taxHow to Speed Up Your Website (The Optimization Tips)
Communication with the users and their rankings in search engines depends on the site’s response speed. This is reflected in targeted traffic, conversion rates, and profitability. Learn how to speed up your website and increase income.
Why Does Site Speed Matter?
Sites of any type need to speed uploading – from simple information pages to e-commerce stores. It affects not only a positive user experience, the likelihood of re-accessing an Internet resource, ordering, but also the effectiveness of SEO. Search engine algorithms will not allow sites with low-speed indicators to be brought to the TOP.
The Faster The Site Loads, The Better The Conversion Is
According to Google statistics, a user most often leaves the site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. The vast majority of users (79%) do not revisit a slow site. Just one extra second of download reduces conversions by an average of 7%. And the less time the user spends waiting for the site to load, the higher the conversion is. At the same time, it is crucial for both desktop and mobile devices. About 85% of mobile users expect the same speed as when browsing on a PC. If the users’ expectations of a website loading speed are not met, then they leave.
What Does The Download Speed Affect
A slow website loading speed on desktop or mobile devices causes the following consequences listed below.
- Losing customers: it is easier for the user to return to the search engine and go to the next site in the list than to wait.
- Decreasing conversion: every second of download intensifies user experience.
- A negative user experience: it reduces the likelihood of re-purchase by 60%.
It is imperative to know how to speed up the site’s loading and increase its competitiveness and attractiveness for users.
Search Engines Penalize Websites That Load Slowly
Loading speed affects not only behavioral factors but also positions in search engine results. The deterioration in the site’s ranking occurs due to the long loading, which does not allow the search engine robot to index it fully. As a result, the SEO efficiency decreases. This is a fairly common problem when website owners and unscrupulous “SEO specialists” spend much time, effort, and money on promotion. But without the fast work of the web resource itself, the search results’ position will not get off the ground.
How Fast Should The Website Load
Regardless of the website type – it must load quickly on any device. Ideally, the site needs a second to load. Other indicators can be characterized as follows:
- 2-3 seconds – average, with minimal losses in conversion;
- 4-7 seconds – needs improvement;
- 8-10 – threatening, it is necessary to carry out serious work to accelerate;
- 11 or more – immediate optimization is required.
Website Loading Speed Indicators
The speed depends on several factors:
Server | Visible |
Server response time | HTML code |
CMS | Number and size of images |
User location | Scope of JS and CSS files |
Server problems can be solved by optimizing the tariff or changing the hosting. Also, when choosing a server location, you need to consider the geography of the target audience. You cannot neglect to change the server if its performance is low. In most cases, the “relocation” work does not affect access to the site and is carried out unnoticed.
Visible parts of the site are the number of materials that a user needs to download to open the site and display all its content. By optimizing the size and volume of downloaded information, you can reduce the waiting time for a full download.
Five Tools To Check A Website Speed
To check the performance of the site yourself, you can use several tools:
- PageSpeed Insights is a Google tool that allows you to monitor and generate reports on desktop and mobile devices. This tool provides personalized advice on how to speed up your site. Although the reports are not very accurate, they can draw up a work plan for optimization.
- GTMetrix is a tool that helps control response time in many ways. It provides such subtle characteristics as geolocation, browser. It gives sensible recommendations and indicates vulnerabilities, shows ways to eliminate problems. Learning to use this tool is time-consuming, but it is possible to make progress with it.
- WebPageTest is suitable for an in-depth analysis. However, the service reports’ complexity and the English-language interface create specific difficulties in working with it. It’s fair to say that it produces the most accurate results across the entire domain.
- Pingdom is a more straightforward free interface to use. However, it is not distinguished by an abundance of functions.
- Load Impact is a tool for performing load testing of a website. All of these tools test only the frontend, while Load Impact works with the backend as well.
10 Ways To Speed Up Your Website
Testing with multiple tools will provide a realistic picture of response time. Correction of most of the defects in the site does not require special skills and knowledge. However, the part of the optimization related to changes in the code still needs a professional approach. Below we list the key issues affecting loading and tips on speeding up your site.
1. Reducing The Size of The HTML Code
Code has a lot to do with the speed: large files make the browser consume resources to render the site. To optimize your code, you need to remove everything you don’t need.
