The secret cheat codes for startup success

The lean methodology is a smart approach to your startup if you want to make efficient and effective use of your time rather than potentially falling down a rabbit hole of assumptions. Eric Ries’s bestselling book, The Lean Startup, is often lauded as the startup methodology. Fuelled by his frustration that so many businesses fail because they have not tested their assumptions before releasing a product to market, Reis encourages startups to eliminate uncertainty and apply scientific method principles to your business by following these three steps in a continuous cycle:

1. Build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) – a product that has enough features to satisfy early adopters.
2. Test and measure – set your test objectives and quickly assess if your product meets them.
3. Learn and iterate – take the learnings from your test and apply them to the next iteration of your product.

Ries recommends moving as quickly as you can through steps 1-3 and starting over again, creating a continuous loop of learning. “Rather than guess what consumers want, entrepreneurs should release new products in small, incremental stages in order to gain feedback and pivot the company’s vision when necessary”.

If you’re not a designer but require visual content to promote your business, then online graphic design platforms such as Canva, are worth serious consideration. Canva offers 400k+ templates, which you can quickly customise to your needs, without having to be a professional designer. Social media images, presentations, posters, documents – and so much more – can also be created via your mobile, so you could even be building your marketing collateral from the comfort of your sofa one evening, or if you’re waiting in line for a coffee. It’s all saved in the cloud so there’s no worry around losing your designs. You can even create your own Brand Kit to ensure you (and future team members) always use the right colours, font, etc. As you grow, you can invite team members into projects so you’re all working on the same page. It’s an affordable way to quickly create beautiful imagery for your brand.

• Read more: How to build your small business brand using Canva

This principle claims 80% of results come from 20% of the effort you put in. Therefore, focus on the top 20% of tasks that will impact your goals. Rank your tasks based on their level of priority. Leave any non-urgent tasks on your to-do list until you next have free time in your schedule to address them. Focus on the tasks that matter most to achieve your goals quickly. If a task does not directly help you achieve your primary business objective, then it’s a distraction.

When running a business, the last thing you need is to be bogged down by admin and losing focus on the things that really matter. On the other hand, there’s always so much to deal with and you may not have the support around you to delegate time-consuming tasks. To be more productive, you have two options: either working more hours or working smarter. I think we all agree on our preferred option here. With this in mind, here are 32 hacks for working more productively. From saying ‘no’ to meetings, to getting to grips with project management software such as Asana, Trello and Monday.com. You’ll be surprised at how many shortcuts you unlock this way.

Sometimes it really is who you know. Great business contacts can have a fundamental impact on how quickly you grow your business. It isn’t all about generating new clients – it’s about strategically building your network to utilise expertise, influence, and services to good effect. There are many different types of business contacts – suppliers, wholesalers, creatives, lenders, investors, advisors, mentors, developers, software providers, hardware providers, manufacturers – to name a few! Establishing strong relationships will help ensure you can turn to the right person when needed, whether it’s for a good deal on a product or being introduced to a potential investor.

As you can see, it’s not just about tactics that can fast track your way to success, but working out where to focus the time you have, and what you need to have in place to be most productive. Technology has served startups with a feast of tools that can be leveraged for optimum efficiency and productivity, helping one of you go a long way. Keep your business goals front of mind and explore the tools, tactics, and platforms that can help towards this goal, right now. It might feel like extra work setting them up at first, but once in place, you’ll quickly notice the benefits.