We hear a lot about startups today. Entrepreneurship is on the rise, and every ambitious person is eager to introduce their startup to the world.

But have you ever heard of stealth startups?

These are startups that are working on a product or service while maintaining secrecy. They only wish to announce the product/service once it is ready to be sold to the public.

This business model has many benefits and is something you might want to consider for your startup.

We’ve prepared this guide to help you understand everything you need to know about stealth startups.

Here’s What to Know About Stealth Startups

Before reading further, make sure you find a way to find capital for your startup. Stealth startups depend on capital contribution. We suggest you read up on what is capital contribution to understand how it helps stealth startups.

Here’s what else you need to know:

1. Intellectual Property

One of the major reasons why a startup decides to opt for stealth mode is because it wants to protect its intellectual property. If you have a great idea for a product/service and want to make sure another company doesn’t steal it, you need to protect your intellectual property.

Keeping your startup in stealth mode ensures that the public doesn’t know about your creation until it is launched and protected under the law. This business model would want for patent approval instead of launching a product with ‘patent pending’ status.

2. Working Anonymously

There are huge benefits to working anonymously. When you run a stealth startup, you and your team can quietly work on projects without the scrutinizing eye of the media.

You don’t have to worry about skepticism, criticism, or any erroneous input from others. You can just focus on working. 

Many teams within stealth startups find it especially peaceful and productive to work anonymously. You’ll find that your team will likely work more efficiently and achieve better results.

3. Better Relationship With the Press

When you are running a stealth startup, you have a better relationship with the press. As you aren’t under the watchful eye of the press, you can choose to avoid them entirely.

Or, you can strike up a relationship with press outlets of your choice. You can reach out to journalists, publications, and other media outlets of your choice and provide them with updates on your startup.

You can give these media outlets exclusive information and exclusive rights to publish content on your startup. This way, you can choose to only work with media outlets that you trust and are credible.

4. The Next Big Thing

Once you start announcing your startup to the world, you can gain traction faster than a normal startup. If a startup is announced without a product/service being announced, it creates an air of mystery.

In the mind of the public, your startup will be offering ‘the next big thing.’ Think about it: if you watch a short teaser of a film, it often creates more intrigue than a two-minute trailer that shows more details of the film.

If you come across a well-designed website that states “COMING SOON” on the homepage, you are likely to be more curious about what the website will offer. In other words, less is more.

With a stealth startup, you can be as inconspicuous as you wish about what your startup will offer. That will generate hype for your startup and is likely to generate a high level of sales when you do finally launch your product/service.

5. But…The Hype May Fail

Of course, a stealth startup has its cons. One of the biggest fears of stealth startups is that the company might get overhyped.

At first, you will create the air of mystery around your brand. But if your brand gets overhyped, your potential customers might lose interest once the product/service is launched. There is also the possibility that your product/service will fail. 

If it does, your customers may not give you a second chance. When normal startups launch, they can improve their product/service after hearing customer feedback.

However, if your customers feel they have been let down from the hype, you might not get feedback at all, and they might be reluctant to give you a second chance.

6. Lack of Market Input

Another major disadvantage of stealth startups is that you won’t have a market input. That means that you won’t have a selected group of consumers who can test your product/service before it launches.

Many startups like to offer their product/service to a select group of consumers before launching it to the public. These consumers will give you honest feedback to determine what changes to make to the product/service.

If you are confident in your product, should only then can you consider going with the stealth startup route.

7. Needs A Firm Market

If you decide to launch a stealth startup, you need to make sure that you have a firm market. That means that you know there is a customer base for what you have to offer. To do this, look at the trends in the market. For example, if electric cars such as Tesla are selling well, this opens up opportunities for more electric car companies.

You can also do your research beforehand. Reach out to an audience with surveys and questionnaires – asking them if they would be interested in your potential product/service.

If you find that there is a demand for what you will offer, then you can opt for a stealth startup. Then you know that there will at least be an initial interest in your product/service when you launch it. You know that the hype will be worth it as the market already exists.

Launch Your Startup

Now that you know everything there is to know about stealth startups, you can decide whether it is right for your business idea. Make sure to do your research, find your funding, and find the right people to launch the next big thing!

If you want to learn more about running a business, check out more great content on our website.

Your eCommerce website needs to grab and hold attention in order to garner sales. However, if you are like a lot of site owners then you may be having a difficult time figuring out how you can grab the attention of website visitors.

The good news is that with a few tweaks of your website’s content you will have a greater chance of getting sales. Here is a look at some of the best strategies you can use to enhance the eCommerce experience.

1. Make the eCommerce Experience Easy

Make it easy for your website visitors to find products. This means that you should ensure that you categorize products.

You need to think about the intent of your customers and make it easy for them to find categories and filter down to find more specific items.

The more you can reduce frustration the more sales you are likely to make.

2. Showcase New and Special Offers Above the Fold

When you have a special offer on a product or it is new your visitors should know about it as soon as they get to your website. The best way to do this is to have a banner at the top of your site. 

This is where you should showcase it to get immediate attention. Put as much information as possible above the fold.

3. Get Feedback and Reviews

Feedback is essential to improve your website performance. It’s important to take a careful look at recommendations as your customers are the very ones who will give you the best ideas to improve your website.

Have areas on your website for reviews. Reviews are powerful they can help to sell your products. 

Develop a presence on social media and showcase these on your website as well. This will increase your trust level with customers which in turn increases conversions.

