Starting Your Own Business: a Step by Step Guide

Starting your own business can be a very challenging experience. There is no recipe or absolute perfect gospel for launching a successful brand or business, just useful tools and lessons to help best prepare you for the competitive world of business start-ups.

By following these steps, you can ensure your new business is well prepared for entering the market.

An essential part of launching your start-up is having a professional website. Unfortunately at this point, a social media presence alone will not be enough; you’ll need a fully functioning site so that your clients can reach you at any time. Make sure you get it built by professional website designers who will give thought to functionality and security.

Overall, the most important aspect is the quality of the site; there are many cost effective solutions to building a high quality site, so take a look at some past examples of the developers work and see if it would suit your company’s vision.

When you’re starting out as a business, you need to make sure your business expenses are separate from your personal expenses. Setting up a business bank account helps eliminate personal spending with company money, which makes it much easier to manage your taxes, as well as keeping you on top of your finances in your crucial early days

Each of the biggest banks offer incentives for small business accounts, so do your research and see which offers the best bonuses for your business.

Finding business insurance is a crucial part of planning your startup, as you’ll want to make sure your interests are protected from unknown or unforeseeable circumstances. Do your research, as many providers offer specifically tailored insurance plans based on the type of business your run.

To find out which may be best for you, you can use an insurance comparison tool to compare different aspects of insurance plans against your own needs.

For a small startup, maintaining business accounts can be difficult and expensive, so look into alternatives such as startup accounting software. The time spent managing your books could be better spent on growing your business plan and playing to your core strengths. If you incorporate functional software, important bookkeeping tasks can be managed with greater ease.

The benefits of combining cloud computing with accounting include complete access to your books anytime and from any place, without having to consult an accountant.

You’ll need to find a location that best suits your type of business, whether you’re looking for an office space or retail space. Remember to keep well within your budget limitations when planning your property needs; serviced offices and business centres offer better value for money, and are very well suited for consolidating smaller business operations.

If you’re entering the retail market, do some research on your prospective location and see what competition is nearby. Also keep in mind your storage needs, as you’ll be accumulating stock as a retailer and won’t be able to keep it all in your store.

Once you’ve set in motion your business plan, you’ll want to attract some talent to help your business succeed. It can be difficult to find someone you trust enough to carry on your vision, so have clear definitions of the various job roles and tasks to help create goals and set achievable standards. Consider very carefully how each member of staff will benefit each other, as well as their role within the company on a larger scale, including creating a viable plan for progression.

Taking on staff is a big step, so ensure you take the time to learn employment regulations so that you’re fully compliant with health and safety, national minimum wages, and leave entitlement.

Marketing a small business is the opportunity to play to your strengths, so always keep in mind your target audience and what your competitors are offering them. Point out the reasons your idea is unique and take advantage of your non-corporate status to have a bit of fun.

Always make the most out of popular marketing platform, especially social media which gives you a direct line of communication to your followers. Give regular and insightful updates and people will take an interest in the work you are doing.