Thousands of new startups emerge every year. Sure, that’s a lot, but it’s ridiculously small compared to the hundreds of millions of ideas people generate in just months.

Most ideas die even before they hit the track, either as a result of poor funding to kickstart or the fear of running losses once the business starts. The latter is even more significant owing to the number of startup failures recorded yearly.

However, every innovative idea deserves to see the light. And when you know your way around the market, scaling your idea into the next viral product like Apple’s iPhone or a service like Paypal becomes easy.

In this article, we will discuss 7 major steps to turn your innovative idea into a successful startup in 2024 and record booming adoption.

Brainstorm An Idea and Validate

To own a successful startup, it all begins with your idea. If it’s a fluff-filled idea with little to no public value, then you can consider it a failed one already. Every idea is inherently born to solve a problem, not to replicate an existing business out there.

So, you have to ask:

What problems do I want to solve?
Are there other solutions that people can use more effectively already?
Is there a gap still left unfilled despite the availability of other solutions?

Identifying the problem you want to solve also shapes the template of your idea and ensures its main aim is to provide answers to people’s queries, solve their problems, and relieve their pain points. In a simple way, your idea should help people with their jobs to be done (JTBD).

Once you have an idea that meets all the above criteria, the next step is to confirm its demand and market supply. This gives you a heads-up on whether to hop on the wagon or brainstorm another idea.

If there is a tangible market demand, move on to validate that people really want the solution your idea is bringing. You can do this by sending out surveys to your audience, friends, and families using SurveyMonkey or Zoho Survey. See if they would love the solution you’re providing or if someone else is already serving them all you have to offer.

Note that it’s okay to have multiple ideas at once. Validate each of them till you get the most viable idea.

Create a Business Plan

A business plan comprehensively covers all the marketing roadmaps, operational, and financial strategies to achieve your startup goals. This also includes an executive summary of everything about your proposed business and an insider risk management plan to mitigate operational crises.

To build one, you need to identify and analyze your target market first. It’s important to know how competitive the market is, the saturation level, and overall demand. Knowing who your competitors are will also influence your final marketing and operational strategies.

After conducting market analysis, define your marketing objectives—a set of steps to achieve your goals—and the roles crucial to each objective. This includes:

Executive Roles: CEO, COO, CFO, CTO
Product Development Roles: Product Manager, UX/UI Designer, Software Engineer/Developer
Marketing and Sales Roles: CMO, Marketing Manager, Sales Manager, Business Development Manager
Operations Roles: Operations Manager, Customer Support Manager, Supply Chain Manager
Finance and Legal Roles: Controller, Accountant, Legal Counsel/Attorney
Human Resources Roles: HR Manager, Recruiter, Talent Acquisition Specialist
Administrative Roles: Office Manager, Executive Assistant, Administrative Assistant

In addition, you should iron out your marketing approach, outline the appropriate channels critical to connecting with your target audience, define risks associated with your operations, and highlight details on funding, including how to onboard potential investors.

Build a Strong Team And Secure Funding

Once you’ve figured out all the roles you need to keep your startup functional, you can start deciding on the requirements for their recruitment. For a startup, working with freelancers will particularly help you save costs, so you should keep that in mind.

Use the best digital business card for entrepreneurs to create a professional network that will springboard your business to success.

Look for events relevant to the industry, attend them, and share your digital business card with attendees to start a conversation. Here is our sales professionals email follow-up guide to help you get ahead of the competition.

That aside, when building your team, consider their experience and expertise level. Intermediate expertise is preferable, provided that they have matching experience for the role.

As regards funding, the best source is yourself. And that’s because you’ll have total control over your business—of course, you’ll also bear the brunt of any loss yourself.

If you don’t have sufficient savings, you need to source funds from different routes like:

Family and friends: This is highly beneficial and often comes with low or no interest rates. However, it can lead to strained relationships, especially if the business fails or if you repay late.

Crowdfunding: This involves using donation platforms like GoFundMe. There’s no significant disadvantage but you need a good pitch to actually get people interested. So, it might take too long, and it might not yield results at all.

Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping involves using your own savings to start the business and then use the revenue generated to maintain its operation. If you love the slow and steady growth idea, this is ideal.

Small Business Administration (SBA) loans: SBAs are similar to bank loans, but they are mediated by a government board. In the US, that’s the US Small Business Administration department. However, the application process is lengthy, and there are strict requirements to get in.

Bank loans: Banks sometimes stand in as lenders and borrow small to large lumps of money. If you have a steady source of income for repayment, this is a great alternative. Otherwise, your new business might not be able to sustain its repayment, which often comes with huge interest. Using a business loan calculator can help you estimate your repayment options and manage your finances better.

