The founding of a company is not something that just happens – there are millions of stories that go along with it. From ideas, to realize a mistake, creating your own company is not an easy task at all and what happens in between can be treated as a journey, or rather an adventure, where you realize your mistakes and go on from there onwards. Afterall, success isn’t something that comes by easy, is it?
There are quite a lot of things that you can do in order to make your company successful, and even though the story behind every company is unique in its own manner, and at times cannot be linked to other aspects of businesses, here we will look at some things that entrepreneurs and potential founders of companies should consider in order to build a successful cloud-technology company.
1- Build a product
Building your own product is very important, and at times, the focus is take away from this when the people in charge start to take into consideration other aspects that may or may not be useful – such as marketing, service, and support. Yes, these are important aspects and while they carry around 70 percent of the total work required ratio, it is important to know that building a product carries the rest 30 percent.
2- Hire sales and staff engineers
Many companies make the mistake of hiring staff according to the requirement that they need now, often forgetting about the future. Hire what you think your business would need in 12 to 18 months, not what is required right now!
3- Focus
Be clear on one product that you want to be successful. While many companies have dual identities and have many products, it is often best to focus and specialize on one thing.
4- Just start
Have the tactics set, and just start! Companies should always gather the best information that they can and then execute the plan, and more often than not, everything falls in place.
5- Fail
Failure is an important part of the road to success. Without failure, one does not gain experience, and if one does not gain experience, then surely their business might not reach the heights that might be desired. Failure is all part of life, and surely an important aspect to consider!
6- Don’t compromise on one customer
Very often, at the very beginning, companies often fall under the pressure of having to impress their customers and are constantly in the chase to attract one marquee customer. Now, while this is indeed a good thing, it might be wise for the company to consider that there may be other fish in the sea. Having to fulfill the needs of one particular customer – no matter how valuable he might be, is not the wisest of decisions.
7- Hire customer-success people
After the first or second year of success, many companies fall short because they have underinvested in customer success. Sales and customer success headcount should be hired and matched at a one-to-one ratio. Many companies fall short of their aspirations due to the absence of a customer-success team.
8- Utilize technology partner
While you might not have envisioned yourself sharing your company with others, this at times can be a decision which might lead to bigger and better things for not only your partner company but yours as well. Teaming up with a company that has the same goals as yours can turn out to be pretty fruitful.
