Six Business Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Dubai-Based Startup TruKKer The company started operations in the UAE in October 2016, and has witnessed 900% growth in just six months. Here are a few key factors that have aided our growth as a business and as a team.
By Gaurav Biswas •
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TruKKer is a truck aggregator. You can more simplistically refer to it as an "UBER for Trucks'. Our solution identifies the available trucks in the market and gets them in real time visibility of users to book a truck on our website with instant quotes and 100% traceability. The idea for TruKKer first came about when a group of friends were bemoaning the lack of an UBER like service for the transportation and logistics industry. Realizing how heavily the current generation relies on technology to make life easier, it was only natural that we would look towards a completely technology driven solution to fulfilling that need. The company started operations in the UAE in October 2016, and has witnessed 900% growth in just six months. We are excited to share a few key factors that have aided our growth as a business and as a team.
1. Identify a market need and keep testing and improvising on your idea
The first step towards creating a successful product or service is identifying the need in the market and validating it. Knowing what the market requires, and knowing what would fulfill the demand, is key to ensuring that your product has a unique value proposition and captures the market it is targeted for. Persistence always pays off. If your idea is slow to take off, don't give up on it. If people don't see the value of your service right at the start, don't be disheartened. Believe in your idea and keep at it. Keep working at it, keep talking about it and never give up. However, it is equally important not to be emotionally attached to your idea or creation. Remain very open to feedback and ready to evolve.
2. Be agile and transparent
Agility is key to ensuring that the service you are offering remains consistently relevant to the market demand. Don't focus on profits. You have to be open to trying and testing the product on customers again and again in order to get feedback and keep improving the product so that it meets expectations and addresses true pain points. Being agile with your business model is key to ensuring its success. Good product development is always a continuous evolution process. At TruKKer, we are learning every day and we try to be quick. You don't have to complete the entire development process before testing an idea in the market, and often testing it at the early stages is very helpful in validating that you are moving in the right direction.
3. There is nothing more important than customer satisfaction
Ensure you follow through on your promise to deliver quality and gain customer satisfaction. Satisfied clients are the best marketing tools. Word of mouth and good reviews impact growth more than anything else. Always put your customer first, take time to listen to the issues, and continuously try to improve your service offering. TruKKer has so far enjoyed 98%+ happy customers. The company ensures quality by making sure that at the end of every transaction the driver and crew get a customer satisfaction form signed with any relevant comments from the customer. Obviously, like with everything else, things do go wrong and that is when our teams are tested to ensure that resolutions are pursued promptly.
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4. Focus on growth
Tap into the right channels. Try everything – there are multiple ways that you can market, but focus on being able to reach as many people as you can. Advertise on social media platforms, reach out through Google SEO tools, get as many customer reviews that you can. Let people know that you are out there offering a service that fills a key demand in the market. At early stages of a startup, like TruKKer, you can be bootstrapped with marketing budgets but you need to think outside the box and be innovative in your approach. Spend your funds wisely.
5. Stay close to your technology
The key to success for any technology based product is to ensure that the user interface and experience is seamless, hassle free, and very very simple. Ensure your tech works for the most non-tech kind of user and makes the process and experience quick. In this day and age, people are used to responsive interfaces with minimal waiting time and output. Stay one step ahead of the demand and continuously evolve the tech to provide a hassle-free experience. Again, like any bootstrapped startup, technology investment will be demanding. Do not compromise here, as this is the product, the shop floor and the production line for a tech firm. TruKKer has its in-house technology team so we do not outsource any tech-related tasks. This gives us much more control and visibility during the product development process.
6. Teamwork and team cohesion
At any company's core are its people and ethics and, at TruKKer, our teams are the mind, heart and muscle that keep propelling our trucks. People should be empowered to make their own decisions and be a part of team building. We have built our team based on their passion for making a difference, disrupting an industry, creating value, and not because of their CVs or what university they attended. We have an A team that adapts to the need of the hour. For example, you would find our marketing executive taking care of operations one day and vice versa. On a busy day, you might just get the CEO picking up calls in between meetings! The work environment should be congenial and be more like a common group of friends working together, rather than an employer- employee relationship. The team should feel like what they have to say is important and that they have a say in forming the core values of the company.
The above points are the core reasons for the continuous growth and traction the company has seen, and the positive feedback that we have received so far. There is no single way to ensure success, but multiple paths one can take to reach the same goal.