Grants: Grants are offered by the government and institutions for business ideas that are potentially relevant to the country’s or institution's economy and growth. There is very high competition for these grants, but they are rewarding if you’re able to secure one.

During the brainstorming phase, it's essential to consider various ways to overcome financial barriers. For entrepreneurs questioning available funding options without worrying about credit checks, checking out the top online loans for 2024 can provide effective solutions.

You need to consider each option based on risk, interests, and how fast you can get them. As a rule of thumb, don’t borrow from family and friends unless you’re very sure you can repay them, regardless of your business outcome.

Develop Your Product or Service

Now that you have your plan and a team in place, build a minimum-viable product (MVP). It is not the final product, but that’s enough to gauge the reaction from your target market. Secondly, you only spend a fraction of the cost it’ll take to build a full product.

Release the MVP to only a set of people or users. Most startups call this phase the Beta stage or testing phase. The testers are responsible for using your product in their day-to-day activities, finding bugs and deficiencies, and reporting back on things you should change.

Their usage activity is also beneficial for assessing your operational capacity.

Working with an MVP development company can help you efficiently bring your idea to market by developing a minimum viable product that incorporates core features and addresses user needs.

Your product testers can be outsiders, workers, or family and friends. The last two are cost-efficient, but their reports might be biased and unnecessarily conservative. So, it’s best to use them together with strangers or third-party product testing agencies.

Use the feedback collected to improve your MVP. Reiterate until you get a final product.

Create a Marketing Strategy

Marketing is all about bringing your product or services to your audience’s doorstep. An effective marketing strategy highlights how you will achieve this goal.

First off, collect more details on your target audience. We’ve done that when brainstorming and validating our ideas. But you need more details like:

Their browsing and past purchase behavior.
The social channels they often visit or use.
Income from demographic data.
Location and cultural preferences.

These data will give you an idea of which channels to use when promoting your product or services and the various tactics to ensure maximum engagement. For instance, if your audience spends more time on Facebook, that is the most appropriate place to direct most of your promotions.

More importantly, consider implementing systems that send purchase orders to QuickBooks can help manage expenses efficiently as your startup grows.

Afterward, develop a unique value proposition. This is a statement telling people what benefits they get from using your business solution, and it separates you from competitors.

You also need to choose a preferred marketing channel. Primarily, we have content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, pay-per-click advertising, and podcast advertising.

But if you ask us, we’d advise using all. Omnichannel marketing generates 80% more store visits compared to a single marketing approach. Of course, you can start with one channel and gradually scale up as you acquire more resources.

Build Your Brand Identity And Launch The Product

Brand identity is how people see or perceive your business—whether as a sassy and playful type like Duolingo or a more formal type like Hubspot. It’s important to first figure out which impression you want your customers to form concerning your business. Once set in stone, a brand identity is almost impossible to change. So, you have to take your time with it.

To build your brand identity:

Define a brand mission that portrays what you want people to see you as.
Create a memorable logo and visual elements.
Ensure consistency of colors, typography, and imagery across all channels.
Establish brand guidelines for consistent use.
Craft a compelling brand story and messaging.
Build a strong online presence on your website and social media platforms.

At the same time, launch your final product. You can do this via a product launch conference/webinar, influencer announcements, or promotional campaigns. Launch conferences and events will help acquire initial leads, so place it on your tab.

Scale Your Startup And Proactively Overcome Challenges

The wheels are rolling already. But it doesn’t just end there. You need to constantly seek out growth opportunities, build your business network, and proactively seek to improve your solutions.

Collect feedback continuously in order to effectively upgrade your offerings and meet your customers’ needs. You can also learn one or two from your competitors’ strategies.

Find out what’s working for them and see if you can apply the same. Create a professional email signature and add a link to the feedback form to enable email recipients easily submit reviews. You should also leverage their weakness to gain an edge in the market.

Conclusion

The difference between a failed startup and a successful business is how they execute and manage their ideas. So, it’s not just enough to have an idea. You need an appropriate execution plan and marketing strategies to ensure its success.

First, brainstorm and validate your ideas by ensuring they solve a problem that is in high demand. Create a business plan to guide your execution, build a strong team for this purpose, and secure funding.

Afterward, develop an MVP for initial-stage testing, reiterate, and improve it for a final product. Lastly, create a marketing strategy, build your brand identity and presence, launch the product, network with other industry leaders by using your digital business card, and scale your startup.