Best Startup
When establishing a smart home startup business, you want to make sure that the business will last. As you know, smart home is one of the fastest-growing industries in the UK today, earning billions of pounds each year. With more and more homeowners looking to acquire and build a smart home, it’s no wonder why hundreds of entrepreneurs are showing interest in establishing their own smart home startup business.
But before you get started, you have to make sure that the products and services you are offering can fill a need in the industry. It would help if you have a concrete business plan and make sure you put in the hard work early on to guarantee success. Here are more tips to help make your smart home startup more sustainable.
1. Have a Strong Concept
The first step is to have a strong product concept. You must create a functional prototype while keeping the cost as low as possible. For electronics smart home products, this usually requires using either electronic modules or a development kit.
Electronic modules are made to carry out specific sub-functions. For instance, you can use the modules to perform specific functions, like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, capturing videos, and more. On the other hand, a development kit is a platform used to create electronic prototypes without customising manufactured circuit boards. In general, the development kit serves as a microcontroller board that you can program to function as the brain of your product.
However, you cannot bring into the market the product you have manufactured using the development kit. That’s because the end product can be very expensive and is often big enough to be viable. But, at least, you can prove at this stage that your product is, indeed, effective. Also, keep in mind that some bigger investors are hesitant to invest in a product that has only reached the development-kit stage. They would prefer to invest only if the product is already on the next level.
2. Think About the Way to Market
Once you have already manufactured a prototype for your product invention, it’s time to start marketing. Marketing your new smart home product could mean partnering with big companies, such as an energy provider or Amazon. These companies can pay you royalties and licensing fees to manufacture and sell the product, or you can directly market and sell your product directly to wholesalers or end-users.
Marketing your product begins with identifying your end-users. Even if you prefer to get a license agreement through a manufacturer, the company needs to know the market for the product to see if your product is in demand. So, identify the problems that your smart home product can resolve, and from there, determine who your potential buyers are.
3. Develop an Effective App
You need to develop a mobile app that will serve as the controller of your smart home product. The client app is a home automation mobile app, allowing the user to manage all devices through a mobile phone or set up automated responses for certain events, such as adjusting the light in response to the weather condition.
Developing an app for your smart home system consists of three elements – hub, sensors, and actuators. The hub will serve as the brain of your smart home system. It handles the communication among the smart devices and processes the data it receives from these devices.
Meanwhile, the sensors are low-powered devices capable of detecting environmental conditions, such as humidity, pressure, temperature, movement, etc. They usually do not have enough memory capacity and will simply transfer the data it receives to the hub. The hub will then decide what to do with the data. The actuators are smart appliances that respond to the commands of the hub. Actuators are usually a group of IoT devices, such as smartwatches, thermostats, valves, automatic blinds, etc.
4. Think About Scalability and Growth
Growing and expanding your smart home startup can come with many challenges. As your company grows, you will grow as well, and it can be a challenge to go from being a simple entrepreneur to a CEO.
There is not a single path that will lead to success. Each path is different for everyone. The key is to find something that can work for you and be open to going in various directions. Don’t be afraid to embrace the lows and the challenges. These are all part of the journey to success.
Remember that the goal is to make your business sustainable. So, look for ways to expand your business by taking advantage of educational opportunities. Look for programs designed to specifically help startups and enrol in some online courses. Remember that the more you learn, the better you will become at expanding your business.
Remember that running a business that you build from scratch is not always smooth sailing. There will be days when you feel like giving up, and you will lose the motivation to go on. But if you push through these hardships, you are sure to come out stronger. Remember, these challenges are all part of the journey, so you have to embrace them before you can savour the successes of your business.
5. Hire the Right Expertise
Once your business starts expanding, you need to bring in the right people to help you grow your business even more. Since you are in electronics, then outreach to electronics recruitment specialists who can help you fill up various roles in your smart home startup business. You may need to hire electronic engineers who have experience in mixed-signal design, analogue, high-speed digital, FPGA, ASIC, PCB, etc.
Aside from having the relevant skills in electronics, the engineers must also be well-suited to the role they will take up in your company. Usually, the roles include electronics design, validation, embedded systems jobs, EMC testing, etc. Consider using the services of a recruitment specialist who can source excellent candidates for your company. These recruitment agencies will consider the individual’s technical skills, industry experience, and the roles they are used to working on before they decide to hire them.
