Managing your startup business when you have enough capital might be a piece of cake. But the thing is, life always has its ups and downs.

Eventhough you have enough capital (or limited one), sometimes a difficult times may arise. Thus, you might have to do some things fast or even outside of your usual principles.

Here are some practical tips that you can try in order to manage your Startup Business, especially during the difficult times.

1. Focusing in One Product Only

In difficult times, production cost reduction might be inevitable. Thus, it’s better for us to focus in one product only at a time. Not only it will reduce the production cost, in a way, it could also strengthen our brand initially. Along the way, once the situation has become better, we could always get more inspiration to develop our products or even starting to expand our startup business to another line, based on the market demands.

For example, if your Business focuses on providing Web Design & Web Development Service, you can try to focus on one type of website (e.g Company Profile) for the time being, or focuses on Templated Designed that is much "cost friendly" for your customers.

2. Be Stricter in Payment Terms

This is very important. The proverbs “customer is a king” must be shifted into “customer is our partner”. Remember that while we might always aim to give our best, our clients might not. So be stricter in payment terms, apply down payment system if you must, bind the payment terms in legal contract if required. As long as both parties involved understand the importance of the works (and you should be!), this should not be problem at all

3. Avoid “Toxic” Clients

As weird as it sounds, there are indeed some clients that we better avoid, and those are the “toxic” ones. The one that might always ask for additional services on and on, while always refuse to give any additional fees. Please remember that giving everything “free of charge” doesn’t make you the “savior” for those kinds of people. In fact, it might make they take you for granted. Because if they really understand your efforts, they will not ask anything for “free” at the first place, right?

This is especially true for all of the businesses that focus on the project based job, such as Web Design & Web Development Service, where the price negotiation is always open, and the room for improvements are limitless. Dealing with toxic clients will not just give you intense headache, but also will give your business an even harder time to grow.

4. Focus in Smaller Projects (Quantity)

While smaller project sounds not so… beneficial, if we can gain it in a large of numbers, the benefit might be extremely handsome. It’s time to put our pride aside (we know that some of Startup Business owners always aim to handle well-known client). Still, in difficult times, pride will not get you anywhere. Asides, if we always provide our best service even for our small clients, our brand will eventually grow and we will be trusted to handle bigger projects in the future.

5. Always Be Ready to do One Man Show

Last but not least, always have a good understanding of your overall Startup Business process. Because no matter how good you are, no matter how fun your workplace is, people always come and go for whatever reasons they see fit. And while lose that one talented man is truly sucks (we know the feeling), we still don’t have to worry too much, because we will be always up to handle his / her job description, while still be optimistic that someone will eventually come and take the tasks just as good (or even better).

The main point is, managing a Startup Business is truly challenging. Manage it efficiently and effectively is the key point. And remember that you are the owner, thus utilize your pride as the business owner to handle your own business wisely and responsibly. Embrace this difficult times as one of your greatest experiences in managing any other big challenges ahead 😊