Clearing the code can be done in 2 ways: manually or with additional software. The second method is faster, and its use does not imply the use of layout skills. Before optimization, it is recommended to make a backup of the documents. Daruse will help with optimization, compressing the code without breaking the function. The Better WordPress Minify plugin optimizes WordPress sites.
2. Optimizing Images
Most of the web resources are overloaded with images. About 45% of the resources involved in loading the site are allocated to process graphic elements. You can optimize the graphic part by compressing images using cloud-based tools – Compressor or Kraken or using a set of plugins included in the CMS, enabling massive optimization of all images.
3. Using Web-Adapted Formats
WebP and JPEG offer high image quality at a small size. The disadvantages of using such formats are that not all browsers support them, and not all search engines index them.
4. Implementation of The Lazy Loading Mechanism for Images
It is a method for deferring an image’s loading until the visitor has scrolled to it. You can quickly implement this system on the CMS with the A3 Lazy Load plugin.
5. Deactivating Unnecessary Plugins
Resources on the CMS have one indisputable advantage – the presence of all kinds of plugins that expand the Internet resource’s functionality. However, this advantage also has a “dark side”: webmasters often lose control over themselves because the prospect of increasing functionality is very tempting. Simultaneously, server resources are still consumed for plugins work, so sooner or later, this affects the download speed. To improve performance, you have to find and disable unnecessary plugins or upgrade the server itself.
6. Configuring Client Caching
This method allows the browser to save data on the user’s computer without accessing it each time. The client caching mechanism can significantly increase the download speed. It can be configured with plugins or a .htaccess file.
7. Gzip Compression
This mechanism is server-side caching. Gzip compression can reduce the amount of data sent to the user by 50-70%. This mechanism can be enabled in the following ways:
- By editing .htacces. Inclusion occurs by injecting code into the webserver configuration. The provider should be consulted to agree on a suitable syntax before making any changes.
- By plugin injection. For WordPress, it is better to use GZip Ninja Speed Compression.
- Through cPanel.
Gzip compression is the easiest and fastest way to speed up your work, but it is CPU intensive. Therefore, you should think about the rationality of its inclusion and also consult with the provider.
8. Setting Up AMP Pages on Google
Google has been using the Mobile-First Indexing method for a long time; therefore, the main focus is on the mobile version when ranking search results. Hence, SEO for AMP pages is implemented by creating separate mobile versions of pages and linking them to the main ones. Google provides an official guide on that topic.
9. Creation of Turbo Pages with Yandex
Using a special technology allows you to accelerate the download speed up to 15 times. This technology is a must for any project, but it is highly recommended for sites with optimization problems for mobile devices. The technology of creating turbo pages with Yandex is also described in their official guide.
10. Moving Video Content to External Platforms
Using video materials allows you to add value to the website and motivate its visitors. More than 60% of users decide to purchase products after watching a presentation video. Besides, the video allows you to extend the time spent on the site and reduce rejection likelihood. However, using it slows down the load and increases the load on the server. And with low bandwidth equipment, the video itself can start to slow down and sink for a long time. This will definitely reduce the quality of the content presentation. Therefore, it is better to post video materials on a third-party hosting – YouTube or Vimeo, and then add them to your page.
Using CDN
CDNs are content delivery networks and interconnected infrastructure of physical servers that cache and store site content in different parts of the world. This solves the problem of the user’s geographic remoteness. Such a network is necessary for sites that are not georeferenced.
Summary of Speeding Up A WordPress Website
In addition to the above methods, there is a whole set of methods and tools to speed up your WordPress site:
- Using a robust framework/theme. Standard WordPress themes are light and fast.
- Using Prefetch.
- Removing Query Strings from static resources.
- Optimization of DB, Web fonts, Font Awesome icons.
- Minification and merging of CSS and Javascript.
- Reducing the number of Misc HTTP requests.
- Disabling hot clicking, pingbacks, and trackbacks.
- Speeding up admin-ajax.php.
- Setting up MySQL.
- Choosing a good hosting.
Combining these methods of speeding up the resource work will significantly reduce the load time.
Conclusion
Site loading speed is the most important parameter, affecting both the site’s behavioral indicators (time spent on the site, conversions) and reaching the TOP of Yandex and Google. As great as a project is, slow loading can negate all efforts to develop and promote it.
