The key to running a successful business is enticing customers and clients to do business with you. So whether you’re scrambling to lure customers back during a global pandemic or expanding your markets during “normal” business times, the question is, How do you do that? What are the best ways to get customers to come to your store, website, restaurant, office, etc.?
We all know the answer: it’s marketing. But marketing is not a simple process. There are various practices, tactics, and strategies that are part of an overall marketing plan—and they are constantly evolving. It can make formulating a marketing plan for your small business overwhelming.
To help simplify the process, there is one marketing method that has maintained its claim to fame. Email marketing still promises to deliver the highest ROI of all marketing channels—$42 back for every dollar you spend.
That’s not to say email as an industry, and your approach to it, isn’t evolving—it is, or it should be. As Tom Kulzer, CEO and founder of AWeber, a leading email marketing solution for small businesses, says, “The most effective [email] marketing strategies adapt, grow, and innovate.”
AWeber recently released its 2020 Small Business Marketing Email Marketing Statistics Report, featuring insights from small business owners and industry experts. These are the techniques that are working for other small business owners. See if they’ll work for you as well.
While email marketing can boast about its effective ROI, not all small businesses are using it. According to the report, 66% of businesses surveyed say they use email marketing to “promote their businesses or communicate with leads and/or customers.”
If you are not among that percentage, it’s time (past time, actually) to incorporate email into your marketing strategy. If the ROI isn’t enough to convince you, remember, email is the marketing channel most consumers say they want businesses to use to communicate with them.
Still, you likely have questions if email marketing will work for you. Take a look at some common questions the survey addresses.
How effective is email marketing?
Very. Of those surveyed, 79% say it’s “important” or “very important” to their businesses. However, while business owners acknowledge the importance of email marketing in general, only 60% think their own email marketing strategies are “effective” or “very effective,” while 26% say it’s either “ineffective” or “very ineffective.”
Effective email strategies are “personal, targeted, and crafted with the customers’ objectives and objections in mind.”
How do you measure success?
You cannot know how effective your email marketing is without defining the parameters you want to measure. The two most common measurements for small businesses are open rates and click-through rates:
Open rates—65% of small businesses average open rates between 11% and 50%.
Click-through rates—The study showed many small businesses need to improve their click-through rates; 77% of small businesses average email click-through rates between 0% and 10%.
Nearly 40% of survey respondents report they send emails “at least once a week but less than daily.” More than 30% send emails “at least once a month but less than weekly.” And about 12% either send emails daily or less than once a month.
Still not sure what to do? Mark Asquith, the cofounder and CEO of Rebel Base Media, advises those who are just starting to use email marketing send an email once a week. “Rather than sending more, test what you already do. Then test frequency,” he says.
His main point is you shouldn’t be sending more emails that don’t work and less emails that do work—and the best way to determine that is to “Test, test, test!”
But, warns Ramit Sethi, the author and founder of I Will Teach You to be Rich, don’t worry that much about how often you send emails. Sethi doesn’t think frequency is the most important factor for email success; he believes content is. “Writing amazing emails that provide value is [most important],” he says. “If your emails are incredibly entertaining, informative, and engaging, you can send as many as you want.” To measure their effectiveness, Sethi says, “Watch your open rates and unsubscribe rates closely.”
Does list size matter?
Most (43%) of the participating small business owners have email lists between 0 and 500 subscribers. Slightly more than 30% have between 1,001 and 9,999 email subscribers, and less than 7% of small businesses have more than 50,000 subscribers.
Does the size of your list impact effectiveness? Yes, but don’t let that discourage you. It appears having at least as few as 500 subscribers makes a difference. Of the small businesses surveyed, 42% with more than 500 subscribers say their email marketing strategies are effective or very effective, while only 20% of businesses with 500 or less subscribers say the same.
Obviously, growing your list is important. “The bigger your list, the more conversions you can achieve,” says Kath Pay, the CEO and founder of Holistic Email Marketing. She advises small business owners to “ensure your subscribe form is above the fold, in a prominent, easy-to-access position on your website. Have this form available on every page of your site.”
Think of email marketing as one of the most powerful tools to jump-start your small business and take it to the next level. It’s effective, it’s affordable, and it works.
