concept. Focus on innovation and differentiation to stand out in the market. Utilise strategic tools like SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) to assess the industry and make informed decisions.
A fantastic resource to consult is "Blue Ocean Strategy" by Renée Mauborgne to help you identify opportunities for creating an uncontested market space and avoid competition altogether.
Your resulting one-page business plan should act as your guide when executing the later steps.
Step 2: Branding & Design
Bringing your business to life
Branding is much more than just a logo; it's the entire visual and emotional experience of your business. If you're not a professional designer then you should work with a professional for this step.
For most consumers (even if they don't admit it) branding makes a huge difference to their buying decisions. While we know we shouldn't, we do buy books by their cover, we do buy shampoo based on the font, we do buy beer based on the label design, and we do buy games based on their colours.
In such a fast-paced world - we don't have much choice to base our decisions on anything else. So you need your business to stand out and stand out in the right way to get the attention it deserves.
The logo is the face of your brand. It should be simple, memorable, and reflective of your brand's personality. Collaborate with professional designers (like the ones we have available) to create a logo that resonates with your intended target audience.
Your brand identity encompasses both the personal elements of your brand (its voice, its messaging) and the visual elements of your brand, such as colour schemes, typography, and imagery.
The result is referred to as 'brand guidelines' or a 'CVI' (cooperate visual identity) which ensures a cohesive look and feel across all marketing materials and platforms.
This is a creatively technical step and therefore it needs a professional touch.
Step 3: Launch Development
Turning your business idea into reality
The launch phase is where your business transitions from concept to reality. At Founderli, we focus on developing a robust foundation for your business, largely inspired by principles from "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries.
You need to develop a minimum viable product (MVP) to test your business with real customers.
Using your one-page business plan from step 1, you will have the simplest description of your core business proposition, alongside all of the assumptions you're making that need to be true to achieve success. This gives you your blueprint for your MVP, all you need to do is prove or disprove your assumptions to validate your business idea.
Develop, gather feedback, pivot, iterate, refine, repeat - validate. That's it, no need to overcomplicate, you just need to find out if your business idea is going to work in the real world. And you need to find out as soon as possible, speed is key.
Every MVP is different, but generally, a single landing page website is an effective MVP to see if you can generate any signals of interest (leads) for your business.
Your website should be user-friendly, responsive, optimised for search engines, and have high-quality copywriting that communicates your business's value proposition effectively to drive conversions.
You want to rule out any possible reason why your target audience would not be interested in your business, other than the business proposition itself.
You're aiming to prove or disprove your business idea, you don't want the reason your business didn't work to be down to something else, like the branding or the copywriting or the logo, etc. So it's important to get those bits right.
For a landing page MVP you'll need to secure a professional domain name and set up a business email address to establish credibility and professionalism. (Again, you don't want someone turning away from your business because you used @gmail.com)
Step 4: Growth Marketing
Accelerating your business growth
Once your business is launched and validated, the focus shifts to growth. The growth marketing plan we offer is intentionally designed to drive lead generation and sales.
We use strategies and insights from all over, but if you are tackling this step by yourself then we recommend using "Traction" by Gabriel Weinberg as your primary source of advice.
To do this step well, you need a good strategy behind you. We advise creating a one-page marketing plan that outlines your marketing goals, target audience, key strategies to reach that audience, and brainstormed initiatives you think will have the biggest impact on your business. Check out our blog post on free marketing strategies you can use to drive business growth.
This one-page marketing plan will begin to shape your first custom marketing campaigns tailored to your business.
In executing these strategies, you should test the various channels you believe will work best. Then, using data-driven insights, you can optimise your campaigns for maximum impact and see which channels are the most effective for your business.
As soon as you figure out which channel is the most effective, you need to concentrate all of your available resources on that one strategy to maximise the growth of your business.
Conclusion
Starting a business requires a strategic approach, professional branding, effective development, and growth-driven marketing. At Founderli, we guide you through each step so you can navigate the entrepreneurial journey with confidence and clarity.
Stay committed to your vision, be adaptable, and continuously seek improvement.
Remember, the path to success is filled with challenges, but with the right strategy, determination, and execution, you can build a thriving business.
Kieran
Founderli CEO, Founder.
