Alert for Tech Startups: Checklist before launching New product ideas

A research proven framework to achieve best results for new product launch

Adding a new product for your business portfolio in this economy may be tough, but it's not impossible. Let's break down the top 8 things you need to consider and prepare before you jump into the launch of your new product.

1. A comforting sense of timing

These are the two ways : 1) Pick up the best time to launch your product. This is always a balancing act determined by a wide range of factors, including: the ups and downs of your industry, the success or downsizing of competitors, the availability of start-up funds, and your own personal circumstances (having a baby in a month? Maybe don't try to start a new company right now. Want a baby in 3 years? Jump on it right now).

2. The cleanest budget on the block

A typical error new business owners make is to believe as soon as they can get their hands on a big enough piece of property, they can plop it into a company check account, and it will certainly be enough to cover their expenses. This is wrong and stupid and no – let’s not even going to pick any better words to say it. It’s nuts to have a very detailed budget before you spend a single cent. If you’re not a budgeting expert, get the help of someone who’s there. Considering that many company CEOs appear to be more "big picture" thinkers, crunching numbers is not a common favorite job. As such, it’s glazed over too often. Just ... don’t do that.

3. Habit of Self-governance

We aren’t only talking about money here, but to be sure, exercising self-control and sticking to your budget is definitely a must. In every way, running your own business – especially during its startup phase – requires discipline in all areas. Our tips: decide ahead of time on goals for each day/week/month, rather than just deciding on what hours you will work. We’re all about a work/life balance, and are not ones to suggest letting your startup take over your life completely, but the simple fact is that startups require a bit more nurturing than established companies. Decide what needs to be accomplished by when, and force yourself to stick to your benchmarks. It’s better to pull a couple of long days than to get woefully behind.

4. Super sharp social skills

If you and your team happen to know key people in high places (“high” in terms of their position in your industry, or “high” in terms of the number of zeros on the investment they want to give you), then fantastic. You’re ahead of a lot of people. If you don’t, being tirelessly committed to leveraging your existing network and seeking out opportunities to make connections with powerful people is part of your job description. Either way, having an ability to form new relationships and nurture and maintain existing ones is important for the vitality of your business.

5. Agility and Flexibility

If anything is consistently true about the launch of a new product, that very little will be consistently true. When you put so much time, effort and faith in one execution plan, built on one business model, it’s logical that you’d have trouble accepting that it might need to be modified, or worse, to be scrapped and completely rebuilt. Unfortunately, at any point in the start-up process – from concept to actually being in business – new factors can arise that illuminate parts of your operations, branding ... any part of your business that needs to be tweaked and modified to work better. Investing the time and feelings in a business strategy is what a good entrepreneur does – it is not a commitment to a single process or course of action. You should be constantly looking for ways to adjust what you’re doing to make them more successful, and be utterly dismayed to make those changes.

6. Money: spend it wisely

A kind of no-brainer, but he had to put it here because it's certainly something that entrepreneurs need to be competitive in. Just how much money you need can vary – perhaps it's as little as $50k or millions of dollars – and there's a lot of different ways to get that. Whether it's seed money from your own pocket, angel investments or small business loans, figure out which financing path is best for this new business and pursue it. You need the money, seriously.

7. Always take Follow-through

Even the most thoughtful product development plans, based on the most innovative, visionary ideas, basically count for nothing if the person / people at the helm lack the perseverance, skills and knowledge to bring the whole endeavor to fruition. Knowing how to do that is probably more important at the end of the day than understanding what needs to be done. Having the industry experience in which your startup operates, and having the ability to dirty your hands and do the heavy lifting, is irreplaceable when it comes to making your startup successful.

8. Super efficient Teams

If it’s competitive warfare, how confident are you that your team will be able to win the fight? Assuming you have limited resources, you should opt out of any battles you 're not confident you can win, and preserve the resources for opportunities later on. Someone on your core team has to understand intimately the nuances of the customer you are addressing if you want to solve their need or desire. You’ll also want your team to have a technical expert who can devise a well-crafted product that answers the need. Also consider whether you have access to favorable relationships in procurement and distribution.

Conclusion

The strength of such a system is that it provides a holistic point of view from which you can assess an opportunity before jumping in with both feet, instead of simply following your instincts and succumbing to your own blind spots, or listening to a wise theory that turns out not to apply to your situation. You can often identify weaknesses by going through this process and evaluating an opportunity objectively, and perhaps even predict why your product will fail before you start. If you can concentrate your attention on just the fights that you are most likely to win, then you are one step closer to winning the war already.

We, at IoTIoT, have a unique and strong understanding of the field of Entrepreneurship and Advanced Technologies. Our team of experienced professionals works with companies around the globe to help them better understand this space, as well as to carve out working solutions. Meet our community and explore more for your business growth.