This guest post is authored by Guy Raz (@guyraz), the Michael Phelps of podcasting. Guy is the creator and host of many popular podcasts, including How I Built This, Wisdom from the Top, andThe Rewind. Guy is also the co-creator of the acclaimed podcasts TED Radio Hourand Wow in the World, a podcast for children. He’s received the Edward R. Murrow Award, the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize, the National Headliner Award, the NABJ Award… basically all the awards.
What follows is an exclusive chapter — “Go In Through the Side Door” — from How I Built This.
Enter Guy…
A funny thing happens when you start to find success with a new business. You suddenly find yourself face-to-face with a host of people who are none too happy to see you. These people have a name. They’re called competitors. And whether they’ll admit it to you or not, many of them will try to do everything within their power to legally — and sometimes not so legally — shut you out. It’s a strategy deployed by the big fish in every pond once they notice a new, young fish swimming around and getting bigger by gobbling up the scraps they previously considered too small to care about.
In 1997, as the personal computer business approached 100 million units in annual sales and the dot-com bubble began to grow in earnest, Microsoft was one of the biggest fish in a pond that was about to swamp the world. Late that summer, a Microsoft group vice president named Jeff Raikes sent a now-famous email titled “Go Huskers!” to Warren Buffett, a fellow Nebraska native, describing Microsoft’s business in an effort to get him to invest in the company. In the email, Raikes likens the sturdiness and growth potential of Microsoft’s operation to that of Coca-Cola and See’s Candies (which Buffett had owned since 1972), in no small part because Microsoft’s revolutionary flagship product — the Windows operating system — had created a “toll bridge” that every PC maker would have to cross if they expected consumers to buy their machines.
The graphical user interface that made Windows revolutionary also made it wildly popular, which had the additional effect of creating a “moat,” as Raikes described it, between Microsoft and its competitors in the marketplace — one it was able to widen considerably with a 90 percent market share in productivity software applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, etc.) that were built on top of Windows and were equally popular. This, in turn, gave Microsoft tremendous “pricing discretion,” not just for its applications software but also for the licensing fees the company charged to other computer makers for Microsoft’s operating system software.
What Raikes did not say in his email, but what Buffett surely understood from his decades of experience, was that the wider the moat and the longer the toll bridge, the more aggressively Microsoft could wield its pricing discretion in order to cement its growing advantage in the software industry. They could use it as a carrot, by lowering the licensing fee for Windows as an incentive to get their browser and applications software preloaded onto as many new PCs as possible. They could use it as a stick, by withholding volume Windows licensing discounts to punish PC makers that refused their sweetheart deal, or by offering their applications software at cost or below in order to drive competitors such as Lotus, Novell, and Corel (remember them?) out of business.
Microsoft employed each of those strategies to great effect. A year after Raikes’s email to Buffett, Microsoft would surpass General Electric as the world’s most valuable company and stay in that position for five consecutive years.
Toll bridge. Moat. Pricing discretion. These are euphemisms for the economic term barriers to entry,which is itself a kind of euphemism for all the ways existing businesses shut out competitors and make it difficult for new businesses to compete in a given industry. These barriers are not just conscious strategies deployed by old guard blue-chippers; they are also natural forces that rise and shift within a market as competitors enter and exit, grow and shrink, evolve and pivot. They can become the biggest obstacles you will face as a new business looking to grab, secure, and expand your foothold in a market, because they are the mechanism by which you will either be crushed (if your competitors see you coming) or ignored (if the market doesn’t).
This is why if, like most new businesses, you aren’t doing something completely novel or you aren’t doing it in a totally new way or new place, you should be thinking long and hard about how else you might enter your market besides knocking on the front door and asking for permission to come in. This is something that female and minority entrepreneurs have long had to contend with, whether it means breaking through glass ceilings or breaking down walls built by prejudice. All of which is to say, figuring out how to sneak in through the side door is not new ground you will have to break. A legion of resourceful geniuses have come before you. And what many of them have discovered is that the side door isn’t just less heavily guarded, it’s often bigger. Or, as Peter Thiel put it in a 2014 lecture at the Stanford Center for Professional Development titled “Competition Is for Losers,” “Don’t always go through the tiny little door that everyone’s trying to rush through. Go around the corner and go through the vast gate that no one’s taking.”
