WhatsApp succeeded, how can the other 99% startups improve themselves?

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I believe that when WhatsApp was bought by Facebook, most of the founders had not yet come to their senses. The news is good news, because of this acquisition, perhaps we will see more Lamborghini around Palo Alto (Palo Alto). But the news has little impact on the world of small companies and their entrepreneurs.

Most of us will not get tens of millions of dollars in the seed money of the world's largest venture capital institution. Most of us are not able to reach a 16 billion dollar purchase with giants like Apple, Facebook or Microsoft. But we can still achieve some very amazing success, we will use friends and family investment, rely on their own efforts to achieve success.

So what are the best skills to be successful as a small company in 99%? Here is our share.

Shared workspaces. One of the biggest mistakes a new company can make is renting a place they can't afford. They foresaw business growth, but when there was no growth, they were left with only excess office space and a four or five-year lease.

I suggest finding a joint office that is closest to you instead of renting an office. Such places are available in almost every city. Most of these places offer small office locations ranging from 100 dollars to 500 dollars a month. For other necessities in the office, these areas are usually equipped with a network connection and can use fax machines, photocopiers and conference rooms. In addition, many of them offer monthly rental services. So if your dreams come true as quickly as you want, you won't be tied to a huge leasing contract.

The choice of development tools. Like many modern startups, if you focus on making an application or software, you need good tools to help you save time and money on your projects.

One method is usually to use open source software that is free or inexpensive. This approach is good and bad, but the overall goal is to save money, which will make your project a good starting process. There are many options for doing so. SourceForge (the world's largest open source software development platform and warehouse) is a premium market where you can search for free resources. Also, you can search for these on GitHub.

If open source is not for you, you prefer to use a more secure, more supportive solution to start your project, and you can consider the classic development toolset provided by companies like Microsoft. For the general development Platform and workflow automation solutions have decisions to choose from. Rather than open source, it generally provides more powerful tools.

Promote sales with social activities. Organizing a sales team to sell will produce very expensive expenses. They need commissions, cell phones, computers, work space and more. But you take part in local chamber events or similar business events, and the tickets are not expensive. The prices of these tickets are usually between 25 dollars and 50 dollars, and usually offer a potluck meal.

Social activities are opportunities for you to stand with other company managers and sell them your products or services. Usually in these social activities, you can develop some real good relationships. People are also more likely to buy products or services from people they know and trust.

Outsourcing。 Outsourcing is not just for large multinationals, but small businesses can also outsource. With websites like odesk or elance, small business owners can outsource outsourced tasks that they cannot afford at home. These range of tasks can include graphic design, web design, coding, research, and even personal assistance. Depending on the quality of work you require, the cost of these tasks varies from 2 to 50 dollars per hour.

Self-effort to find media campaigns. The cost of promoting your start-up through a PR company can also be expensive. Similarly, the cost of employing a marketing consultant is not low. But if you are well prepared to contact the media, most businesses will have the opportunity to make their own voices. Spend a few hours collecting information about your industry's journalists. Next, write a tailored sales pitch for each of them and send them by email asking them to cover your startup. It's always a good thing to be able to report what's valuable to them. And sometimes you're lucky enough that the media might want to do an exclusive interview with your startup business story.

It takes hard work and dedication to rely on your own efforts to succeed. Venture capital and angel funds can make growth easier. But the above approach is certainly good for the growth of innovative but less-budget startups.

Author: Mike Templeman, CEO of Foxtail Marketing, a digital content marketing company.

(Via:entrepreneur, entrepreneurial State compiled.) Entrepreneur content authorizes the exclusive cooperation of the pioneering state, do not reprint without permission. )