Startup Cloud Accountants

Startup Cloud Accountants – 1st Year FOCUS

Startup cloud accountants realise that startups can be real hard work. Particularly if you don’t have funding. Lack of human resource and funding means that those involved in a start-up are likely to take on different roles while they get traction in their chosen market place. It’s well known that research shows the vast majority of businesses fail within the first 5 years.

Having been involved with a number of start ups with varying degrees of success and failure I have come to the conclusion that the following are top three things to give yourself the best chance of creating a successful business from scratch.

Knowing your WHY – this is in fact the building block for anything you do in life, not just business. Everyone has bad days from time to time, you know…. the days when the alarm clock goes off and you just don’t want to get out of bed. It’s essential to relax and recharge the batteries, but on bad days knowing and being in tune with your why is what gets you jumping out of bed and into action. When you know your WHY your actions have more impact. The following video illustrates the point, and it’s fun. Know your why Video
Marketing, Marketing Marketing – In today’s business environment who you know doesn’t fully work, it’s about who knows you. Especially true for a start-up business. To have a successful and profitable business you have to have sales. Without sales there is no business. If your target market doesn’t know what you are selling they won’t have the opportunity to buy from you. Before you start your marketing it is essential to know your target market or ideal customer, the reasons they would buy from you and your message to your ideal customer. It’s also essential to have a results driven and implementable marketing plan/strategy. There are so many ways to get your message to your target market so it’s essential to monitor and evaluate all marketing methods. Not all of them will work for you in getting sales so cull anything that doesn’t work. Having said that you do need to give marketing time to work, a 6-8 week review of your marketing activities is a good place to start. Marketing can be an expensive activity, particularly a DIY approach. My advice is to pay a professional to do it for you, but make sure you check them out first. There are lots of marketers out there that promise the world yet deliver little in terms of results. By results I mean increased sales. Having lots of hits on your website is pointless if those hits are not coming from potential customers from your ideal target customer. Marketing should be seen as an investment rather than a cost! The following link lists the various routes to market
Understand your numbers – successful entrepreneurs know the business side of their business. There is lots of research that shows a strong finance function is one of the causes of growth. Cloud accounting software such as Xero and QuickBooks will have all the functionality you need. Below are the basics of financial management.

Management accounting and management reports that compare plans with actual results is required to drive growth
Cash management and forecasting
Understanding your cost structure – Fixed Vs Variable costs

Clearly there is a lot more to consider in start ups e.g. tax planning, staffing plan, business infrastructure, but none of this matters if you don’t have clients/customers to service.