A year earlier, in Chicago, without fully realizing it, this is precisely what Peter Rahal had begun to do with his idea for a minimalist Paleo protein bar. Peter hadn’t started out looking for a side door per se, but he knew that with RXBar he was trying to enter a very busy space. Remember, Peter had already conceded that “the market didn’t need another protein bar.” It was a conclusion that was more or less inescapable when he and his partner, Jared Smith, did their initial fact-finding tour of Whole Foods. If there was one fact they were sure to find, it was that protein bars were among the most crowded sectors in the entire food business. Long gone were the days when only one main brand existed in this segment, as Gary Erickson had found in the early 1990s when he developed Clif Bar to go up against PowerBar. Even a decade later, ample opportunity was there for someone like Lara Merriken in a way that did not exist for Peter in 2013.
Can you imagine what the shelves of that Chicago Whole Foods looked like when he and Jared walked in? How many linear feet of shelf space were choked with multiple flavors from how many different protein bar manufacturers? Can you envision Peter even being able to secure as much as a hello from a Whole Foods regional buyer the way Lara Merriken did? Especially when the buyer learned what Peter was pitching? Yet another protein bar?
Peter knew he wasn’t getting into Whole Foods through the front door. Fortunately, that was never his plan. “From the early days, the whole strategy was to make a product that is for CrossFit and for the Paleo consumer, and build it online,” he said. “We’d build a web store and sell directly to gyms. Consumers would be coming directly to us.” That meant a bar with no grains, no dairy, no peas or bean protein, and no sugar. Nothing quite like it existed.
It was just the kind of advantage that a startup could identify and exploit but a larger competitor couldn’t (or wouldn’t) see. “A lot of people look at niches, or look at a small segment, and it’s not big enough for them,” Peter explained. “But we would rather have a CrossFit customer in California than a local Chicago independent grocery store, because in the grocery store we’re among the sea of competition. Whereas in a CrossFit gym, we were by ourselves. RXBar was literally engineered and designed for that occasion. It was perfect.”
It was his side door. Those niches — CrossFit, Paleo, and direct-to-consumer — which were then on the verge of exploding and truly becoming the kind of vast gate that Peter Thiel was talking about, were the combination that unlocked opportunity for Peter Rahal and allowed RXBar the chance to take root, to stand out, and to grow, before his direct competitors could notice and stamp him out. By that point, those competitors included major multinationals like General Mills and Nestlé, which had acquired Lärabar and PowerBar, respectively, and they could have easily shut him out by erecting any number of barriers to entry into the protein bar market.
For Manoj Bhargava, the founder of 5-hour Energy, his side door into the energy drink market did not take the shape of a small niche, but rather of a small product. In early 2003, a few years removed from his retirement from a plastics business he’d turned around and made profitable, Manoj was attending a natural products trade show outside Los Angeles looking for inventions he might acquire or license in an effort to create a business that would generate an ongoing residual income stream for him in his post-plastics years.
Walking the floor of the show, he stumbled upon a new sixteen-ounce energy drink that produced long-lasting effects he’d never experienced with other energy drinks. “Well, this is amazing,” he said to himself, exhausted from a long morning of meetings and now energized enough to continue walking the trade show floor. “I could sell this,” he thought. The drink’s creators disagreed. They were “science guys with PhDs,” while he was “just a lowly business guy.” They refused to sell their invention to him or even offer him a license on their formula. When they effectively told him to hit the road, Manoj decided to hit the lab instead and to create his own version of the energy drink that had fueled him up and blown him away.
“I looked at their label and said, ‘I can do better than this. How hard can it be? I’ll figure it out,’” Manoj said. With the help of scientists from a company he’d founded for the express purpose of finding inventions just like this one, he had a comparable energy drink formula in a matter of months. It would turn out to be the easiest part of the process.
The hard part would be getting his invention into stores. “If I make another drink,” Manoj said of his thinking at the time, “I’ve got to fight for space in the cooler against Red Bull and Monster [Energy]. I’ve also got to fight Coke, Pepsi, and Budweiser for space. So you’re pretty much dead if you want to try that.”
