The Key To Success For Hong Kong Startups

As technologically rich, minimally taxed, and with strong links to the world’s second-largest economy without any restrictions of doing business in China, Hong Kong appears to be ideally suited for major regional startups. In the past twenty years, its economy has doubled in size, with a GDP growth at an annual rate of 5%. But for the new entrepreneurs, it may be challenging to set up a business in Hong Kong. So, it is necessary to find the perfect key to success for Hong Kong Startups.

To be successful in Hong Kong, new entrepreneurs need to keep thinking bigger. Below are some out-of-the-box ideas that you can follow for the success of your Startup in Hong Kong.

Get valuable feedback: Sometimes it can be intimidating for the founders to acknowledge which part of their business needs their focus and attention. Particularly in the technology section where billion-dollar companies have zero to a few paying customers. Well, if you are aware of the correct Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that need your attention, you can effectively manage your resources and they can definitely help you to scale.

For instance, If you are just focusing on creating many product features instead of confirming your idea with a simple Minimum Viable Product (MVP), then you may be doing something wrong! Are you confused about the fact that whether you should be focusing on acquiring free or paying users right now? Getting Feedback helps in solving these issues and gives you a proper direction to you for your improvements. It is necessary to seek guidance from qualified investors or entrepreneurs to point them in the right direction.

We, at Startupr, have managed to launch globally because we have used this strategy successfully. Tomas Milar, the founder and managing director of Hong Kong, believes that to run a global business you need to start talking to investors from the beginning and gain a proper feedback on the right metrics.

This shows that even if a startup is too early to get investments, the feedback and insights they can gain from developing a pitch deck, pitching their ideas to potential customers and planning how to deploy the investment capital can be invaluable.

Think outside of Hong Kong

Many Hong Kong startups are not thinking about solving a big enough problem of earning enough customers to build a reliable business on a global scale. Remember that there’s nothing wrong with bootstrapping a startup to generate $15,000 profit per month. But, if that’s your only aim, science says that 92% of the time you’ll miss your goals anyhow. Hence, by setting these low goals and only concentrating on dominating the Hong Kong market, it will negatively impact your company in the long run.

To hack this concept, a professional tip for local founders is to allocate some time to start thinking bigger. A valuable exercise is to brainstorm how they can expand outside of Hong Kong and increase revenue to $100,000 or $1 million+ per month if they raised funding.

Then, even if they only manage to achieve 30% of their new target, they’ll still be further ahead than if they’d fully accomplished their goal in short run.

It’s not that the startups need to raise the funding either. But, by going through the process smartly and strategizing how to 10X their revenue goals, it allows them to think creatively and explore different and unique ideas they may have never thought of. Questions like: Could they build an inbound sales funnel targeting other countries? Could they grow by expanding their sales team overseas? Could they produce strategic global partnerships to help gain new clients? Asking these important questions can help the businesses in the long run.

Increase your speed-to-market

Just imagine the scenario: You’ve worked so hard to build a business that is finally generating revenue, and now you think that it’s the perfect time to start fundraising. But in reality, for most of the startups, the average fundraising process can take anywhere from 6 to 18 months. This is a notably long time, especially in today’s fast-growing and changing technological environment, where speed to market is critical for success.
So by the time a startup truly receives any funding, the market dynamics may change, or the competitor may have raised money before them and now dominates the market.
Let us take an example from Eric Gnock Fah, the cofounder of Hong Kong travel tech startup, Klook, he recently raised $30 million for the Series B investment round. He said, “When we first started Klook, we knew we had to think big from the start. It wasn’t suitable to only focus on the Hong Kong market, so we began the fundraising process soon. This allowed us to shortcut our time frame to scale once we seized our product-market fit.”

It is a valuable lesson that needs to be learned here. If startups begin the fundraising process as early as possible, it allows them to keep potential investors updated on their growth. This enables them to significantly decrease the time-frame between when they want the money and when they actually get it.

Also, there are other various funding options available for startups in Hong Kong which don’t involve giving up equity, such as government grants and accelerator programs. To get accepted by these, however, entrepreneurs are still going to learn how can they effectively pitch their ideas, too. The earlier they start learning the best practices, the better it is.

Here are some of the tips for the success of Hong Kong Startups:

Business Structure: If you’re looking to start a successful business, it is important to know and understand the business structure of Hong Kong. Businesses in Hong Kong come in various shapes and sizes. There are only a few big corporations in Hong Kong. Mostly, you will find small to medium sized corporations along with family-owned businesses.

Entrepreneurial Spirit: You should not expect long-term loyalty in Hong Kong from anyone other than your own family members. People in Hong Kong usually functions on an entrepreneurial spirit. This means when any better and exceptional opportunities arrive, your employees may leave your company and grab that offer. Therefore, if you are looking into a startup success, consider a small business initially.

Asian and Western Practices: Hong Kong has always been associated with China; However, it was leased to the UK for quite a long time. Hence, starting up a business in Hong Kong can be a smart move as it follows both Asian and the western practices for starting and managing a flourishing business. Hong Kong operates under ‘one country, two systems’ principle. Hence, this gives the city a high level of freedom and liberty for Startups.

Business Etiquette: When dealing with other people in Hong Kong or during an official meeting, there are certain procedures that are followed by top startups in Hong Kong. For instance, people in Hong Kong find it respectful to stand when other people enter the room. Therefore, during a business meeting you can expect people to stand when you enter, and you need do the same. Moreover, a small thing such as treating a business card with utmost respect if it is handed to you even if they’re your competitors is important in Hong Kong.

Bad News Alert: Your employees won’t tell you about all the bad news. This is the culture in Hong Kong. Hence, you need to be fully aware and also committed to your startup success so that you have the required knowledge at all times and are also fully aware of what is going around in your business.

Conclusion

The economy in Hong Kong is performing well these days for business and corporations located here. Hong Kong has managed to get a hold of the vital elements in the success of any business; these are management, finance, marketing, trade and many others. So, Hong Kong is the ideal place in Asia for new entrepreneurs to start the new business.

Hence, if you’re looking for some startup success in Asia, Hong Kong is definitely one place to keep in mind. Hong Kong is a specific administrative region of the People’s Republic of China, and it is a good place to start up a flourishing business as it is one place where east meets west.

If you are looking to start a new company in Hong Kong, Startupr can assist you with the same. Our professional team will guide you in all company related services such as Compliance, Bookkeeping and Banking services. We offer Hong Kong company formation and registration for ONLY $99 USD + Govt. fee. Talk to our expert or visit our website.