UTEN Portugal guided dozens of local startups that expanded globally. From our experience, small businesses lack an upfront global view. Entrepreneurs focus solely on their local success and expect to grow locally. They invest all resources locally. For a tech startup, that spells disaster. The UTEN Global Startup Program helps startups place their company within the global market. From that point, we establish a financing strategy for a scalable project. Then we look for investors and set up business processes.
Below are our five tips for tech startups looking to scale up.
- Think big. As an entrepreneur, you should see the growth of your business from the get-go. If you invest money in an idea without having a global vision, you are most likely doomed to fail. Look into development possibilities early on. A scalable plan will bring five times more profitability. Pitch to investors to attract funding. Big ideas attract big investments.
- Know your product inside-out. If you develop software solutions, identify who your primary customers are. Will business clients generate more revenue than end-users? What marketing channels will you use to find leads and sell? What resources will you use to cater to your niche of customers?
- Automate your processes. Focus on the critical actions and set up operations that automate as many processes as possible. Delegate anything you can, from lead-generating to data collection. A successful entrepreneur will teach their team the core competencies and make their business function without micromanaging everything.
- Define scaling. 75% of startups fail. The main reason is hiring too many people when scaling up. The second reason is spending too much money, and developing too many products. That's because of the common misconception that scaling up means investing in everything at once. What we recommend doing instead is use funding wisely to work with the same team. That means reinvesting your revenue to ensure growth. Developing ONE product that is better than anything else on the market will help you expand.
- Get a high-quality customer relationship management system. Companies that set up their CRM early on prevent data loss and stay organized when they scale up.
To sum up, funding your startup is a matter of identifying the right financial resources and directing them towards one product. For inspiration, read about Global Startup Program Beneficiaries and their primary products.