10 Business Startup Tips For Aspiring Veteran Entrepreneurs

Creating a business can certainly prove challenging. There are a number of key aspects to research and implement in order to start a business with growth potential. But as an aspiring veteran entrepreneur, you can certainly make it happen.

Starting a new business takes motivation, dedication, vigilance, and preparation. These are all keywords veterans are familiar with. It’s no wonder why there are 2.4 million veteran-owned firms in the U.S. according to the Small Business Administration.

Veteran owned businesses are also spread across nearly every industry. From finance and insurance to retail and real estate. However, having a business idea and creating an actual running business are two different entities.

For instance, you need to understand digital marketing, search engine optimization, business positioning, user experience, or something as simple as where to buy domain names for your new business.

To get you and your new business moving in a powerful direction, we compiled 10 business startup tips for aspiring veteran entrepreneurs. These tips may prove beneficial on your road march to entrepreneur success.

1. Develop A Long-Term Business Mindset

It is absolutely imperative for new entrepreneurs to develop a long-term business mindset. This is the top business startup tip for aspiring veteran entrepreneurs. So many new business owners go into the process thinking short-term, and this can sabotage the business before it even gets moving.

Instead, focus on developing a business that has serious years ahead of it. Build a plan that will grow your business for years to come, focusing on hundreds of thousands in profits, rather than a few thousand bucks. Think legacy.

2. Have A Solution To Your Market’s Problem

What can your business, products, and/or services solve? This is a very important question. And the answer will be your business’ foundation. This means knowing what you want to accomplish with your business. What is your mission?

With your mission outlined, you can stay mission focused. And it is all about solving a problem. For instance, if your market can’t sleep, what is a top solution that will get your target audience excited. The solution to lack of sleep.

3. Find The Perfect Niche For Your New Business Endeavor

Niche is essential to the growth and success of your business. And as an aspiring veteran entrepreneur, having a niche-focused business can simplify a lot of the obstacles that are ahead.

Having the right niche can keep your business on track, as well as keep it profitable. You don’t want too broad of a niche, and you don’t want a niche to narrow. You need to find the perfect balance.

The perfect niche will align with your long-term mindset as a veteran entrepreneur. This means no seasonal niches, or small timeframe niches. For instance, a business encompassing summer only products has a very short window for sales.

Niche popularity is also important. You can employ Google Trends to help you find popular, long-term stability when it comes to a niche for your veteran-owned business.

4. Profitability Is The Key To Business Success

Keeping your eye on annual revenue is always good. However, it may not be the best focus right out of the gate. Instead, keep your mind on profits. The more profitability your business has, the more resources you will have to invest back into your company. This will ensure that the business continues to grow.

5. Narrow The Focus

As an aspiring veteran entrepreneur, it is imperative to begin your business with a narrow focus. Once you have captured interest and customers in your market via a narrow focus, you can expand further.

Focusing in on one or two product and/or service solutions, you can build customer loyalty and create a buzz. It is also easier to start a business with a narrow focus, since you will only be managing specific aspects.

6. Always Keep Customer Needs A Top Priority

Customers are important. This is obvious. However, you would be surprised by how many new business owners and entrepreneurs fail to meet customer needs and expectations. Why? Because no one is listening.

Finding customer needs and wants, along with managing those needs and wants, is absolutely critical to the success of your new veteran-owned business. And with online ratings and reviews so prevalent in retail today, customer satisfaction should be top priority.

To keep customer needs at the top of the agenda, set up in-depth FAQs and have a customer support line of communication open 24/7. If a customer is not happy, do everything you can to make the problems go away.

7. Ensure Employees Are Happy

You probably can’t do everything on your own as an aspiring veteran entrepreneur starting a new business. There are a ton of channels to grow, like marketing, sales, inbound and outbound marketing, digital marketing, SEO, content marketing, shipping, customer support, and more.

This means that you will probably need employees. But having employees can create company culture problems that you will want to foresee before they arise. To keep top talent and ensure employees are in it for the long haul, keep them happy.

Have a fun working environment, show appreciation weekly, give them free lunch, and serve up remote work options. These can ensure employees are happy, giving your new business serious growth potential.

8. Align Your New Business with Your Interests

This is not always possible, because your interests may not be all that profitable. But if you can align your business with your interests, you can make work fun. This will also help you keep your long-term business plan moving in a strong direction. It will also be easier to create a legacy when your interests are behind your business solutions.

9. Stay Abreast Of Competitors And Market Shifts

Recon and preparation is essential for mission success. This goes for business too. To ensure you are on the right track as an aspiring veteran entrepreneur starting a new business, you will need to do a bit of recon on competitors and the market.

This is also not a one-time deal. You need to stay abreast of competitors and shifts in the market constantly. Doing recon twice a month or monthly can prove profitable when done right.

10. Make It Happen Regardless Of Timing

There is never a perfect moment in time to start a new business. The aim for budding entrepreneurs is to get moving and make things happen. Timing is irrelevant in most business startup scenarios.

If you have a viable business idea with a market in need of your business solution to a consumer problem, the time to start your business is now. The sooner you move forward, the faster you will generate profits and begin growing your business into a powerful revenue stream.

Wrapping up . . .

The above 10 business startup tips for aspiring veteran entrepreneurs are just the tip of the iceberg. They are, however, among the most important tips for any new business leader to employ. Is this the year you start your veteran-owned business? Get moving and set up a profitable legacy.