What is important for long term success for a startup – Quick revenue growth or sustained market valuation?

As a business coach, I often find one typical pattern amongst many start-ups/SME’s/MSME’s that their goals point towards short-term gains and quick success, while long-term strategies are often not given their due importance.
Their ideas and passion are commendable, but their market understanding is sometimes pretty low.

I recently had the opportunity of meeting up with entrepreneurs from the MSME/SME/startup community. All of them were predominantly talking about one thing – how to improve market valuation and revenues of their companies fast?

It got me thinking, is this really all that matters for businesses today?
Well, not really.

Market valuations and revenues are a necessary part of any business, but there’s much more to it than that. To truly achieve long-term success and sustainable growth, businesses must look beyond the traditional measures of market valuations, profitability, such as Total Addressable Market (TAM) or market share.
When it comes to revenue growth and market valuation for start-ups/SMEs/MSMEs in a fiercely competitive digital world, there are a few key drivers/enablers that should be taken with deep commitment:

1) Understanding customer needs and anticipating trends

2) Leveraging data and analytics to make informed decisions – larger companies have the advantage of accessing, leveraging data and analytics to gain insights into customer behavior, identify trends, and make better/effective decisions; why shouldn’t SME’s/MSME’s also replicate these parameters in their businesses? Technology today is available with every company with high internet/digital penetration, and everyone can make more accurate/sharper decisions with the right data and analysis.

3) Diversifying product offerings – what works today might not work tomorrow and also one size may not fit all concepts, so always look for new opportunities, keep innovating continuously. Explore ways to diversify your product offerings so that you have better product acceptance resulting in higher sales.

While the core pillars of customer acquisition, retention, delight, and upsell remain foundational, how SME’s/MSME’s and start-ups leverage these parameters and more to ensure sustained revenue growth and increased market valuations which would truly make the difference.

Think ahead, stay ahead! That is the key to long-term success in a competitive landscape.

Are you up for the challenge? I am keen to know about your experience and how you’ve handled similar challenges.