Carolyn Young of Step By Step Business: Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup

…A capable and cohesive management team. Venture capitalists consider the management team as much or even more than the product itself because they know that even the best product ever invented will fail if the management can’t build a company. Also, a management team that is not cohesive is destined to run into issues. A large number of startups fail due to founder disputes.

Startups have such a glamorous reputation. Companies like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Uber, and Airbnb once started as scrappy startups with huge dreams and huge obstacles.

Yet we of course know that most startups don’t end up as success stories. What does a founder or a founding team need to know to create a highly successful startup?

In this series, called “Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup” we are talking to experienced and successful founders and business leaders who can share stories from their experience about what it takes to create a highly successful startup.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Carolyn Young.

Carolyn Young has over 25 years of experience in business in various roles, including bank management, marketing management, and business education. She is currently the Lead Business Expert at Step by Step Business, a site that helps you save time, money, and stress when setting up your company.

She has written business plans for companies with complex products and business models, including a technology company that built a search engine optimization tool, a biotechnology company, and an online marketplace.

She has helped several startup companies get off the ground.

She is the author of several entrepreneurship textbooks, and she created a related entrepreneurship curriculum that has been taught in universities internationally. Titles include Introduction to Entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Finance, and Lean Accelerator. The textbooks were part of an online learning platform designed for high school and college students. She was the Direct of Product Development for the company, Venture Highway, that launched the platform.

Carolyn also has expertise in financial business writing, with numerous financial whitepapers under her belt, as well as a technical manual for Chief Financial Officers.

She has been a freelance business writer for over ten years and has a bachelor’s degree in Finance from The Ohio State University. She is also the author of a novel, The Perfect View.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. What was the “Aha Moment” that led to the idea for your current company? Can you share that story with us?

I was working in various roles with startup companies and I realized that I had acquired a lot of knowledge over the years. I’ve also been an amateur writer my entire life. At one point it hit me that I could combine my knowledge with my passion and become a freelance business writer so that my acquired knowledge could be shared with a larger audience, rather than one entrepreneur at a time.

Was there somebody in your life who inspired or helped you to start your journey with your business? Can you share a story with us?

I was approached by an entrepreneur who had created an online entrepreneurship learning platform. He asked me to help him write the educational content, and eventually, I developed the entire entrepreneurship program with both content and curriculum. It was a natural fit, and he was a great mentor to me.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

My clients have always been impressed with my breadth of knowledge about business, and my ability to pick up concepts quickly. I also have always worked to keep my audience in mind when writing so that it’s easy to understand and actually helps people understand business and entrepreneurship concepts and processes.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

My online textbooks have been used in entrepreneurship classrooms internationally, and many of the students in those classes have gone on to start successful businesses. My books were even used in a women’s entrepreneurship college in Saudi Arabia, so I hope that my work helped to empower the women that read my books and experienced the curriculum that I developed.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Passion, flexibility, and a thirst for knowledge.

I have always been passionate about writing, and I became passionate about educating entrepreneurs. The experience working with the college in Saudi Arabia was like nothing I’ve ever done, and it made me even more passionate about what I do.

In business, you HAVE to be flexible, and willing to change plans or strategies at a moment’s notice. When I was working with the online learning company, the business was acquired and I ended up in a new office with new people who had different ideas about how to use what we had created. I had to essentially pivot my thinking and work within a new strategy.

One of the keys to doing what I do is learning and I do it every day. I love knowledge and ideas. Being given a topic that I know nothing about excites me. I once wrote a business plan for a search engine technology company, and before I started I barely knew what SEO was, but I learned it and the company was funded successfully. I had the same experience with a biotechnology company.

Often leaders are asked to share the best advice they received. But let’s reverse the question. Can you share a story about advice you’ve received that you now wish you never followed?

I became very involved with a startup company at the advice of someone close to me despite my doubts about the founders. I didn’t trust my instincts and it did not turn out well.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?

