Starting your own business can be fun, rewarding and easier than you think. These ten tips can help you get your business off the ground and keep it going strong:
Tip 1 Start Small. Don’t think that you need masses of capital, a swish new office and a fleet of delivery vans to get your business started, you don’t! A laptop at your kitchen table may be all you need for your office. And don’t think that starting on your kitchen table is going to mean your business stays small, it doesn’t! Starting small worked wonders for Laura Ashley and those Tesco guys started out with market stall.
Tip 2 Set up a separate bank account. This helps you keep track of the cashflow for your business. You don’t need to set up some fancy, paid for business account. A simple current account will do the job nicely.
Tip 3 If you send things by post, check out the cheaper courier services like Parcel2go or parcelmonkey, they could save you a fortune.
Tip 4 Try not to borrow if you can help it. Use your savings or another income stream to fund the business. Learn how to barter for things you need by offering up the skills, services or products you have in exchange. And don’t spend what you haven’t got. Spending money in the hope that all your invoices will be paid on time is a bad idea, as they more than likely won’t! This will help prevent you getting into debt as you’ll only be spending what you’ve already received.
Tip 5 Try to get as much as possible done for free. A good way to get started is to contact colleges and universities so you can help people who want to add to their CVs by providing work experience. If you can’t get things for free, very cheap will do and you can find lots of students, or those who’ve recently graduated, willing to do top-notch work for very reasonable rates. And plenty of places offer freebies, like business cards from Vistaprint for example.
Tip 6 Plan, plan and plan some more! Planning is essential if you want to make a go of any new business venture – even if that’s just setting up a little freelance business to run alongside your current job. Planning will give you a good idea of how much money you can potentially earn each month and how much you’ll have to pay out in costs so that you can see if the venture is viable.
Tip 7 Try to have more than one income stream, especially when you are just starting out. This way when things are a little lean, as they sometimes can be, you’ll have something to fall back on.
Tip 8 Make sure you spend time networking. This is an essential part of your business strategy and should be treated seriously. It can generate new sales leads, develop business relationships and help you discover people who can do the things you need help with, like accounting. If you don’t know how to network, invest some time and money learning – it’s an investment.
Tip 9 Get mentors. There’s nothing wrong with admitting you need help with things, especially if there are aspects of business you’ve never done before, like marketing, selling or finance. And there are plenty of people who can help you, from government run schemes to those offered by your bank and private business mentors too.
Tip 10 Make sure you have time off. Setting up a new business is a time-consuming task and you can end up spending all your time at work. This is not good for your state of mind or physical health and can lead to stress. So, make sure you give yourself quality time off as well.
So, what’s stopping you? Why not think about starting your own business today. And if you need further help, we’ve got just the thing. Our Start Your Own Business course is the perfect way to get going, with a comprehensive look at business, including writing a working business plan.
