Everyday we see new Startup Founders and Entrepreneurs coming up with countless business ideas, offering all kinds of products and services. That is great! The question is, “Are these businesses going to be sustainable?”

Is there a recipe to run a startup business well that would increase its chance to reach success, growth, and sustainability? Well, that is exactly what éclat Consulting would like to offer to these Startup Founders and Entrepreneurs: some practical tips that are so simple to remember and understand!

In our humble opinion, timing is everything in order for a startup idea to transform into a successful business. Therefore, éclat Consulting formulates these easy-to-remember 5 steps, to thoughtfully and effectively guide any Startup Founders and Entrepreneurs to run their startup businesses.

The 5 Steps are called the ONTIME Steps:
Step 1: Origination;
Step 2: Number-crunching;
Step 3: Team-formation;
Step 4: Initiation and
            Market-sensing;
Step 5: Extra-mile.

Step 1: Origination
This is the initial conception stage. At this stage, to ensure sustainability, your business idea must address the pain points of the target market. The passion of each Startup Founder or Entrepreneur on the concept/idea of the business is much higher when he or she shares a common pain point with the target market.

Step 2: Number-crunching
Immediately after you gave birth to the business concept/idea, you must challenge it yourself. You want to make sure that you have a sound business concept/idea. You need to believe in it no less than 100%. One excellent tool that we would propose for you to adopt is the “Business Model Canvas”, invented by Alexander Osterwalder (see: http://alexosterwalder.com/). This tool shall help you articulate the following 9 building blocks of your business concept/idea:

1. Customer Segments – Who do you target to serve?
2. Value Propositions – What pain points of each customer segment do you solve? Why should they go to you and not your competitors?
3. Channels – How do you deliver the value propositions to the customer segments? Which channels do you use for your communication, distribution, and sales to your customer segments?
4. Customer Relationships – What kind of relation relationships you wish to establish or maintain with each customer segment?
5. Revenue Streams – Where do the revenue streams come from for the value propositions you offer to each customer segment?
6. Key Resources – Who or what are your mandatory assets to offer and deliver the previously described elements?
7. Key Activities – What primary activities do you must perform?
8. Key Partnerships – Who externally can strengthen your competitive advantage position?
9. Cost Structure – Where do the costs come from to finance your business?

During this number-crunching step, you must get all the necessary answers to make sure that the money coming in will be greater than the money going out. Take advantage of the 9 Building Blocks of the Business Model Canvas to help set also other measurable performance indicators of your Startup Business.

Step 3: Team-formation
Then you need to proceed with identifying and assembling the minimum necessary (most critical) manpower required to run your startup business at the very early stage. You may not want to have a fully dedicated team members recruited at this early stage to run your startup business, however, you must ensure that all the key activities of your startup business have been covered.

Step 4: Initiation & Market-sensing
The time has finally come for you to discover your proof of concept by starting small with your startup business. At this stage, it is very important to sense quickly if you could generate enough tractions or transactions to realize healthy margins at 70%, 80%, 90%, or more than 100% of your revenue target. Do not rush to scale up your business too quickly, before the margins generated during this stage, and other measurable indicators have achieved healthy performance.

Step 5: Extra-mile
Finally, you must apply all the learning lessons/insights gathered so far, to revamp your startup business operations for better future performance. It is time also to review and identify missing initiatives/actions that would catapult your startup business to a higher level of performance/productivity.

May you be motivated by the speech delivered by Winston Churchill on October 29,1941 to the graduating class at Harrow School. “Never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.” Because, you and we know that not very many startup businesses get it right on their first attempt.

We hope you find this tips on ONTIME steps useful in doing the right things better with your startup business ideas.