He was dead because he would be fighting for a finite amount of space in brick-and-mortar stores, against the competition not just in his own niche but in the entire beverage industry, which is dominated by some of the biggest companies in the world. If you own a 7-Eleven, or you’re the general manager of a grocery chain like Kroger or Tesco, are you really going to turn over a Diet Coke, Mountain Dew, or Snapple rack to a new energy drink that no one has ever heard of ? Especially when, in 2003, energy drink sales had yet to really spike and there were already two major players — Red Bull and Monster Energy — in the nascent market. Even if you were inclined to give a little guy like Manoj Bhargava a shot, once the regional sales reps and distributors from Coca-Cola and PepsiCo got wind of your decision, they would likely wield their Microsoftesque price discretion against you like a baseball bat, or just pull their products from your store altogether.
Those were the barriers to entry that Manoj was looking at. If he was going to get into this market, he’d have to find some other way. That’s when it dawned on him. “If I’m tired,” he asked himself, “why am I thirsty also?” By which he meant, why should we have to chug ten to sixteen ounces of a cloyingly sweet liquid in order to get an energy boost? “It would be like Tylenol selling sixteen-ounce bottles,” Manoj explained by way of analogy. “I just want to do it quick. I don’t want to drink this whole thing,” he thought. This is how Manoj arrived at the idea of shrinking his product down from the standard sixteen-ounce drink to a two-ounce shot.
Quickly, everything changed. In less than six months, he’d hired a designer to make his distinctive label, and he’d found a bottler who could produce two-ounce versions of his energy formula. “And at two ounces,” he said, “it’s really not a drink, it’s a delivery system.”
This was 5-hour Energy’s side door. It wasn’t a drink, so it wasn’t an immediate threat to Red Bull or Monster Energy. At two ounces, it also didn’t need to be refrigerated or given a large, dedicated shelf, so retailers didn’t have to worry about space. They understood that the perfect spot for it would be at the cash register, right next to the Slim Jims and pickled eggs!
“It just belonged there,” Manoj said. “You could tell it just looked that way, that it should be there.” Moreover, because the ingredients that went into 5-hour Energy were actually less about energy and more about focus — “vitamins for the brain,” Manoj called them — he could position his product beyond the beverage verticals and outside the grocery or convenience store channels. In fact, the very first place he went with 5-hour Energy in 2004 was the largest vitamin store, GNC, which decided to put the product in a thousand of its stores.
GNC turned out to be a genius side door into the energy “drink” market for a couple reasons. The first is obvious — there was much less competition compared with grocery and convenience stores — but the second is more interesting. “It turns out GNC is always looking for new products, because once a product gets mass distribution, GNC is sort of out of it,” Manoj explained. “If it’s in Walmart, nobody’s going to buy it at GNC.” Essentially, GNC was an easier route to retail distribution than a place like 7-Eleven or Safeway, and thankfully the tolerance for a slow start was higher as well, because in the first week they sold only 200 bottles. “Which was horrible,” Manoj admitted. But they waited it out, manufacturer and retailer together, “and at the end of six months it was selling 10,000 bottles a week.” From there Manoj went to drugstores like Walgreens and Rite Aid, which snapped it up, and now 5-hour Energy is near the cash register in most stores basically everywhere.
Today, RXBar, which was acquired by Kellogg’s in 2017 for $600 million, is one of the fastest-growing brands in the protein bar space, and 5-hour Energy has a 93 percent share of the energy shot business. It is a market dominance that Manoj has enjoyed from nearly the beginning, with only a brief dip to 67 percent when all his competitors — Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Monster Energy, Red Bull — flooded the market with their own two-ounce-shot offerings . . . and failed. “Whenever people ask me what product are we like, I say we’re WD-40,” Manoj said near the end of our conversation, as we talked about 5-hour Energy’s phenomenal success. “We own the category. We’re the guys.”
This is the great irony of circumventing the barriers to entry that your competition’s apparent monopoly power constructs and then fighting your way in through the side door. If you’re successful, you stand a very good chance of achieving market domination of your own. Of digging and widening your own moat and building the toll bridge that crosses it. Of massive, unbelievable success. For many entrepreneurs, that is the goal.
