Starting up your own business is very exciting and leads to many rewards, however, when starting, to be successful, a lot of preparation and dedication has to go into the start. There are many factors to consider – your marketing approach? How will you deal with your finances? What are the start-up costs? Do you need to employ staff members straight away and so on…
To help you with your journey, we have put together our guide on 4 areas to consider when starting up your own business.
Consider the financials
Cash flow is one of the key areas to any successful business. Before starting, you want to ensure you have all your finances under control. You may want to hire an accountant to support you or if that’s not required yet, sign up for an accounts package. Account packages will help you track your income, help you invoice customers, build reports on your profit & loss, help with your tax returns, and so on. If you need to employ staff, they will also help you with payroll. If you prefer the idea of not using an accounts package, a spreadsheet on Google Sheets or Excel can be the way to go. Both are fairly inexpensive and easy to set up. If you are using an accountant, they may be able to show you the best way to control your accounts using a spreadsheet.
The technology you need to use
The technology you choose to use will be essential to your success. Depending on your business, you’ll need a variety of things:
- Email systems – Microsoft is great for this. Your website host may also be able to support you.
- Phone contracts – You may need particular phones to help run your business. You’ll also need phone contacts that you will have to budget for.
- Computer applications – Applications on your computer will help improve productivity. You may need a CRM system, an email marketing system, systems like powerapps services can revolutionise your business processes with a custom app that connects to all of your data, built specifically for you
Marketing approach
All start-up companies will need a solid marketing approach in order to be successful. Marketing can be broken up into different segments, a few of these include:
- Social Media Marketing – Social media is so important. It allows you to reach out to new customers as well as speak to your current ones. You can share product launches, teaser videos, news pieces, and more.
- Email Marketing – As the title suggests this is everything email. You will want to put a strategy together for when you reach out to customers through your newsletters or through day-to-day emails.
- Public Relations – Will you need a PR team to spread the word about how great a business you are? PR companies know all the best journalists to help you reach your target audience. When using a PR agency, you will need to consider their monthly costs as part of your budgeting.
- Content Marketing – A lot falls under content marketing. A quick summary would be any you are publishing, creating, or distributing on the web.
Employees
Depending on the type of company you are thinking of launching, you may need employees, alternatively, you may be able to start your business by yourself and then grow it. If you are going down the employee route, this can be expensive as they will have a monthly salary that you will need to cover – the more employees you need the greater the costs will be. When looking to employ people, you can use recruitment agencies, or you can look to advertise on job boards or use social media channels. Don’t just employ anyone, take into account the infrastructure you want to put in place as this could be the key to your success as a start-up.
Although the above four areas are key, with some research you’ll come across many other key ingredients that will help you run a successful business. Our advice would be to be as prepared as possible and reach out to as many business owners as you know to ask for help – as a business owner, they will have gone through what you are currently going through. Make a list of questions you can ask them like when to outsource and when not to outsource.
What tips would you suggest to help people start up their own company? Are there any obstacles that you had to overcome that you think were the key to your success? If you have anything to share that you think would help our readers, please comment in the comment box below.