I was involved in a startup company and the founders became involved in a serious dispute. A lawsuit resulted that I was indirectly involved in and it took a lot of time and was very stressful. Again, I was involved because I didn’t trust my instincts and listened to someone I shouldn’t have.

Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard? What strategies or techniques did you use to help overcome those challenges?

Well, when the difficulties were finally resolved, I looked at it as a fresh start, and I just started looking for new opportunities. I didn’t give up on doing what I had found that I love to do, and I found new opportunities that led to much greater things for me.

The journey of an entrepreneur is never easy, and is filled with challenges, failures, setbacks, as well as joys, thrills and celebrations. Can you share a few ideas or stories from your experience about how to successfully ride the emotional highs & lows of being a founder”?

It’s not easy, but you have to maintain a positive focus. It sounds simple, but it’s not really. You really have to be aware of your own mindset, and use strategies to keep yourself from thinking negatively. My strategies generally are to talk myself through a bad situation, control the things that I can, and accept that some things are out of my control. I also find it very helpful to find humor in things as much as possible. It’s hard to feel stressed when you’re laughing.

Let’s imagine that a young founder comes to you and asks for your advice about whether venture capital or bootstrapping is best for them? What would you advise them? Can you kindly share a few things a founder should look at to determine if fundraising or bootstrapping is the right choice?

It certainly depends on the type of company and the founder’s future plans. First of all, it’s almost always best to get as far as you can by bootstrapping, even if it means you’re selling your MVP. You want to 1) keep control and 2) get your company in the best position possible to be a venture capital candidate. One of the biggest mistakes that founders make is trying to get funding too early.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Many startups are not successful, and some are very successful. From your experience or perspective, what are the main factors that distinguish successful startups from unsuccessful ones? What are your “Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup”? If you can, please share a story or an example for each.

1. A capable and cohesive management team. Venture capitalists consider the management team as much or even more than the product itself because they know that even the best product ever invented will fail if the management can’t build a company. Also, a management team that is not cohesive is destined to run into issues. A large number of startups fail due to founder disputes.
2. Testing the market first. You have to do your research, test your product in the market as an MVP, and measure your results before you build a final product or a whole company. You’re investing a lot of time and money, and you don’t want to build something that no one wants.
3. Moving too fast. Companies who want to do nothing but start selling run the risk of growing too fast and then not being able to manage growth. There is nothing worse than getting a customer, and not being able to fulfill their needs. You’ll lose them as fast as you acquired them.
4. Planning. You need a well-thought-out business plan, but also a well-analyzed and tested business model. Even though plans change and business models pivot, you have to have a foundation to begin.
5. Learn! Many founders think they know everything and ignore advice, even advice from investors. You have to accept that you don’t know everything and not only be willing to learn but seek information and advice.

What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a business? What can be done to avoid those errors?

Too much focus on the product without working on other factors that will impact the business. For example, you have to pay attention to things like your customer acquisition cost and other KPIs. Honestly, if founders would literally make themselves a list of what they need to pay attention to and what the goals for those items are, they’d be in a better position to take action to improve those things.

Startup founders often work extremely long hours and it’s easy to burn the candle at both ends. What would you recommend to founders about how to best take care of their physical and mental wellness when starting a company?

Schedule your free time! Literally, put it on your calendar and unplug. Of course, don’t do it during critical times of the day, but put it on your calendar, take that time, turn off your phone, and use the time to do the things that are most important to you — family, exercise…whatever it might be.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I would put experiential entrepreneurship education in K-12 schools everywhere. Young people need to know that there are opportunities for everyone, and it would give them a foundation of knowledge that will prepare them to take advantage of those opportunities.

We are blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Daniel Lubetsky of Kind Bars — He built something successful that has a great message, and the company has a higher purpose. It’s very inspiring.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Carolyn Young, Author at Step By Step Business or The Perfect View — Kindle edition by Young, Carolyn. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!