Even 10 years ago, offline business flourished and owners sincerely believed that spending money on a website was unnecessary and meaningless. Perhaps, they were right in some measure. However, in 2020, we can bravely say that any type of business must have a website! Before creating a website, you need to ask yourself: what is the specific goal of using website? Goals can be different: realization of a product or service, advertising a brand or product, promotion of a trade mark, raise of sales level. This determines what kind of website will be useful for your business, what should be its structure and content. After answering those questions, you can begin to implement website project. Why, for what and which website is better to develop for your business, we will describe in detail in this article. Here you’ll find answers to your questions.
Main Tasks That Website Can Solve
To make it clear, that a website is not a magic wand that solves all problems with one wave. Website will not start selling for you and attract customers only by its existence and competitors will not lay down their swords in front of your feet because you launched a website. With a probability of 97% they have it too. A website does not solve all tasks and it can become the main or additional way to attract customers. But it may not. There are many reasons: the very first, of course, a product or service that you sell, prices, and quality of a website.
We will present a perfect option: a product or service is competitive, and a website is of high quality and made by professionals. So, and in this case it will solve all of the following tasks.
Attraction of new customers
A website makes it possible to find you online by request. A web search engine collects queries of users with the name of your company. For example, a person saw something about your company. The first thing he/she will do is fill in a request to Google. And if there is a website, then this user will immediately go to it, and you can give all information he/she needs. It will work for you and this user will probably become your customer. Well, if there is no a website, it is impossible to find anything about you in a web search engine, in that case your competitors will be found there quickly and this customer will go to them.
After launching a website, you will have new advertising opportunities. Firstly, website promotion: contextual advertising, SEO promotion, etc. Secondly, many additional tools have appeared to attract customers: targeted advertising, email distribution, etc. It will become much easier to notify customers about promotions and discounts. And all results are easy to analyze, because you can see:
- statistics of visits;
- online shopping;
- quantity of orders.
For studying visitors, for better understand interests and preferences of potential customers on a website, you can do polls, questionnaires or contests.
I will tell you my recent experience and show you how website is good for attracting new customers. It is truly said that laziness is the mother of progress. We certainly forgot about telephone books and yellow pages that are gathering dust on shelves. People do not spend a lot of time for search of information – the Internet will answer all questions. It also happened to me. Favorite running shoes have fallen into disrepair. It was a pity to throw them away, but their color faded long ago. I typed in a web search engine “shoe chemical cleaning west end district” and followed the first link. The prices were not the most democratic, but they came to my house, took my running shoes, and then brought back them. It was minimal waste of time. And a week later, walking in these running shoes, after a couple of houses I saw an inconspicuous sign of chemical cleaning of shoes, where prices were lower and would have done faster. But they do not have a website, they do not spend money on advertising – people simply do not know about them.
It works with any sphere of business: from a bakery to a medical center.
Retention of customers and repeat sales
If you do not communicate with a customer, it will be more difficult to retain a customer. Online chats help answer questions from a user who does not like talking on a phone. Testimonials section will help people express their emotions about a purchase. Ability to comment on product pages.
Such functions give the necessary information about the customer: name, contact information, preferences. This will allow you to collect a customer base, handle objections, create a loyalty program, etc.
Distribution of information for customers
Sales times, price changes, product updates? How will a customer find out about this if there is no information? Calling everyone is a long time, but putting information on a website is quickly and accessibly.
Increasing brand or product loyalty and awareness
Earlier, to promote a brand it was necessary to turn to mass media for help: radio, newspapers, television. Today, the greater percentage of the population goes to the Internet, so advertising become more popular there. A high-quality website will help show a product or services in a favorable light and employees can correctly release from negative, because well-developed functionality of a website will give an additional opportunity to work with customers.
Optimization of processes
An online store a user can make purchases 24/7 without being bound to work of a manager. Maximally filled characteristics of goods or services, payment and delivery processes make it possible to buy without consultation, work with objections and complaints.
How to determine that website solve its tasks?
You can find out whether a website is beneficial or you have wasted time and money by the following signs:
- sales and profits are growing;
- quantity of potential customers is increasing – they have not bought anything yet, but have left their contact details.
