Good Practices of a Lean Startup
Starting your new business can be daunting and its best to firstly consider the good practices of a lean startup before your activity goes into full swing. For the purpose of this blog post, we will assume you are running a business, in an effort to convert it to a lean startup. Running a lean start up has many meanings, but for this blog post we understand it to be a business that can scale without having to put a large amount of resource in place to compensate. There are a number of areas to manage in a new startup, or plates to spin, so organization is key to managing your lean startup.
Getting to the lean start up stage takes time. The goal is to get to a cash rich position, while being financially disciplined at the same time. A number of strategies can be used here. Offering internships for example, or running a four day week instead of five. This could save a lot in overheads. Consider organic marketing. This is a long term strategy however, but can pay off in spades over time. Its easy to spend a large budget on paid PPC advertising, but doubling your efforts in house can reap rewards.
A complete review on your overheads should be made. Its important not to choke the business income while doing this but to maintain smooth operation of the company during the process. Look for easy wins first. Look at the business utilities, power down electrical machinery each day, use less heating or cooling and use programmable thermostats. During Covid-19 lockdown, we decided to take the opportunity to go paperless where possible. This is going to save thousands in ink and paper costs.
Lean startup practices should be a part of a business plan. The Benefits of having a business plan are many and provide a good pathway for any business.
Automation where possible is key. Take a look at resource heavy process where for example, one person is bridging the gap between two systems. Can this be integrated? Can you assign this resource different work to help save the company in the long term?
