Just because you’re about to enter a saturated industry with plenty of experienced competitors and established brands doesn’t mean that you need to struggle to succeed. There’s plenty of room for everyone to grow at a steady pace and even thrive, but only if you make all the right investments and decisions on your way to success and affluence. To make these smart moves, you will need to discover and implement the best practices in your field.

And the best way to do just that, and make your business look more professional and appealing from the get-go, is to pick up the most important lessons from the leaders in the industry. Let’s dive deep into the things that truly matter for startups, and how to invest in these areas from the start.

Find, hire, and retain the top talent in the industry

You might be able to run a one-person show at the beginning, but as soon as you start making progress and attracting more business to your doorstep, you will need to allocate some of the workflow to an employee, or several. What every accomplished business leader will tell you is that your future depends on your ability to find and hire team members that bring true value and quality to your business.

These will be the people who will drive your company forward with their skills and expertise, the people who will guide the brand towards its long-term goals. Needless to say, these people are your biggest assets, and you cannot afford to lose them. You will need to create a winning company culture if you are to boost employee retention and prosper.

Build a thriving company culture

The top brands in the industry are able to pay top dollar in order to hire and retain their most valuable employees, but salary alone is not enough to maintain a strong retention strategy. After all, there are a myriad of job opportunities out there, and the millennial employee will have no problem leaving a company if they feel underappreciated or if their true values and talents are not being exploited to their full potential.

As a novice business leader, you might not even be able to offer anything more than what’s considered standard compensation in your niche, so your best bet is to build a company culture people won’t want to leave. Make sure you build this culture on the pillars of equality, trust, transparency, co-dependence, honest communication, and leadership in order to create a work environment that nurtures and respects its employees. Make people feel appreciated and never stop challenging them in healthy ways and provide exciting projects to bring their true potential to light.

Use the web to expand globally

With the dawn of the digital age, global business has become a reality for every company and entrepreneur with the dreams of expanding beyond the local marketplace. It has never been this easy to trade on a global scale and access faraway markets, especially with the rise of Ecommerce. Nowadays, every business model can build an Ecommerce structure, B2C and B2B brands alike.

For example, this new trend has allowed traditional big businesses such as oil and gas companies to trade in oilfield equipment and other products you wouldn’t normally see in the Ecommerce realm, nor would you expect to be traded beyond the local marketplace. What this means for you is that you have a unique opportunity to capitalize on this trend by integrating an Ecommerce structure into your operation from the start in order sell your products to a global customer base, all the while making it infinitely easier to profit in the local market as well. After all, customers in every industry are increasingly buying products on the web, so make sure your brand is there too.

Listen carefully to customer feedback

The customer might not be right all the time, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do what they ask. Your customers will define the future of your company, and any experienced entrepreneur will tell you that you need to listen carefully to customer feedback on all digital channels, including social media, in order to assess the true standing of your brand in the competitive field.

By tending to some careful media monitoring and analysis, you can easily find out what the online and offline worlds are saying about your brand. These kinds of insights will prove instrumental in shaping your entire growth strategy, as they will allow you to adapt your approach and deliver exactly what your customers need. You will also learn about the common pain-points and discover your competitors’ weaknesses.

It’s all about the value of the brand

And finally, invest time and financial resources to build a unique brand identity that will resonate with the hearts and minds of your demographic. In a sea of competitors and lookalike companies, you want to stand out as the brand people can connect with on an emotional level, a brand they can trust and embrace as an inextricable part of their everyday life. Your brand’s values and culture will not only boost your acquisition strategy, but most importantly, it will help you retain business and keep loyal customers at your side through thick and thin.

In closing

Novice entrepreneurs have a long and winding road ahead of them, but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t follow the trails left by those who have already reached the finish line. In other words, use these lessons to even the odds against the leaders in the industry and future-proof your startup for years to come.

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Keith Coppersmith is a business and marketing expert who has experienced both the rise and fall of many businesses. He enjoys writing and providing insight based on both practice and theory.