It’s time for another poll here at Young Entrepreneur! This time we’re asking “What is the best way for a startup to earn revenue?”
Most startups are full of passion and great ideas but their businesses fizzle out because they can’t bring in enough money to keep themselves afloat. If you only have 3 to 6 months to start making enough to live off of, what is the best way to do it?
As always, your answers will be shared with the Young Entrepreneur community and will help inspire other new businesses owners to get started. Your answers can help make the difference to help a new startup make it and not have to close down shop.
Looking forward to your comments!
You can reply below in the blog or also at the post I created in the Young Entrepreneur Forums: New Poll – What’s The Best Way For A Startup To Earn Revenue?
Matthew Toren is an Award Winning Author, Serial Entrepreneur, and Investor. He Co-Founded YoungEntrepreneur.com along with his brother Adam. Matthew is co-author of the newly released book:Small Business, Big Vision: “Lessons on How to Dominate Your Market from Self-Made Entrepreneurs Who Did it Right” and also co-author of Kidpreneurs.
The number one thing to focus on is your first sale. A lot of businesses fail because they spend their time on letter head, furniture, office space, etc. What really matters is getting in front of your customer, finding out what they need, and providing that service/product.
It really is that simple but is by no means easy. Sales is hard work and is a required skill for every entrepreneur. If you have no sales or marketing experience I recommend you get a sales job before going out on your own.
In my opinion one should not borrow if he does not have customers.. avoid it as far as is possible… I have following post addressing the same:
http://www.awakeningentrepreneur.com/blog/2008/09/learning-from-2.html
The best way for a startup to start earning revenue is to rent ad space on their website (asumming that they are online). You can setup a Google Adsense account or try something more original like … Rent-A-Webpage for $30 or $50 bucks a month.
I beleive that online startup is much easier than offline startup. If your business turns out to be a success online, you can eventually move it offline, especially if it involves hard goods or a service. The transtion will be a lot easier because then you will already have a customer base.
I’ve actually started a forum dedicated to sharing ideas and experiences for how to monetize a start up quickly and successfully. Feel free to have a look and register at http://www.squillionaire.org.