The Importance of Entrepreneurial Flexibility

Startups face an uphill battle from the get go. 99.9% of the niches that you could start a business in are extremely competitive and you’ll need a solid plan in place to be able to succeed.

With the challenges that face startups, particularly in the early stages, it is important to be as flexible as possible to ensure that you can take advantage of any opportunities that come your way. You don’t want to be overly restricted by location, lack of external help and much more.

In the following paragraphs we’ll cover the importance of entrepreneurial flexibility by highlighting a number of situations where being flexible can greatly improve your fortunes. This list is by no means exhaustive; there are countless ways that you can alter your approach to business to be more flexible.

Take advantage of serviced offices

Sometimes you have to go to where the work is. If you are tied to an office in London but a fantastic opportunity has presented itself in Newcastle, you’re stuck!

In those early stages we suggest taking advantage of serviced offices and hot desking. You’ll be able to travel the country and even the globe without compromising on the day-to-day tasks that you need to complete to get work done.

Let’s say you are a marketing consultant living in London, but a contact in Manchester has asked you to go work with them for a couple of months. If you are tied to a permanent office space you’ll be paying for it without using it and also have to find the funds for temporary office space in Manchester. Hot desking and virtual offices get around this problem!

Use freelancers to support you

You may well be an expert in your field and feel like you have the skills to do everything yourself, but an entrepreneur who starts with the attitude that they don’t need any help is destined to fail.

It’s likely that in the early stages you won’t have the finance behind you to warrant employing a permanent member of staff, but there are alternatives.

Hiring skilled freelancers to help you as and when you need them is ideal. If your admin duties are starting to pile up, go online and search for a freelancer who will be able to help you out. Hiring a freelancer means you get a job done without committing to paying a regular wage and your time is freed up to focus on more important tasks.

Be flexible on price

One of the toughest challenges you’ll face as a startup is generating enough work to be able to break-even, let alone turn a profit. You can’t win them all, especially in a tough economy, but to get your name out there and build a client base you may need to be flexible on price.

Develop a strong pricing strategy that allows you to be flexible and still make the money you need to cover your costs and make a profit. Be willing to offer discounts to long term clients or customers who are looking to order larger quantities, it will help you out in the long run (just never take less tan you can afford).

Use VoIP

Finally, another technique to enable your business to be flexible is to utilise a Voice over IP (VoIP). This will enable you to communicate anywhere in the world on a range of devices, whilst also lowering costs and making communications more secure.

This is extremely relevant if you are in an industry that requires you to travel regularly. The last thing you want is to be using unsecured lines and to be unreachable when your clients/customers are trying to get hold of you. Communication is key and without it you can bet those happy clients you worked so hard to get won’t be around for long!