If after creation of a website there were no changes for the better, then it did not cope with its tasks. It is necessary to solve this problem – to integrate website analytics, ensure website promotion and revise structure and content.
What Types Of Business Websites Are There?
Thanks to a website you can develop your business more conveniently and efficiently. But in order for it to be functional and structured, it needs to decide in advance what kind of a website is right for you. There are two main characteristics:
- technical, how it is made, on which platform;
- for its intended purpose, for what purpose a website is made.
Within those characteristics websites divided into subspecies. In this article, we will focus on classification of websites for their intended purpose and consider the most common. And in order to determine a purpose, you need to answer questions that will help you choose the desired type:
- What are the goals of your website?
- What problems do you want to solve with help of a website?
- Who are your main competitors online?
- What budget are you ready to spend for development?
- How much time is necessary to make a website?
Business Card Website
This type of a website is suitable for a small business, individual entrepreneurs that selling goods or services. It has only a few sections and a dozen of pages that contain all information for getting to know this business.
Content of website:
- information about company — when was established, line of business;
- goods and services — price list and characteristics;
- contacts — telephone, address, feedback;
- photo/video — gallery of goods, office, employees and etc.
A user must find information about your company and its line of business, how to contact with your company.
Landing Page
A one-page website has only one function. For example, to sell a specific product, carry out an action or present a new service. It can be useful for any type of business. The small one can use it as a business card website if there are few products or services. In this case, all the content is placed on one web page. The main task of a landing is to persuade a user to buy, come, register and etc.
Promo-website
The main goal of a promo-website is to promote a brand, company, product or service on the market. A website for an advertising campaign is being created and the relevant information is posted: actions, business event locations, news and more. It usually serves as a supplement to the main website.
Corporate Website
This is the official online “face of the company”. It contains all detailed information about your company and sphere of activity: documentation, certificates and diplomas. A product catalog can be submitted, as well as polls, customer testimonials, distributions etc. This category of websites is developed for big companies, holdings and production facilities.
Due to a volume of information, a website can contain hundreds of pages, many sections and have a complex structure: section for customers, investors, employees and others. Particular attention for a corporate website is to develop a correct design. It should correspond to the style of the company, contain elements of identity.
Catalog-website
A website that presents all products, detailed descriptions of each product and characteristics. It is a kind of corporate website. This type of website is created to acquaint potential customers with assortment. Such website is a great idea for both wholesale and retail. According to its description it is very similar to an internet store, but its main difference is absence of online payment and shopping cart. It may include stores where it is possible to buy a product.
Online Store
It is important and necessary website for a trading business. Online store is a platform with products where it is possible to find product characteristics, see price, buy, pay, order delivery and consult. When developing a website, you should pay special attention to working out a product page and ordering process and constantly improve them. There is an important difference from a corporate website is a shopping cart. When creating an online store, there are important points to consider:
- registration in trade registers,
- making it possible to make online payments,
- delivery of goods.
Comparative characteristics of types of websites
Type of website | Goals | Tasks | Terms of development | Budget |
Business card website | Getting acquainted with a potential customer of your company | To tell about your company, show products/services | 14-21 | 1200-2300 |
Landing page | To sell product, service, get contacts of a customer, propose to sign up for a newsletter | To persuade a customer to buy product/service | 7-14 | 600-2400 |
Promo-website | To promote a brand, product/service | To retain a customer on a website, attract attention to product/service, persuade to make a purchase | 14-21 | 700 – 2500 |
Corporate website | To give information about your company, create your image, show product/services | Attracting customers, promotion of product/service, marketing, recruitment of employees and etc. | 60-90 | 3 000 – 8 000 |
Catalog-website | To acquaint a customer with product/service | Reduction of time for consultations, product display, increase in number of customers | 60-90 | 4 000 – 8 000 |
Internet store | To sell product, increase sales, retain a customer | To make convenient tool for selection and order of product/service | 90-120 | 5 000 – 10 000 |
What Business Doesn’t Need A Website?
So are there those who should not spend time and money on development, but just create a page in social networks?
- You don’t want to waste resources on a website. Development is just a beginning. It is necessary to fill in it and support the technical components, promote, analyze and improve. It is like a car – useful, but it does not drive or repair itself. It means that there will be no sense from it.