Four days after Jeff Raikes sent his famous “Go Huskers!” email, Warren Buffett responded. His reply contained the normal conversational pleasantries, glowing commentary on Raikes’s analysis of his position on investing in Microsoft (Buffett wouldn’t), and an envious description of the company’s monopoly power: “It’s as if you were getting paid for every gallon of water starting in a small stream, but with added amounts received as tributaries turned the stream into an Amazon.” At the very beginning of his lecture in 2014, Peter Thiel echoed this sentiment in his own way. “I have a single idée fixe that I am completely obsessed with on the business side,” he said in his characteristic, hitched speaking style, “which is that if you’re the founder-entrepreneur starting a company, you always want to aim for monopoly, and you always want to avoid competition.” You want to be the only one directing traffic and collecting tolls across the widest moat possible.
I mention all this because being really good at going through the side door is an amazing, and sometimes necessary, skill. But it can also be a double-edged sword. It can get you off the ground and set you up for fantastic growth, but it can get you in a lot of trouble, too. Indeed, that tension is present whenever you search for the Raikes-Buffett emails online. They are often held up by aspiring entrepreneurs as brilliant examples of business acumen and strategic analysis, but what many of those people don’t realize is that the entire reason they are able to read those emails at all — most often in the form of pdf versions of a printed-out email chain — is because they are part of the public record, submitted as deposition and trial exhibits in a class action antitrust lawsuit brought against Microsoft in the early 2000s by consumers in multiple American states. This email exchange became a key part of the plaintiffs’ opening statement in that suit, which was settled not long afterward for more than a billion dollars.
All of which is to say, Go through the side door, please! Do everything within your power to find your way into the market where you are likely to have the most success. Just make sure when you get inside and set up shop, you avoid becoming what you fought so hard against in turning your dream of starting your own business into a reality.
All vehicles need quality tires. But these important parts eventually wear down and need to be repaired or replaced. So tire repair and replacement services are always in demand. In fact, the U.S. tire industry is worth about $35 billion. And U.S. drivers shell out about $3 billion each year due to tire damage from potholes.
If you’re looking for a new business opportunity that’s steady and fairly recession-proof, the tire business could be perfect for you. But you don’t have to start from scratch when building your new enterprise.
Franchises provide the opportunity to connect with a recognizable brand and utilize their proven systems and processes. There are plenty of big names in the industry to consider. In fact, some even offer various automotive repair and maintenance services.
If you’re interested in purchasing a tire repair franchise or similar auto service center, check out the list below for options.
Tire Franchise Opportunities
Here are the best tire repair franchise businesses for aspiring entrepreneurs to consider:
1. Big O Tires
Big O Tires has been providing tire and auto service since 1962. It has more than 450 locations throughout the country. And franchisees get some freedom to operate independently while still receiving support when needed. In addition to traditional franchises, the company also offers multi-unit opportunities, veteran and first responder discounts, and conversion opportunities for existing tire businesses. The franchise fee ranges from $10,000 to $35,000. And the total upfront investment ranges from $311,000 to $1,138,300.
2. Tuffy Tire & Auto Service
Tuffy Tire & Auto Service started in Detroit and has been around for more than 50 years. The company offers tires, muffler service, and various other auto repairs. The company is dedicated to staying on top of new technology in the auto industry. And they provide extensive support to franchisees. You don’t need automotive experience. And they offer both single and multi-unit opportunities. The fee for new franchises is $30,000. And the initial investment ranges from $224,000 and $413,500.
3. Spiffy
Spiffy is a mobile, on-demand car care business. The company provides tires, oil changes, washing, detailing, and glass service. Since it’s a mobile business, franchisees can keep costs relatively low. And you may be able to get up and running quickly since you don’t necessarily need a physical storefront location. The company also has proprietary technology and green solutions that improve the experience and attract more customers. The franchise fee is $40,000. And upfront costs range from $100,000 to $200,000.
4. RNR Tire Express
RNR Tire Express provides a variety of tire replacement and auto services. The company provides exclusive territories for new franchises. And you don’t need specific automotive industry experience to be considered. There are currently more than 500 locations around the country. So there’s a fair amount of brand recognition already. They also provide unique rent-to-own payment options to attract even more customers, increasing profit potential for franchisees. The initial franchise fee is $35,000. And upfront costs range from $500,000 to $1,000,000.
