Whatever you want to say about Warren Buffett, one thing is certain: the man knows how to make money, so it’s a good idea to pay attention to what he has to say. He claims, among other things, that it takes 20 years to establish a reputation and only takes five minutes to destroy it.
Although they may not have twenty years to establish their reputation, startups nonetheless need to take the same amount of time and care to do so as established companies. The five minutes required to demolish also apply to startups.
Put another way, entrepreneurs need to take reputation management extremely seriously, particularly in this day and age when a huge number of businesses are being established carelessly as though they were the keys to success (which, regrettably, are rarely the case).
Decide on a Main Idea
For many reasons, developing a core idea is the first step in building your startup’s reputation, even though it may sound like a very “startuppy” notion.
It will, first and foremost, lend credibility to your startup beyond only its name and the offering it is focused on. Your startup, for instance, may be developing a tool for email marketing. If you want to stand out from the hundreds of companies working on something similar, it takes more than just a catchy name.
You need a concept that will appeal to consumers and distinguish your company.
For instance, your firm may offer the service to healthcare and educational institutions for free when they run fundraising campaigns. Alternatively, your main idea can be to donate half of your profits—more than a particular amount—to charity. Alternatively, it can be something entirely else. For example, you can choose to exclusively employ individuals from less affluent areas of the nation or city. Alternatively, you may position yourself as the most transparent and level-headed company in history.
Having an identity like this can help you stand out from the various competition you face and gain media attention. Initially, this will only be your local incubator and local media, but who’s to say that over time, you won’t attract more attention and recognition?
This central concept will not only help you become more well-known and enhance your reputation, but it will also give you the concentration that many startups lack, which causes them to make mistakes and poor choices that harm their reputation both directly and indirectly. Additionally, having a uniform team that is working for a shared objective will be much simpler with a core set of values—something that might be challenging to do at a startup.
Be Present Everywhere
What do you do as soon as you come across an article about an intriguing-sounding startup? You carry out some research.
You look them up on Google. To learn more about them, you visit the startup groups and incubators in your area. You go to their webpage. You read their blog for 10 or fifteen minutes. You log onto social media. If you are truly interested in learning more about this new firm, you may try reaching out to contacts you have in the sector.
Investors conduct far deeper research than consumers, often much more so.
A startup that vanishes from sight is instantly damaging its image. Why don’t they get more attention if they are that good? Why do people not share content on social media? Why do they not show up to gatherings? Why don’t they attend trade events for industry?
As you can see, being present online and off is crucial for startups who want to be everywhere. While most entrepreneurs remember to be active on the internet, many overlook the offline world of meetups, trade exhibitions, and other networking events, where they can increase their visibility and potentially gain fresh perspectives on competitors and ideas for future strategies.
Stay in the moment. Be unceasing. You must break past the commotion.
Provide
Saying that their new program is the greatest thing since sliced bread is a tactic that anyone can use to draw in new clients. By creating a Potemkin village that will last for a time until the cracks appear, anyone can attempt to draw in more investors. Anyone can try to fill in those gaps by pouring this freshly invested money into non-essentials. But the time will come when this game is over. The world will eventually come to understand that everything there is a facade. Put otherwise, the startup will undoubtedly fall short of expectations. When that time comes, the startup’s reputation will be destroyed, and there won’t be any turning back.
Theranos, which was formerly favored by some of the biggest startup investors globally, lost millions of dollars due to a false facade. This is arguably the clearest illustration of this. Elizabeth Holmes, the mastermind of the entire Theranos debacle, will undoubtedly land a fantastic book contract, but her reputation as a businesswoman will never fully bounce back.
Theranos is a doomed business that is embroiled in major legal disputes. It has no repute at all. It is poisonous.
They were unable to deliver. They pledged to do so for a tenth of the cost and to permanently alter the way we perform blood tests.
They failed to deliver.
As a new business, you have to perform. That’s truly all there is to it. It is the fundamental tenet of both business and reputation.
Honor Your Clientele
Managing a startup is challenging. Probably the only thing that is 100% true about the startup ecosystem is this. Despite what they would have you believe, running a business involves a distinct vision, an almost obsessive amount of hard work, and a lot of luck.
In these circumstances, a lot of new businesses overlook the most crucial part of managing a company: giving their clients what they want.
This is an issue that some entrepreneurs face even before they gain any clients. They advertise for something that no one wants and have a gross misreading of the market. Other times, they make such drastic changes to their product that it no longer meets the needs of their clients. This is something that frequently occurs to startups that become so fixated on their offering that they fail to recognize the fact that their clientele is leaving.
Listening to your clients and doing whatever you can to assist them is another aspect of showing respect for them. Even if you want to sell as soon as a buyer shows up, you still need to pay attention to your customers—especially the early adopters who will probably end up serving as brand evangelists.
Lastly, show your customers respect when you market to them. Consider them to be well-informed and bright individuals.
Prepare for Issues
In startups, things go wrong. The market is not nearly as large as it first appears. KPI data is not being received quickly enough to allow for timely pivots. Timelines are not being fulfilled. Someone launches a Twitter tirade against your startup. A cybersecurity breach occurs to you.
Each of these damages your reputation to varying degrees. Dealing with issues early on is the greatest approach to begin handling them.
by being prepared.
It is imperative that you be honest with your consumers or investors if you are disappointing them and take full responsibility for any mistakes you made. There will be instances when the causes of the issues you faced are beyond your control, and you will want to let those who have suffered because of them know this.
Having some sort of crisis management plan in place would also be a good idea if you wanted to solve issues in a methodical and composed manner.
You need to adopt a methodical approach and invest some effort in maintaining your internet image. A solid overview of the fundamentals of managing one’s internet reputation is provided by this article.
Final Word
Decide on your basic principles, stay present, treat consumers with respect, deliver consistently, and be prepared for the unexpected.
Unbelievably, this will create an incredibly solid foundation for a respectable firm. After you’ve mastered the fundamentals, expanding will be simple.
