How to Build a Billion Dollar Business

Unicorns companies are as rare as the creatures they're named for, but that doesn’t mean you should be too intimidated by the concept to entertain the idea of building a company that aspires to change the world for the better with a remarkable new disruptive technology.

Unicorn companies are rare and valuable startups. In the world of big business, only 591 companies, a figure arrived at by an angel investment database called CB Insights, qualify as Unicorns. The combined value of these companies is around $1,940B. That’s still less than Apple, which has a market cap of $2 trillion. 

3 Strategies to Raise a Unicorn 

Here are three strategies that can make a world of difference in furthering the evolution of your successful startup business.

1. Prefer innovation over imitation 

One reason imitation is easier than innovation is that it sometimes seems anything that can be invented already has been. Still, innovation does not have to be dramatic to be highly profitable. It just must be different enough to capture the consumer’s imagination.  
 

Your business does not have to invent something as revolutionary as something never seen before to win over the public. Sometimes it can be reassembling something in a new way. Putting new ideas together may be more than enough to launch a successful business. Take Goldin Auctions, who raised $40 million to finance their growth from The Chernin Group (TCG). They combined three ideas to create a new business model: auctions, collectibles, and trading cards. Essentially, they created a specialized marketplace for buying and selling rare and highly valuable assets like collectibles and trading cards.  
 

Imitation appears to be the primary way to develop a profitable business. Why invent the iPhone when you can just wait for a creative entrepreneur like Steve Jobs to do it, then simply reverse engineer what his company did and differentiate it just enough to avoid patent infringement. While it’s hard to argue that this quick and dirty way of building a business doesn’t work, it’s always more satisfying and profitable to be a market leader by coming up with brand-new innovation. 

2. Network for success 

In the modern era, where technology is improving at a breathtaking rate, the idea of cooperation is replacing competition. Collaboration with complementary organizations and companies will increase your chances of success in the global marketplace. There are, of course, many ways to partner with the right influencers. For example, you can increase brand recognition, improve networking, increase sales, enhance public relations, and strengthen marketing by joining the Global Business Directory and Index. This network was designed to help companies, organizations, and industry leaders, as well as educators, influencers, and investors, to fashion their best strategies for digital transformation. 

3. Mine the data 

There is plenty of well-researched information available about the origins and development of unicorn companies, but unless you do the research and conduct the analysis of how to go from good to great, you can’t expect your company to become an industry legend. 

Reach for the Stars

Although it’s a cliché to talk about reaching the moon by aiming for the stars, it’s still true. Even if your proven business venture never becomes a unicorn, a privately held company with a billion-dollar valuation, simply aspiring to become one will raise your standards and profit margins. Most businesses want to grow once they’ve passed the survival stage and proven that they know how to create a product or a line of products that will consistently generate sales. Yet, despite this common aspiration to grow, thrive and flourish, only a few businesses ever become national or international enterprises. If your group has created a multimillion-dollar business, it’s not luck that will push it to the billion-dollar level. It’s strategy.