Ian's role is to provide advice and guidance to early stage, high-growth technology companies.

In support of National Entrepreneurship Week (14-18th November) Ian looks at key areas entrepreneurs need to consider to increase new business success and avoid joining the 50% of companies that do not survive beyond 5 years.

There are many reasons why companies fail but the most common is a failure to secure a significant market for their product or service. This is particularly prevalent among tech-based companies where the founder is often an engineer who may have conceived and built an innovative product but hasn't started out by investigating whether anyone would be interested in buying it. 

Conversely, there is no definitive formula for new business success but there are a number of key ingredients, which when combined greatly increase the chances of success. These are my top five tips to be a successful start-up:

1)    Think like a customer: identify the benefits of your solution to a specific target market. What problem are you aiming to solve? How does it improve the life of individual consumers? Or for business customers, how does it drive revenues, reduce costs or increase customer satisfaction?

2)    Listen and learn: be willing to accept help and advice from independent others. Your friends and family are great for morale support, but make sure also to get unbiased business advice early on to ensure you are on the right track.

3)    Don't neglect the boring stuff: put a few basic things in place to register your business, track your finances, protect your intellectual property and define the rights and obligations of shareholders. This will set your company off on a professional path from day one.

4)    Consider joining a business incubator. This can be a fantastic environment to fast-track start-ups and early stage companies. For ambitious organisations, it's a great opportunity to work in a professional office environment, discuss and share ideas with similar staged businesses, and access advice and resources to give the business the best chance of thriving.

5)    Keep one eye on knowing when you are ‘investor-ready' - i.e. when the business needs to grow faster than current income/funds allow. Companies can apply for investment at various stages of their growth. What is important is to convince potential funders that you have a solution that addresses a real problem. You must have a clear business model which shows how you (plan to) earn money, with a realistic financial projection. Remember, investors are not investing in your product; they are investing in your business, and in fact in you. You need to provide them with confidence that you understand the market, have a clear growth strategy and a sustainable business.

At SETsquared Surrey, we guide entrepreneurs through their quest for a viable business model from the outset and support them in their journey, challenging and supporting them along the way. We have helped to accelerate over 165 early stage, high-growth technology businesses since 2002, with 90% surviving more than three years in business. This far exceeds industry stats on start-up business survival rates. Having Entrepreneurs in Residence is very unusual for a business incubator. I believe this instant access to expertise and knowledge is key to this success.

For more information please visit www.setsquared.co.uk/surrey