- Your product or service is not popular on the Internet (there are less and less of them). There are several business options when the Internet does not play a role. If you are a monopolist on the market, then you already have customers. When a company wants to stay in background and not become public.
Let me tell you one situation during a pandemic. One young entrepreneur had offline optics stores and one online store. Next to his store, there was a sales point selling children’s toys from the 90s: Tetris, Dandy and so on. Now it has become very popular again, but the owner refused outright to invest in his own online store, since he was a man of the old stock and he thought that there were sales anyway. But self-isolation began. People stopped going to stores and the owner of the toys store was ruined. Although, how much he could earn on the Internet when parents tied themselves up in knots thinking about how to entertain their children during quarantine. There is only one conclusion: A cheapskate pays twice. It’s up to you to decide, do you need a website or not and what resources should be spent on it.
Do you know the principle of project management triangle? It is directly related with development of a website, so let me remind you about it. The tops of the triangle – time, money, scope. They combine into a common goal – quality. When one element changes then other elements also change. Any changes you make in the project management triangle will always affect quality.
For ten years, our company has been promoting online business. During this time, we have helped startupers transform their idea into a business with development and constant income. During our work, it was possible to conclude that up to 95% of startupers do not correctly approach to creation of a new startup and subsequent promotion. As a result, they end up with burnout of business, loss of time and money. Below we can look at some mistakes of beginner startupers and give advice on how to transfer an idea into a profitable business.
For ten years, our company has been promoting online business. During this time, we have helped startupers transform their idea into a business with development and constant income. During our work, it was possible to conclude that up to 95% of startupers do not correctly approach to creation of a new startup and subsequent promotion. As a result, they end up with burnout of business, loss of time and money. Below we can look at some mistakes of beginner startupers and give advice on how to transfer an idea into a profitable business.
Mistakes Of Startupers
- Business starts with an idea
The most common mistake is to think that a business starts with an idea. In fact, this is not the case. An idea is an intangible thought in a startuper’s head that is incapable of making money, it has no economic value and worthless. And we cannot exclude falseness of this idea, but this does not stop startupers from constant worries: theft of this idea by competitors and loss of money in business in the future. This attitude obstructs beginner entrepreneurs to share startups with other people. As a result, the whole business ends with an idea in his/her head.
- Necessity for investments in business
Usually beginner startupers are sure that they cannot start without investment or personal contribution. Most online projects start from scratch or small investment of money. When attracting investments it is also worth to remembering that such money is a kind of debt obligations issued in exchange for receiving part of a profit from business in the future. Investor’s assistance may be required in the future when a startup is brought to the MVP (minimum viable product) stage. When a product will be able to meet minimum needs of its end user, but more startup capital will be needed to improve it..
- Adolescent syndrome
Another problem is thinking that you know everything about a startup and that any proposed idea will grow into a business that will help you to achieve success. Even a properly drawn up business plan does not guarantee 100% success; as you work on a startup everything changes hundreds of times, as it was planned at the beginning of the path – this will definitely not happen.
- Marketing
It is obligatory to think about marketing at all stages – when working on a startup, at the first presentation of a product, during the further formation and business development. A properly organized marketing campaign will ensure an uninterrupted flow of customers and final income from a business will depend on your buyers. The common mistake of beginner startupers is spending all money on product development and not leaving funds for marketing.
Reasons of startup burnout Market does not need it 42% Not enough money 29% Bad team 23% Pushed out of the market 19% Problems with pricing 18% - Focus on narrow audience
Investors are interested in startups that will help multiply their invested money. The larger the audience of a business, the higher profit it will be able to get in total. If a startup is intended for a narrow audience, so it will be used by a limited number of clients and you cannot count on big money.
- Absence of unicity
Startupers try to persuade investors and buyers that their proposed business is unique and it has no competitors. Such statements will be just words; the first request on web gives out similar startups in the IT field (mobile applications, plugins, websites etc.). Look closely for your competitors, analyze strengths and weaknesses and predict further business promotion in your niche. Create a unique selling proposition that will have no close analogues.
- Problem with staff
Absence of people in a team who are competent in certain issues will certainly reveal problems at the stage of implementation. A first-class team knows how to create, promote and manage a business. It is advisable to give preference to co-owners of business who will be interested in launching and not to ordinary hired employees who simply work for a salary. Only 100% involvement of all company members in a startup will ensure the final success after its release.
