by Matthew Horn, Esq., President and Co-Founder of Legal Services Link
When done properly, launching a tech company can be a fulfilling and exciting endeavor. When done improperly, it can be a nightmare.
Below are five tips for ensuring your company is a success.
Tip 1: Identify and Evaluate the Competition.
Ok, you want to start a tech company. You must have an idea that forms the basis for the company. The next step is determining whether there is an actual need for that company. In order to answer that question, you need to identify and objectively evaluate the competition. Is there competition? Is the competition satisfying your potential customers’ needs? If so, how will you improve on the competition? Will those improvements lure customers to your company? If your idea involves marginally improving on the competition, that may not be enough to build a sustainable tech company, so you might want to head back to the drawing board.
Tip 2: Developing a Business Plan and Strategy.
A lot of tech companies these days only worry about getting users. They put no thought into how they intend to monetize those users. This has worked for a couple of high-flying companies that have come up with a business strategy after-the-fact, but exponentially more companies that you have never heard of have failed because they couldn’t monetize their idea. My recommendation is after you have come up with an idea and evaluated the competition, sit down and draft a business plan. It doesn’t need to be more than a few pages, but it will make you think about you intend to monetize your idea and build a sustainable, and ultimately, profitable company. Users are great, but profit is key.
Tip 3: Be Flexible.
Very few ideas and visions are perfectly executed. That said, you need to get your company as close to perfect as you can before launch. Once you launch, however, it is not time to get complacent. You need to continue adapting and refining your business to make it better—more user-friendly, more functional, more profitable, etc. Ultimately, if you do this, you will end up with a business that looks nothing like the one you initially envisioned and/or launched, which is exactly what you want, not something to be frowned upon. If you are not willing to modify your initial vision and idea, you will eventually end up with no business at all. So be flexible and embrace change.
Tip 4: Focus on Mobile.
I started a website that helps those with legal needs quickly and easily connect with attorneys—http://www.legalserviceslink.com. When we were developing the site, we made it mobile-friendly, but frankly, I didn’t think anyone would use the site to find and hire an attorney from their phone because it’s such an important and “traditional” transaction. I was wrong. The majority of users use the site from their phone. In fact, virtually everyone uses their phones for everything these days. So when you’re developing your idea, no matter what it relates to, make your product mobile friendly, and if it can be used as an app, get an app built too.
Tip 5: Get Help.
One of the greatest things a person can know in life is what they don’t know. In that regard, I can’t think of anyone I know that is an expert in an industry, knows how to code, has experience in sales, has experience with marketing, is a proficient accountant, and has a legal degree. If you are that person, congrats, you might be able to build a tech company on your own! If you are not that person, you need help. So get help. Help comes in many forms—partners, mentors, employees, independent contractors, and outside service providers. Identify the knowledge and skill set needed to help you create a profitable tech company, and then, accumulate that knowledge and skill set.
Matthew Horn, Esq. is the President and Co-Founder of Legal Services Link, a leading online platform connecting those with legal needs with attorneys interested in satisfying those needs — at the click of a button. He holds a BS in Accounting from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a JD from The John Marshall Law School.
