Succeeding with a Start-up Part 1: Telling the Story

A new business owner’s life is filled with trials. It is one thing to start a business from scratch or to buy a business. It’s a completely different deal when you’re talking about how to get a business to fly. Unless you’ve bought an already successful business or franchise, you will now be faced with the problem of getting business in. For the next few articles, we’re going to talk about things you can do to increase the chances of boosting your business’ revenue.

Note: this article applies more to B2C (or Business to Consumer) start-up businesses. A B2B (Business to Business) set-up has a kind of different dynamic to their success.

The importance of TELLING YOUR STORY.

We live in an age that is highly social. With the advent of Social Networking Sites like Facebook and Twitter, the business game today is about making your brand relevant to the consumer. The common mistake of start-ups is that they focus on price or the features of their product/service. Now, unless you are a unique product that is doing something COMPLETELY new, your business just becomes one of the many who are making promises to the market saying “I can do this better than them”. The question then becomes “why should you matter to the people?” especially when people are more likely used to purchasing something similar that they are already familiar with. When you are deemed irrelevant by the market, your business is reduced to just “noise” amongst the thousands of other businesses out there. You need something that will make people stop, turn their heads, and say “Hey! That seems interesting. Let’s give it a shot.”

Here’s an example

SLEEPING AROUND is a business in Belgium that essentially provides lodging to customers just like a hotel. They are one of the many businesses who offer that service but what piqued the interest of many was the story behind the business. Sleeping Around provided a nicely designed room housed in a transformed shipping container which would be located in various locations in the city that customers would find through GPS directions that was given after they confirmed their booking. It was a unique experience that gave people the excitement of not exactly knowing where they were going to stay. Needless to say, a lot of people took interest.

To keep in mind

We live in a world where people don’t just purchase products, rather it’s now all about your story and the experience you provide. Take time to think about what yours can be and make your business relevant to the consumer thus making it attractive and profitable. For specifics on how you can make your business’ story compelling, you can check this article by Entrepreneur.com on Making your Brand’s Story More Compelling. So… what’s YOUR story?

About Brightblue Transition Solutions

Located on Vancouver’s North Shore we are the premier business broker in the lower mainland, contact us if you need any help buying or selling a business in the greater Vancouver or lower mainland areas.