- Unwillingness to engage external consultants
Some startupers try to implement a startup only by their own forces without recourse to help of third-party consultants. In fact, a business project has to reckon with necessity to solve many tasks during a work. A hired third-party consultant will greatly simplify the process that will soberly analyze the entire business, find possible weaknesses, propose solutions to problems etc. In Western Europe, a startup usually involves specialists who are capable of consulting assistance in any matter.
- Absence of trust
Some startupers try to implement a startup only by their own forces without recourse to help of third-party consultants. In fact, a business project has to reckon with necessity to solve many tasks during a work. A hired third-party consultant will greatly simplify the process that will soberly analyze the entire business, find possible weaknesses, propose solutions to problems etc. In Western Europe, a startup usually involves specialists who are capable of consulting assistance in any matter.
- Absence of trust
If you hire specialists then you need to trust them. Startupers often worry about other team members completing their assigned tasks. As a result, they begin to involve in areas in which they are incompetent. This desire to control often ends with anything good.
How To Succeed
The main mistakes of startups are considered, it remains to highlight a number of rules that will increase the probability of success, help you enter 5% of successful startups and help you create a profitable business in the future.
- Test your niche.
It is important to test your niche before launching a product. For this, method of verbal agreements and preliminary trial sales of a product is used. In the sphere of IT startups, a landing page is used for testing, information about future business is posted on a website and polls are created to check user’s reaction. Within the limits of test, it is possible to start implementation of a startup not on empty guesses, but on real reaction of people to work.
- Start selling at early stages.
Successful business people follow to the principle that with a right approach it is possible to sell air to customers. It really works – you can start selling far before the final launch of a startup on the market. Early sales will help form a base of potential customers, convey basic information about a product to them and receive an advance payment. Even by selling preliminary agreements, a startuper receives money; in the future it can be directed to implementation of other stages of a startup and do without third-party investors. In any startup, a sales department should appear at the initial stage of development.
- Team.
The main difference of a successful IT startup is its top class team of professionals. Employees are able to perform a full range of work – create a startup, promote and advertise it on the market, manage a process, make changes, load updates etc. Startupers must evaluate what skills will be important for development of a startup; determine what jobs they can take on. On the basis of the collected information, it is need to select a part of enthusiastic assistants; some work can be outsourced to third-party companies. It is convenient to hand one-time or small projects for outsourcing companies, this will help save on wages, you shall not have to pay a specialist who will spend no more than 2 hours on this process within 8 full working days.
- Methodology.
Competitiveness of any company is associated with the chosen approach to solving business tasks. There are proven management methodologies and sometimes you have to revise your approach for a specific startup to highlight its strengths. A well-chosen business management methodology will help startupers bring all ideas to life and achieve the set results.
- Start small.
Your desire to bring your project to perfection and only then bring it to the market will turn into bankruptcy. It is important to divide your startup into several parts and certainly to highlight your beta version. It includes basic functions of a startup and is introduced to the market first so that customers can evaluate a product. In the future, it will be possible to make changes and updates on a monthly basis. Starting from a beta version will help quickly and inexpensively bring a startup to the market. Even shortened version meets minimum requirements of a consumer and can compete on the market, attract clients and constantly increase their total number.
- Engagement of external consultants.
Startupers have opinion that it is unnecessary to recourse to help of third-party consultants. This becomes a mistake that cramps implementation. A startup consists of a set of tasks that require a prompt solution. Any team often suffer from shortage highly specialized professionals. Trying to resolve issues in which you are not competent will end up costing more than hiring a third-party consultant.
- Investments.
At the initial stage, the investor will not be a plus, but an extra burden that will pull the startup along and require making certain changes, including financial assistance and debt obligations. Suitable stage for investment is when there have been successful attempts to sell a product. Investments work only in proven startups and accelerate growth and business expansion.
- Choose tight age for start.
You can start an online business at any age, but there are several periods when it is easier to do this. The first one is from 20 to 25 years. This type of startuper often supported by parents, does not have a family and can direct all his/her time for development. The second startuper is from 30 to 40 years, during this period there is accumulated work experience and capital for start.
- Don’t be afraid of failures.
