Starting up your own business is a journey, one that will take you on plenty of ups and many lows. It’s a ride but with hard work and dedication a very rewarding one. At the start you’ll have to wear many hats in order to be a success – you’ll be a marketer, an accountant, a salesperson and take up many other roles to ensure everything is running smoothly. 

In order to make the process as stress-free as possible (although not all the stress will be avoided), you want to plan as far in advance as possible before launching. Start thinking about your website, your branding, who you are going to use to run your accounts and how you are going to employ staff – if you need them. 

If you have any friends or family members who run a business, reach out to them for advice. They will have gone through the same journey as you will be going through and will be sure to give you some tips. In order to start you off, we have put together some of our tips on things to consider when starting up your own business. 

How are you going to market yourself?

The key to a successful business is to have a good marketing strategy in place. How are you going to reach your potential customers? Will you be running ad campaigns? Promoting through social media? If you have no experience in this, reach out to a digital marketing agency as they are the experts and will be able to help you every step of the way. Yes, it may cost at the start but through their expertise, you should hopefully recoup the money through your profits. If you have never used one before, sign up for a rolling contract, this way if things don’t work out, you can try something different. 

How will you get your website created?

We are in the social media age, where the internet is an extremely important key to any successful business. A good website builds trust with your new customers, helps promote your products as well as keep your current customer when they need to shop for your product again. A bad website is just like having a bad shop front, people will avoid it and not trust you if it’s not done well. There are many ways in which you can have a website created. You can attempt it yourself using one of the popular drag-and-drop website builders like WIX, WordPress or Squarespace. Alternatively, you could hire an agency or freelancer to make it for you. If you go down this route, make sure you factor in the costs within your business plan to ensure you can afford to have it done properly. 

What accounts package are you going to use?

An accounts package is very important as you will use this to control your money. You will pay your staff through it, raise invoices and run reports on your profit and loss using it. Essentially, everything related to your finances will be stored in your accounts package and when it comes to year-end, you will use it for your tax return. If you are going to hire an accountant, it’s worth speaking to them about what software they would recommend as this could save you money paying them as the software will do some of their jobs for them. 

What is your brand going to look like?

Your brand is how your customers are going to remember you. Just like when you see the M logo, you straight away recognise it as Mcdonalds, you want your customers to feel the same way about you. Your branding will be used on your website, your marketing materials and social media channels. You want it to represent who you are as a company and feel welcoming so that customers feel positive when engaging with you. 

We hope the above tips give you some support in starting up your own business. Be excited as the whole process is exciting. Our main advice would be to be patient and don’t rush things. The longer you give yourself to launch your business, the easier it will be in the long run. 

Are you starting up your own business? What tips have you come across that you would like to share with our readers? Are there any tips that we haven’t included that you would like to share? Which of the above tips do you find most valuable? Let us know in the comment box below.