5. Meineke Car Care Center
Meineke is a total auto care franchise business. With tons of services, franchises can enjoy a variety of revenue streams. And the company has national and well-established brand recognition in markets across the country. It also provides a dedicated tech platform for performing inspections and managing operations. Basically, this can make the day to day operations much more straightforward, which is especially helpful for new franchises. They look for franchisees with business acumen, strong community ties, and a drive to succeed. The initial franchise fee is $35,000. And startup costs range from $319,774 to $610,318.
6. GoMobile Tires
GoMobile provides customers with a mobile tire buying experience. Basically, you can run everything from a van instead of a large storefront. You can keep a minimal inventory and each discount franchise is set up with an online purchasing platform for customers to easily order online. The company is especially popular with fleet vehicles. So franchisees can get lots of ongoing business from local companies that need tires. You also get access to training and general business support. The fee for the franchises is $30,000. And total costs come to about $170,000; you can buy the mobile shop and pretty much everything you need right from GoMobile.
7. All Tire Supply
All Tire Supply offers tire repair materials, tools, and equipment. As a mobile distributor, they work with auto repair shops, dealers, and retailers that need replacement parts. Since it’s not a traditional repair shop, you can keep startup costs relatively low. For example, you just need a warehouse for inventory and distribution network, rather than a fully developed storefront. As a B2B business, this option also allows you to serve a different market than many automotive franchises. And you don’t need to worry about building an extensive team or service list. The fee for the franchises is $50,000. And startup costs range from $80,300 to $172,800.
8. Tire Pros
Tire Pros is a network of select independent tire shops throughout the country. When your shop is selected for the program, you receive a dedicated account manager, training, purchase incentives, relationships with vendors, and marketing support. It’s also backed by American Tire Distributors, the largest tire distribution network in North America. And there are currently more than 600 franchise locations throughout the country. The fee for the franchises is just $7,000. And the total upfront investment ranges from $218,000to $369,500.
9. In Motion Tires
In Motion Tires provides full-service mobile tire and wheel shops around the country. They currently have markets available in multiple states. Owners get the opportunity to work closely with customers and work with their hands on a daily basis. The company provides state of the art equipment and business support to help franchisees get their operations off the ground. They also provide training for new franchises. There are currently only a few set locations. So markets across the country are open. The company doesn’t publish its franchise fees or costs. But you can reach out to them to find out more.
10. Tread Connection
Tread Connection offers mobile tire repair and installation vans. The company offers a tire repair and replacement franchise with low overhead. No automotive experience is necessary. And the company provides training and protected territories. There are also incentives for franchises that include multiple territories. The minimum fee for the franchises is $37,500. The mobile tire repair van costs between $115,000 and $135,000. And other startup expenses range from $11,700 to $30,900.
How much does a tire repair franchise cost?
Tire repair and automotive franchises can cost anywhere between $100,000 and $1,000,000. Generally, mobile franchises cost between about $100,000 and $200,000. And larger brick and mortar shops that provide tire repair and other automotive services cost between $200,000 and $1,000,000.
Is owning a tire shop profitable?
Tire repair shop profits depend on a number of factors, including shop size, inventory, team size, prices, location, and sales and service volume. Moderately sized tire shops with minimal expenses may expect a profit margin of around 20 percent or more. Adding multiple revenue streams like automotive repairs may help shops become more profitable.
How much can you make owning a tire shop?
The amount a tire repair shop brings in can vary widely. However, a moderately sized shop with a few employees and service bays can bring in between $36,000 and $60,000 per month. That could lead to monthly profits of $20,000 or more.
How do I start a tire business?
To start a new tire repair shop, you first need to find a location. Scout a location that’s easy to access with plenty of space for repair bays and inventory storage. You should also research the customers in the area. Pretty much every location has some need for tire repair or replacement. But the income range and driving habits of your customers may impact what type of products and services you provide. For example, shops in a low-income area may benefit from offering used tires. But if you’re opening up in a city with lots of public transit, research competition in the area to make sure the market isn’t too saturated.
You also need to set up your location with lifts and other equipment to facilitate quality service. Then invest in the necessary inventory. This often involves creating relationships with popular tire brands. You’ll also need to hire some tire and auto repair professionals to provide the necessary services to your customers. Offer training. Create a service list and prices. Brand and market your business. Then manage the daily operations.
