Last year became a bumpy road full of business challenges: aftereffects of the global pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and economic challenges. 2023 isn’t going to become easy, but taking into account several essential tips can ease the way.

Here are some pieces of advice every startup founder should consider when starting a company in 2023.

Start with a plan

Though it seems that nothing can be planned in our fast-changing world, you should do it anyway. The plans can be changed, but you should have an exact road map for your business. It tells you where you are going and gives you the way to get there.

A business plan can consist of many aspects, but it’s crucial to cover these:

- Market analysis

Here you collect data about your market within an industry. You learn who your potential customers are, their buying habits, your target market size, the amount of money potential customers are willing to pay, and your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses. It’s a risk reducer because you can better understand customers, market conditions, and challenges.

To conduct the analysis properly, follow some steps:

Figure out the purpose of your study.
Deep dive into your industry’s outlook using sources like Statista and CB Insights.
Analyze your target audience by primary factors (age, income, location, education level, etc.) and others like needs, interests, and personalities. Consider making customer personas based on your research.
Create a competitors list. Check each and conduct a SWOT analysis to determine their strengths and weaknesses.

- Go-to-market strategy

Based on your market analysis, you’ll be able to cover the next important step — GTM. Please read an excellent guide for creating the strategy. But we also want to state some crucial things to consider.

There’s no one size fits all solution for the strategy. You should create a unique one.
Become your customers’ best friend. Find out what they need and how they discover and estimate new products.
Iterate, A/B test, and try everything you can as inexpensively as possible. Be open to out-of-the-box ideas.
Don’t consider MVP a product. It can be whatever you need to begin experimenting to see what works.
Design the product for the go-to-market strategy, not the other way. A revolutionary product that can’t reach customers fails.

- Funding request

Are you eager to get funding for your startup? In this case, you have to figure out your funding needs in this section of your plan. Be sure to cover the amount of money you need, funding ways, what will the requested money go toward, and debt financing or equity financing (selling shares of your company).

- Financial projections

Here, ensure you work within periods and try to be as specific as possible. Include here the amount of money you have in expenses, projected income, your break-even point, and business exit strategy. Remember to avoid overestimating the revenue.

Investors would like to see clarity in the revenue targets determination. Be sure to include the number of resources necessary to achieve the goals. The investors can ask about your future SEO, custom software development spending, or the amount of money you’ll need on post-sales support. Begin with upper projections, consider your market opportunity and every part of your funnel (generation channels, conversion from “Knowledge” to “Engagement,” etc.) before setting a budget.

Track spendings

Your top skill is financial management. It can give you opportunities and save your startup from failure. Here are some tips:

- Outsource and hire carefully

Entrepreneurs frequently cover many positions at their startups since doing everything themselves is the simplest way to save money. However, when your firm expands, this becomes less practical as you may not have enough time and skills, for example, in software development.

Yeah, hiring is a long way requiring much money and time. But there’s an option for technical things, mainly — outsourcing. Try this for web development or UI/UX design services. To get more information about outsourcing, check our article.

- Use services to control the budget

Use a single tool to integrate any wire transfers, checks, or other payments your company needs to make. Services for online banking, such as Bill.com, are helpful.

Control credit card charges. Consider a Brex that allows you to issue cards by the department and apply spending limits.

The most considerable portion of your monthly spending will be related to labor. Try Justworks to provide in-depth monthly reports for each employee. Create a list of each employee’s current burn costs using Airtable, including salaries, healthcare expenses, and employer taxes.

- Track revenue daily

Setting up daily emails or weekly updates on income is one of the most crucial measures to track your finances effectively. Although you may already be receiving information about the revenue, this is insufficient to provide you with a complete view of your financial situation.

Perfect your customer’s experience

Firstly, always be sure your product looks and works great. It’s a basis. No qualitative, bug-free code and user experience — no idea validation. Poor results can be because of bugs, not because of the idea. Ensure your software development process is done perfectly and provide IT support services to fix issues quickly.

Secondly, ensure your website and UI/UX workflow are fantastic. The simplest way is doing an audit. The profs will check your page speed, review the code, and make a UX/UI, SEO, and competitor audit.

The trend towards interactive experience is so strong. Brands try to engage customers digitally. Look at the metaverse, where we interact with brands through 3D environments and VR. We can browse and “try on” virtual products like clothes, jewelry, and accessories.

Another popular trend is blending newly gained digital experience with an old-fashioned lifestyle. The pandemic made consumers try new ways of living. In 2023 moviegoers will go to the cinema and order their popcorn with QR codes.

Get funding

Companies that are unable to secure funds through conventional methods turn to crowdfund. Check the list of most popular crowdfunding platforms:

Crowdfunding is a great tool, but you’ll need more investments to move on. There are 2 options: venture capital and angel investors. As the competition grows, try to use more ways to reach your potential investor. Send them messages on LinkedIn or through personal contacts, find people that can introduce you to each other, and visit events where you can talk to them personally. Just cold emails with a pitch deck is a passive way. Investors want to see that you’re highly proactive and creative. Consider reaching them as the first test. They’ll estimate it too.

Other ways to get funded are business accelerators and incubators, grants, and bootstrapping.

Take advantage of modern tech

Make your startup idea special with technologies. Consider blockchain, dapp, or defi, which are gaining popularity and investments now.

Disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), cloud computing, and high-speed network protocols like 5G will continue to advance in 2023. Additionally, the distinctions between these revolutionary digital technologies will become less clear because they are interconnected.

The technologies also result in better supply chains, customer service, and successful sales and marketing.

Study. Always.

As a startup founder, you must be aware of many things, from hiring to marketing. It requires constant learning. Here are some resources recommended:

YC Startup Library with 400+ materials from articles to videos.
Pitch deck teardown by TechCrunch with the best and worst things about different pitch decks.
Short lessons for startup founders from Google.
Newsletter from Andrew Chen, a partner at a16z fund.
A weekly advice column about building products and driving growth with 250,000+ subscribers.

Check out even more materials to learn here.

To sum up

We covered the most vital factors you need to think about when launching a startup in 2023. Plan, do financial management, make your customers happy, use all funding ways, tap into technologies, and learn.

Your idea may become the next unicorn. Don’t let economic vibrations stop you from realizing it.

In-House vs. Outsourcing: What’s the Best Choice for You