4. Try to Stay in Stock

There is nothing quite as annoying as going to a website only to find that the product of choice is out of stock. This is why it is important to have a product information management system.

Having a system in place to tell you when stocks are low is the best way to ensure that you are always in stock. A product management system also helps you to organize your products and see clearly which product is the most profitable for your store to carry.

Watch Sales Take Off

The eCommerce experience needs to optimized for customer satisfaction so that you can see an increase in sales for your business. You need to ensure that your products are categorized for easy access to product. 

Keep these products in stock as much as possible this will help increase customer satisfaction. Ask your customers for feedback so that you can make effective changes. Try to get reviews and create a strong social media presence to increase customer confidence.

If you would like some information on developing a blog for your eCommerce site please check out the Quickstart Guides.

Did you know that Google receives over 63,000 searches per second?

The global powerhouse is the first place most people turn when they need to answer a question—which offers an opportunity your business can’t afford to pass up. If you want to be part of the answer your audience finds, search engine optimization can help get you there.

But if you’re just starting out in the world of SEO, knowing where to start can be overwhelming. We’ve put together a list of the four common types of SEO you should know to make the most of your campaign.

1. On-Page SEO

As the name suggests, on-page SEO refers to the content on the pages of your website. The goal here is to help search engines understand the content on your page, and to establish the page as a source of authoritative information on the subject.

This type of SEO includes keyword research, which is designed to help you find the most appropriate keywords for the page, as well as keyword optimization to ensure that keyword appears in the right places. If you don’t already have written content, SEO services may include content creation as well.

2. Technical SEO

This type of SEO refers to the unseen elements on your website, including your backend structure.

To help search engines understand your website and recognize it as a quality site, technical SEO might include strategies that improve its speed and mobile-friendliness. It might also reorganize the site’s architecture or ramp up the security as well, in addition to many others. All of these strategies, of course, should follow the established quality guidelines.

3. Off-Site SEO

When search engines consider how your website should appear in the search engine results pages, they also consider the relationships your site has built with other sites. Off-site SEO (also called “off-page SEO”) helps connect you to other authoritative websites, building a network that establishes your content as a trusted resource for your audience.

To do this, off-site SEO will work to create high-quality backlinks to your site. Backlinks are links from other authoritative websites to your site, and they’re a great way to showcase your site as a good source of helpful information. Your off-site SEO efforts may include other strategies as well, including social media sharing and customer reviews.

4. Voice Search SEO

This is one of the newest elements of SEO, but it’s more than just a trend. With devices like Alexa and Google Home in many US households, it’s important to make sure voice searches pull in your information correctly.

Voice search SEO includes making your content more voice-search-friendly. This can mean organizing it into bulleted lists, setting the answers to vital questions apart from the rest of your content, or using popular vernacular spoken phrases in your written content.

Take Advantage of All Four Common Types of SEO

Weaving together all four types of SEO is crucial for mastering your online presence, generating leads, and making more money online. The right optimization tactics can make or break your business’s success, so it’s worth the extra effort of pulling in these strategies—or hiring an expert to do it for you!

If you’re interested in more of the business and technology tips that matter, check out our other blog posts for more guides.

The popularity of office work is going down every year. Now that people have learned that they can work from home, they expect that convenience from places they decide to work. The number of people working remotely in 2020 has grown to 4.7 million people as a result.

The question is, can you use the same management techniques when people are working from home?

Managing a remote team takes a different skill set than managing one from an office. Keep reading to learn how to manage a remote team the right way.

Use Project Management Software

It’s hard enough to keep projects organized when you have everybody in one place. If you have no system in place when you’re remote, you’re setting up your business for a disaster.

One of the best tips for managing a remote team is to set up an online project management system. Your software will provide your employees with a place to check on the status of projects, get updates, and figure out what tasks need to be accomplished next.

Give People Flexibility

The days of spending a straight eight hours at work are coming to an end. The flexibility of remote work has shown people that they don’t have to work a typical eight-hour workday. They can split that time up during the day.

Your employees are likely to experience different emergencies as they work from home. Make sure you give them the flexibility to take care of their home life. As long as they get their work done, you shouldn’t have a problem when someone needs to take care of an errand.

Avoid Off-Hours Work

It’s tempting for people to go above and beyond when they work from home. Your personal and work-life can start overlapping, so it doesn’t seem like a big deal to sit back down to get something done.

Encourage your team to resist this temptation. To help with this, make sure you don’t assign any work and expect it to be completed during the evening.

Don’t Micromanage

Many managers think they have to keep an eye on their employees when they aren’t in the office. They try to install invasive monitoring software on their team’s workstations. However, there’s a better way to do things.

Instead, trust your team to do their jobs. Make sure they have the tools they need to be successful. You’ll learn who your top talent is when you give them a chance to shine.

Invest in Meeting Software

Yes, it’s possible to handle your workload by email. The problem is that people are social creatures. Working from home can be isolating and can impact employee performance.

Invest in instant conference call software to hold meetings and give your employees some face-to-face time with each other. You can also use this time to check in with people to make sure they have everything they need to do their jobs.

Managing a Remote Team Doesn’t Have to Be Hard

It’s important to remember that working on a remote team isn’t only a change for you. Your team will need to learn a new way to handle their jobs. Use the tips above to make managing a remote team an easy and enjoyable experience for everyone involved.

If you want to learn more about the tools of the trade for remote work, head back to our blog. Our latest posts cover what work tools you need to succeed.