One of my favourite says is from Henry Ford (actually there are many quotes from Ford I like) and it goes like this; “The harder I work … the luckier I get”. So you could think of the barriers to growing a web based business as essentially a competitive advantage. That being, if you are first out of the blocks and gaining some traction with your web based business all of the hard work to establish leadership and build a user base will need to be replicated by whoever follows. Hard work and traction are the web based start-ups competitive advantage.
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That said, it takes more than just hard work to grow a user base. It also takes cash and that is one reason you may wish to consider a seed round for your start-up. Often the single biggest barrier to growth is the cost of acquiring new users. If you can do so profitably, it is often the best investment and biggest reason to raise capital.
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However, it takes more than just dollars to acquire customers and what follows is a list of ingredients to help grow your web based business;
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- Starts with “a kick ass product”
- MAKE SURE the product works!
- Make sure the product solves a problem.
- Targeted events or conferences can yield results
- Love your users and communicate with them … especially early on.
- 20% of new users come from using your product, build in viral loops.
- Have an inspired level of service and support … like fresh books.
- Google Adwords are Crack for web based businesses
- NEVER stop getting feedback
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That is the short list in no particular order, I am sure there are more, however, this list probably covers 80% of the stuff that will lead to success.
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Ian Graham

Filed under: Commercialization, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Ottawa, Start-up, The Code Factory by Ian
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