With a 99% probability, a startuper will have a moment of wreck and failure. Do not be upset when your first problems appear. In history of many world companies, there are chapters when they literally turned into bankrupts even with accumulated multi-billion dollar capital, but were able to settle their work and come to the surface.
- Development paradox.
The faster development, the more money is required to maintain growth. Authors of a fast-growing startup are often faced with the fact that popularity of their business is growing, but instead of profit it mainly brings losses.
- Minimal personal income.
The most startupers begin their business in search of a better life. It should be clearly understood that at the initial stages (and they can take several years) income will be minimal. Get ready for the fact that you will not become a millionaire and increase your income several times until you turn your startup into a stable business.
- Documentary registration.
Agreements with partners, investors, and outsourcing companies must be documented, and all agreements must be drawn up in accordance with established legislation. Contracts will help you secure your funds and rights if someone tries to cheat you.
- Development of future strategy and tactics.
A clear action plan for the next 2-3 years should be developed with description of tactical ideas and strategy of conduct. This plan can be written in the form of a goal tree, where the trunk is the result to be aimed at, the branches are methods that will be applied to reach the main branch. On your path to a multi-billion dollar company, you need to solve many small goals.
- Thriftiness.
A startuper can have a big initial capital, it will make easier to start a business. At the same time, it is important to be careful with money. It is important to remember that regardless of amount of money, it will not be enough in any case. Follow to the principle – weigh a decision ten times before making a purchase. It often turns out that it is quite possible to do something without a certain item, hence saving money.
- Allocate responsibilities.
Learn to reallocate responsibilities between subordinates, shifting part of responsibility onto them. Attempt to keep everything under control will result in a startup author being overloaded with constant work and his/her subordinates will sit idle. You should not completely refuse control, otherwise you may face the fact that work will not be done the way a startuper wants.
- Website on the first place.
A modern and functional website plays a huge role in implementation of startups in the sphere of IT business. Before developing your website, make a list of the goals that you need to achieve with this product. Further, your work is carried out in the following stages – design, marketing, writing selling texts, coding and other. A website for a startup will help increase conversion, expand list of ways to communicate with a client and become your PR and promotion tool.
- Efficiency indicators.
Use efficiency indicators to measure everything in your startup, this can help control and correct development of your startup. Decide what indicators are important at one stage or another during implementation of your business idea (website traffic, net profit, number of visitors).
- Refuse to use high-sounding words of big business.
Legal entities, offshore companies and other terms only distract a startuper at the initial stage of entering a business. It is necessary to start formation of a legal entity status before conclusion of the first serious transaction. In the IT business, in a process of working on a product it is important to purchase a domain, register a copyright for your website and register your own trademark.
- Lack of time.
At the initial stages of implementing a startup, each author is faced with the problem of lack of time. It will not be possible to solve it completely, but if you follow a number of rules, your life can be much easier. The main principle is drawing up work plans for a day, week, month and year. For convenience, you can use special mobile applications in which it is easy to mark tasks that have been completed during a day. Next, divide your work processes into groups according to the degree of importance and strength; do not forget about the paragraph with distribution of responsibilities.
- Fulfill promises.
A simple reason of failure of the most startups is that the obligations given to investors and customers are not fulfilled completely. Be very careful with your list of promises to avoid face a problem.
- Refuse help of your relatives and friends.
This rule works in every business, regardless of a sphere of its implementation. In 100% of cases, you will have to forget about good relations with close people because of disagreements, misunderstandings in business matters. Many requirements shall be forgotten in your work.
- Do not be afraid of changes.
People are constantly changing and perception of the world around them becomes different, a new look at some moments appears. Changes with a startuper take place in stages – after disclosure of your idea of a new startup, hiring the first employees, transferring your startup into a profitable business.
- Save energy until the end.
Working on a startup without breaks or days off will eventually provoke a manager’s burnout. At this stage, an author notices that work has become uninteresting, that motivation has decreased to a minimum. Burnout is a psychological problem, which is eliminated by changing your approach to a work process. Try to find a balance between a work process and rest. When doing business, do not refuse travel – strive to increase positive emotions in your life.
- Do not delay with start of business.
According to statistics, the most lucky and successful startups remain only in minds of their creators because of their fear of failure. In fact, nothing prevents you from coming to our company right now and starting cooperation on the way of implementing a business project.