8 top tips to help your simulated startup thrive
If you’re using the award-winning startup company simulator, SimVenture Classic, here are some top tips to help your simulated startup thrive.
1. Take time to understand how the startup simulator works
Don’t rush through the small business simulation. There is a lot of guidance and information within the game itself to help you. Use this to your advantage and explore this information before launching your simulated startup.
The ‘How do I’ section within SimVenture Classic is designed to answer specific questions and resolve common problems that ever real business owner experiences. You can find this information within the ‘Help’ or ‘Business Advisor’ areas of the simulation.
2. Practice with a scenario
Practice with the ‘Driving lesson’ scenario within the startup company simulator to see how the business is setup. This will cover areas including: research, marketing, sales, product, design, and pricing. By trying out this SimVenture Classic scenario first, you’ll better understand how to grow a business that attracts customer demand and get a better result when playing the simulation for real.
3. Don’t guess to success
Guessing is not a business strategy. As SimVenture Classic is an authentic small business simulation, you will require a solid business framework and strategy for your simulated startup to succeed. If your decisions are based purely on guesswork, you won’t create any sustainable demand from customers (unless it’s purely by luck), and ultimately your business is far more likely to fail.
4. Create demand for your simulated startup
To create product demand in SimVenture Classic, you must undertake a number of steps just like you would in the real world. Market and competition research first needs to be undertaken so that you can analyse how to design and price a product that is better than the competition, that also appeals to your chosen market sector. If you promote and sell a product that customers want at a price that is better than your nearest competitor, you are far more likely to create sustainable demand.
5. Patience, thought, and adapting works
Patience, thought, and adapting your strategy as you learn is a requirement of running a successful simulated startup. Don’t expect immediate results even if you feel you have done all your research, marketing, sales, product design, and pricing correctly. Orders in business take time to filter through. A good way to check your business is to regularly undertake ‘Customer research’ to see what people think of what you are offering. Always adapt as required.
6. Manage money and growth for your simulated startup
When you attract sustainable demand, look to manage your costs and if necessary raise capital through the means provided. Be careful not to ‘overtrade’ because businesses that can’t manage increasing levels of demand can go bust.
7. Look after yourself
When you run a simulated startup don’t forget to look after yourself. This is often a downfall of many real-life entrepreneurs. If you are working long hours each month, not paying yourself and/or making poor profits, you are much more likely to get tired and stressed. This can be gauged within SimVenture Classic by looking at the emoji in the bottom right-hand corner of the startup company simulation. This is one of the factors that causes inefficiency and adversely affects your business. Simply click on ‘Efficiency’ on the menu bar to see all issues that impact upon your ability to run a business well.
8. Grow your simulated startup
Look to grow your simulated startup in line with demand by taking on employees, relocating, and providing necessary training. Invest where necessary in new resources and contract out production. Also, use consultant advice so that you are not overwhelmed by the needs of the simulated company.
We hope these tips help you and your simulated startup succeed! Don’t forget to follow us on social for more business simulation tips and tricks.
