7 Things You Need To Do Before Starting a Business
Are you thinking of launching a business this year?
If so, here are the things you’ll need to think about before you do 👇
RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH!
This phase of your business is so important to set you up for success.
Research your industry, research your competitors, research your audience.
You need to make sure that there’s space in the market for you.
It’s 2024, there’s very few new ideas and the chances are, there is already someone doing what you want to do. However, if you do good research into the potential of your industry and in-depth competitor analysis, you’ll be able to figure out how you can bring your own magic to your business and stand out from the crowd.
From this research, you should be able to establish your USP (unique selling point) and start beginning to craft things like your tag line and some marketing ideas.
ESTABLISH YOUR BUSINESS STRUCTURE
Are you going to set up as self-employed / a sole trader, a Partnership or as a Limited Company?
There are various tax, registration and good old paper work implications for each one, and so it’s important to know which one is right for you!
IDENTIFY YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER
Getting really specific on this and knowing your ideal customer, inside and out, is really important as it will drive many - if not all - of the decisions you make.
Who is your ideal customer or client?
How old are they?
What do they do for work?
What is their income levels?
What are their hobbies?
What's important to them?
What challenges are they experiences on a daily basis?
How is your business, product or offering going to make their daily life easier?
This "ideal person" is who you'll talk to when you're crafting your marketing strategies, who you'll design for when looking at new products or services, and who you'll think about when establishing your business plan or new email list.
CRAFT YOUR VISION, MISSION & VALUES
Knowing your business’s vision, mission and values is integral to the successful running of your business, as, a little bit like knowing your ideal client, these will run through all aspects of your business - from your strategy, to product offering and marketing.
Think about -
What’s your vision for your business? Where do you want your business to be in 5-10 years time?
What’s your mission? Who do you want to help? How do you want to help them? What’s the end result for your client or customer after interacting with your business?
What are your values? What’s important to you? Is it transparency with your pricing? Fast response times? Being authentic? Freedom and flexibility? Creativity?
DETERMINE YOUR GOAL FOR YOUR BUSINESS
What’s your “why” for setting up your business?
Is it to make lots of money?
Is it to make enough money to live on to enable you to leave your full time job?
Is it to give you more flexibility and freedom?
Is it to enable you to live a certain lifestyle?
Is it simply because you’re really passionate about what you want to offer and share with the world?
FIGURE OUT YOUR FINANCES
Not everyone loves numbers and just the word “finances” can trigger anxiety in lots of us. I get it.
However, your finances are integral to the success of your business. For example, you might want to…
Figure out how much money you need to make each month to live
Reverse engineer your pricing to ensure you meet this
Research what investments you might need to make upfront (website costs, payment processors, branding etc)
Research what start-up funding might be available to help you
Set up automatic payments to transfer 20-30% of each sale to a Tax Savings account!
…+ more.
GET A WEBSITE!
Many people will say that setting up social media will be enough, and it can be! You can generate leads and sell products and book services all through social media now. However, your business will always be at the hands of Meta et al.
What would you do if your whole business was on Instagram and Instagram shut down tomorrow? 😯
Would your audience and customers still know where to find you?
This is one of the many reasons a functional website is super important. It also adds that reassurance and professionalism to your business is someone is googling for you!
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