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Starting a business – The basics
I was chatting to someone the other day and they were talking about setting up their own business and ‘How will I take bookings? Will it be online?’ and about how overwhelming it all is.
It doesn’t need to be. What’s needed is just a few, basic steps to get started. There’s no point fretting over how you are going to do this or that or will it make enough money to be a success. All these things are concerns, but you need to get the thing STARTED first.
Here’s some very easy steps to get your idea off the ground. I’m assuming here that you have your business idea already and are ready to set forth with it. The trick is – do all the boring stuff FIRST. By boring stuff, its the necessary admin, setting up an actual presence in the world. Because whatever venture you go for, it might be the greatest business in history, but if nobody knows you even exist….then not so much!
Why follow these steps, you may ask? Because once these boring old fundamentals are set up, business should start to really take off. Within six months you should be too busy with doing the actual THING, to be doing admin or building a website, getting frustrated with ‘which email address did that guy message me at?’ or ‘Maybe I should design my logo now?’ Read on….
• Whats it called? (I said it would be simple, right?) come up with a catchy. witty or geographically recognisable name for your business. And do some research. Say you want to set up a paving company and call it Cumbria Kerbs or Solway Slabs – you need to see if thats already being used.
• Logo. Might sound too much too soon but once you have your business name, if you are creative then come up with your desired colours for your brand and sketch out some logo ideas. Share them with your people to get their opinions on it. Then pass it out to be finalised. If you have some artistry wizards that you know, ask them. Or you could send it to Fiverr
It needs to be in Vector format – usually done on Adobe Illustrator or something similar. This ensures that when your logo is blown right up, there is no loss of quality or pixelation.
• The next steps become easier – Design a business card with your name and logo on. Maybe a catchy slogan or some outlining of what services your business provides. You can use any number of sites for production, personally, I use Vistaprint but there are many others. If you want some basic leaflets/posters/flyers done – go to Pixart Printing. You might ask, Why do I need a business card? Maybe you don’t. But people like a reference. Something they can look at, think about, come back to later. Many customers/clients will come to you weeks after speaking to you. They like to chew it over, kick the tyres, walk around the idea, mulling it over. With a business card, you are providing something to be looked at later when the conversation is forgotten.
• Create an email address for your business. Using your personal one isn’t anywhere near as professional. For example – Would you be confident messaging jimmybigdog99-at-gmail or info-at-jimmyhendrixguitars ? Ideally an address linking to a website is better. But for quickness you could just use gmail or similar
• Social Media. Grab your name! If you can get your business name on Insta, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube etc then great, but often the name has already been taken. Set up a FB business page and download the app. This keeps your personal and work life separate. Use your newly set up email address for registering.
• Website. Many businesses just use social media these days, but having your website is still important. We can’t rely on social media not being hacked, becoming a dumping ground for too much noise etc. Look on a hosting account like GoDaddy and secure your preferred website URL, I tend to grab both the .com and the .co.uk at the same time. Next, get a basic site built. Using your logo, colour schemes and any photos you have (Be prepared for this, any web developer will ask ‘give me content’ so its a good idea to start creating a folder on your phone or laptop, specifically for that purpose) But my recommendation – DELEGATE!!! I’ve tried to build so many websites and yes, I can do it… but, its very very time consuming. Give it to someone who knows what they are doing. Any costs are deductable business costs.
• Content – Marketing – Posting! Now, start sending out the vibe to your tribe. Constantly! People need to know who you are and what you’re doing. Even some of your closest friends might not even know you have started a business! First up – send invites to all your social media friends and ask them to like and share. Then start posting. By all means offer a promotion or a free trial here and there, but quickly set out your pricing for what its actually worth. Too many people start off with really cheap pricing to get interest, but if someone sees something they would normally pay £50 for, advertised for £20, they don’t trust it and would think its quality is poor. You’ve come this far – know your worth of your products and services. You will be just fine.
Thats all pretty basic but when you have the idea and simply don’t know where to start, this rough guide should help you.
If you would like more help or some mentoring with starting out, then drop me a line mickymallen@yahoo.co.uk
