Daily Wiz interviews our co-founder Marija Butkovic

Marketing and PR Strategist, Journalist, Startup Mentor and Co-founder of Kisha and Women of Wearables, Marija Butkovic, shares her advice on starting up, classic mistakes to avoid and tips for creating a successful social media campaign for your business.  

Is it necessary to have a business plan? Do you have any advice for creating one?

Personally, I’m not a big fan of business plans, especially not for very early stage businesses. The reason for this is mainly because when you’re building a startup things change every week, not to mention every quarter or year.

There must be some vision and roadmap, that’s for sure. Always think about five main things: who are you building your product for, what problem are you trying to solve (and iterate if needed), what are alternative ways of funding instead of giving your precious equity to an investor, how soon can you build your product or a new feature with least money possible and most importantly how will you sell your product (or what’s your business model)?

How important is it to carry out a market research before launching?

ALWAYS do your research and see who else is building something similar and if there is really a need for your product. Market research is one of the most important things in the life of a business, and should be done before you build any product(s). It’s equally important to do your research even after the early stages; Always listen carefully to your customers and monitor market trends.

Do you have any advice for carrying out a successful social media campaign?

1. Start as early as possible; 2. Find social media channel that resonates best with your audience and your product; 3. Always hire a professional, at least until you hire someone in house; 4. Build marketing strategy that includes all forms of marketing, not only social media (think about email marketing and PR, too); 5. When you’ll have some money to spend, invest it in advertising (Facebook ads are a great example).

Get more great tips from the full interview by Wizbii here.

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