These are just some of the steps involved in opening a tire business on your own. If you want a step-by-step guide laid out for you, a franchise may be the way to go. The opportunities above give you access to proven systems and set processes so you know what to do every step of the way. Then you can utilize strong brand recognition to immediately build trust with customers in your area.
With every startup or business idea, there comes a dream to scale it to the moon. I am a journalist with two small startups under my belt. Being in the startup world for years, I have been on both sides of the spectrum. On one hand, I have mentored many startups due to my association with incubators and accelerators, and on the other hand, I have done extensive research into possible resources, mentors, guides, investors, and backers that I, personally can utilize for my own startups.
When you are a programmer, the reality of your idea is just behind some lines of code; but, if you are a non-technical founder like me, things become difficult. What do you do?
You collaborate with entities like a startup studio.
The recent trend of startup studios is giving non-technical founders access to resources that help them “build” their idea. These resources can be in the form of mentorship, specialized teams, and technical leadership as well.
If you have never heard of a startup studio then here is what you need to know. It is a setup that is built to enable and support other startups. It can also be called a startup factory. The three aspects that define a startup studio are:
– internally generated ideas,
– the singular goal of supporting other startups,
– and a proper infrastructure of idea enabling resources.
The question is, does it help?
Companies such as Dollar Shave Club came out of the Science startup studio in Santa Monica, California, and prove to be a good case study for what’s possible.
As a non-technical founder, collaborating with a startup studio can provide you with the following benefits:
1. It can act as your CTO/Co-Founder
Startup studios are more invested in your business than a web design agency. This is because startup studios build you from the ground up, they help you launch the idea and watch it grow. Hence, they are motivated to provide guidance, support, and resources for a longer period of time.
Startup studios also act as your co-founder and CTO to “build” your product and later also work on the growth of your startup and devise strategies for the future. The key interest of any startup studio is the success and growth of their startups, its valuations, and its future.
2. It helps to create blueprints or prototypes
In the startup world, if you are stepping in with just a passionate idea without proper resources, guidance, or backup. There is little chance that your startup will succeed.
However, with a startup studio, you can raise your success rate significantly. It is because they provide an almost foolproof blueprint on how to launch and develop your idea. With the help of a startup studio, you can build a prototype you can use to move forward with your idea, validate it, do risk analysis, or calculate possible lacks and failures.
3. It can help you validate product/market fit
When you come up with an idea, initially that is all it is. No matter how great, how innovative, or problem solving an idea is, it is just… an idea. Until you roll up your sleeves and work on it. Once you get started on bringing your idea to a reality that’s when the first pool of obstacles, failures, and problems arrive. This is the first test of your endurance and the validity of your idea.
With a startup studio, you can do just that. You can take your idea, create a prototype, launch it, and validate if it can withhold in the real world.
4. It gives you access to idea pools
Startup studios go through several businesses, ideas, potential startups on an everyday basis. Their exposure, to new ideas, technologies, and possibilities, is immense. The individuals in the studio are also tech-savvy and innovative which leads to even more solutions and ideas.
It is a high possibility that when growing your startup you will reach a dead-end, a failure, a u-turn, or crossroads. When faced with such situations, you can bounce ideas, discuss, evaluate, and analyze each opportunity or solution with the startup studio. The diverse set of mindsets will allow you to make a suitable pivot for the future of your company.
5. It lets you tap into a pool of resources
With a startup studio, you have easy access to tech-savvy, diverse minded, experienced, professionals. A startup studio has a team of designers, developers, marketers, and administrative staff for the early-stage startups they are associated with.
Having access to a pool of resources, startups can get all the help they need in launching their idea without hiring and thus, saving the expense of salaries during its prototype phase.
Conclusion
While a studio startup can be highly impactful for non-technical founders, it can be highly beneficial and enabling for technical founders as well. To run a business you need a whole team of experts and enablers, a startup can not be a one-man show. To thrive, every startup requires collaboration, loyalty, sharing of ideas, resources, and a team to lean on. So whether you are a non-techincal or a technical founder joining a venture-capital-backed studio will absolutely enable growth opportunities.
“No more romanticizing about how cool it is to be an entrepreneur. It’s a struggle to save your company’s life – and your own skin – every day of the week.”
