A well planned strategy is critical to helping any startup successfully launch their venture and retain their competitive edge. A startup without a strategy will lack clear goals and direction to keep their business afloat.

We spoke to Heikki Haldre and extracted several golden nuggets on ways startups can strategize today for their success of tomorrow.

Heikki Haldre, Chairman, The Future of Retail Organisation Heikki is a founder of four companies, his latest - a FashionTech company Fits.me – was acquired by Rakuten, one of the world’s largest eCommerce players. Heikki mentors startups on strategy, how to build and finance their ideas to scale, and how to ensure they’ll become the commercial success stories. Currently Heikki is Chairman at The Future of Retail Organisation, founder of Find.Fashion, The Exit Academy and is named in the top 100 most influential names of the digital fashion world by Vogue’s “Online Fashion 100”.

If you’re wondering how to make your startup successful, read on for three top tips from expert, Heikki Haldre.

1. Know what to sell

To be successful, sell products that you are passionate about.

Emotion and passion drive ideas. When you feel frustrated that something doesn’t work the way you think it should then there is a clear problem to be solved. Choose products that you love and understand how you can solve your own problems first and foremost.

What ideas do you have to solve that problem?

Be open to feedback and seek to understand all the shortcomings of your idea so that you can make it better. Have conversations around it to see if it is feasible and if there is a market for it. Make room for criticism and entertain the idea until it is no longer a viable option. If it becomes a viable option, run with it.

As an entrepreneur, you have to love what you do. Your business will be your life and you'll be successful when you’re driven by passion and not a workload.

2. Differentiate

To be successful, differentiate. Stand out.

Amazon has a reputation for taking over businesses or competitively ruining businesses. Either way, it is often seen as a leader of eCommerce.

Heikki thinks differently.

Heikki believes that Amazon’s biggest weakness is it’s large selection which ultimately creates a find-ability problem for the customer. It’s the paradox of choice.

With so much choice at hand, people tend to sort by price. This often means that after the first few pages, the remaining products go unseen. Businesses that sell on Amazon are then in a position where they are competing on price (and quality of photography) and not the product.

A business model that competes only on price cannot survive long term.

Small businesses and startups can use Amazon’s weakness to their advantage by coming up with quirky and niche products to sell. Startups can’t compete with the innovation and investments that Amazon has but they can compete with their own uniqueness.

When you sell products that are unique and close to your heart you have the advantage of building your business around your story. People want to know the person and passion behind the product - why you sell what you sell and why you believe that this product can solve your customer’s problem in the same way that it solved your. Your customers will be those who connect with your story.

3. Build a team around you

To be successful, build an amazing team.

You will not have all the answers but you can build a team of people that together have what it takes to lead the business from strength to strength.

Fight the tendency to micro-manage and instead trust that your team is capable.

From Heikki’s experience of owning and running six companies, he recommends you have a co-founder. A co-founder is someone who has vested interest in the business and plays a critical role in helping solve problems and celebrate wins.

Heikki also suggests that you share the company 51% to 49% because when you are stuck in a disagreement one person needs to make a decision.

Surround yourself with people who have different strengths to you and who are committed to the success of the business.

Be successful and sell something you love, differentiate and surround yourself with a great team.

Once you’ve launched your business, the only thing you know for sure is that you have to keep up with the pace of change. Keep trying and stay on top of things the best you can and use the inevitable setbacks as opportunities to learn.

Jeff Bezos may be at the top of the leader board now but there will be other heroes and disruptors like him that are starting something small today and learning and growing into something big.