Running your own business is a dream for many! It’s something that a lot of people like the idea of but when push comes to shove, they decide against starting up their own company, even though they are perfectly capable of it. This doesn’t have to be you and with the right mindset, dedication and the willingness to learn, you can run a thriving business.
Being your own boss is one of the best things you can do in life. No more asking for holiday off, no more asking for pay rises and no more office politics. You are in charge and what you say goes, which is a great feeling. What is also a great feeling is when you get paid, it’s all yours. No more huge deals, where you only get to earn 10% of the money coming in.
So, you’ve decided to start a business, what’s next? No matter the company you want to start, whether it’s a medical agency, a marketing firm, your own gym or a shop, there are some things that you will all need to do. Every business will need a good website, every business will need an accounts package, every business will need their branding done and of course, every business will require different insurances.
To help give you a head start, we have put together a guide on 10 things to consider when starting your own business. We hope our guide gives you some inspiration and puts you on the right path to launching a successful business.
Insurance
No matter the business, you will require insurance to cover you for different things. Standard insurance that most companies will have includes public liability insurance, professional indemnity insurance, property insurance and a few others. There will be a few insurances that you may require that are dedicated to the area your business is going to operate in. When getting insurance quotes, reach out to a few providers as you want to ensure you get the best price. You will find insurance prices vary a lot and you can combine different insurances to get a better price.
Account Package
An accounts package is essential to all businesses. You will use your account package to track your sales coming in, keep up to date on your expenses, pay your employees, invoice clients and see your money going out. You will also use your account package to run profit and loss reports, to see how well you are doing each month. Just like insurance providers, there are many different account packages that you can sign up for. Your best bet is to reach out to anyone you know who runs their own business and see which one they use. If you don’t know any friends or family members who run their own company, online there are plenty of top 10 account package articles for you to research.
Employees
If you aren’t going to be working alone, then there is a good chance you will need employees to support you. Depending on the type of business you are going to open, you may need employees to work on the shop floor, serve customers in a restaurant, support you with your marketing or look after your finances – there are many reasons. Before employing someone, you will need to decide on the hours they are going to work for you, the type of employment and the job description, so you get the right candidates. If you don’t want to commit to employees, you could go down the route of hiring freelancers. A freelancer will work with you on a project basis, meaning you don’t need to pay them every month, only when you require them.
Branding
No successful business is successful without having its branding done properly. Before launching, you should work with a company that can come up with a branding identity for you. Branding is important as it’s what all your customers will see, it’s what they will all remember you by and good branding will help you stick out from your competitors. Your branding will be used on all your marketing materials, it will be used on your social media channels and your website. You will also be using your branding on any packaging that you require and if you are in the medical field you should try reaching out to a company that helps with pharmaceutical packaging services.
Advertising
You’re going to need to generate revenue as soon as you launch. The more revenue you generate the more you can reinvest to help your company grow. One method to help bring in more revenue is to dedicate a part of your budget to advertising. Advertising comes in many forms. It could be an influencer campaign, a Google Ad campaign, a sponsored post or through affiliate advertising. When starting you may not know which type of advertising will work best for you, which is why you should try a couple of methods. Once you know what works, you can invest more heavily in that method.
Social Media
Use social media to your advantage and use it well and you can generate a huge amount of money, plus social media shows you are a trustworthy company. In order to be successful, you will need to use a couple of social media channels to show what you do. The channels you use will depend on the type of content you are planning on putting out. For example, a lot of people will use TikTok for short-form video content. YouTube is used for longer-form video content whilst X is more of an opinion-based platform. The longer you operate and the bigger you become, the more you can start adding more channels. If you use too many at the start, you can overwhelm yourself and struggle to be successful on them.
Business Plan
Have you started writing a business plan? If you haven’t you should as it’s vital – you need one if you are ever going for investment. A business plan will help you think about all angles of your business. It will help you think about your competitors, your suppliers, and your USP and it will make you think of things you may not have thought of before. If you are not sure on where to start, Google business plans and you’ll find a myriad of plans that you can download off the internet and use to help write your own.
Website
You can’t write an article about the different things to think about when starting up your own business and not include having a website made. A website is as important as your shop front. A good website and your customers will stay and shop with you. A bad website and they will leave your website and find one of your competitors that does the same as you. There are three different ways to have a website created. You can do it yourself with a drag-and-drop builder, like Wix (this is the cheapest option). You can hire a freelancer to make it for you, the second option. Or you can work with an agency to make a website for you, however, an agency can be very expensive.
Photography
Use a photographer to take high-quality photos of what you do. You can use a photographer to capture photos of you and your team for your website or social media channels. Alternatively, you can use a photographer to capture very detailed images of the products that you are going to sell on the web. Having good photos is important as it shows you care about what you do and that you are willing to invest in your business. If you are not sure where to find a photographer, Google is a great resource for finding one, or you can reach out to the people around you, to see if they have ever hired one. When looking for one, make sure you see their portfolio as this will show their previous work and reach out to multiple photographers to get the best price.
While starting up your own business is an exciting thing. It is also very stressful and there will be plenty of ups and downs on the journey. No matter what stage you’re at, always keep a positive mindset and be consistent. The more consistent you can be, the more likely it is that you will succeed – so many business owners will tell you this!
We hope our article above has given you some inspiration and things to think about with your own business. The above is only a touch and we are sure you’ll find plenty more things to think about along the way.
What advice would you recommend to someone starting up their own business? Have you started up a business before and how long did it take you to make it a success? Is there anything missing in our guide that you think we should be adding? Let us know in the comment box below, we look forward to hearing from you.