Probably, almost everyone has at least once in their life thought what it would be like to run their own business. However, some have gone further than just considering this possibility and became a business owner. When starting a business, one must analyze the existing circumstances and how they can potentially impact the newly established company. For instance, the recent lockdown and pandemic-related restrictions have made a significant impact on the business sector worldwide. When it comes to the practical implementation of a business model, it often happens that what looked so brilliant and relevant on paper, in reality, is shadowed by a lack of planning, inefficient spending of finance, bad management decisions or wrong approach to potential customers. If you want to avoid these situations, here are some essential pieces of advice for first-time entrepreneurs.
Leverage the Current State of Affairs
During a pandemic, it definitely makes sense to run your company remotely. So if you are going to set up a business, it would make much more sense to do it from the comfort of your own home. On a positive side, this will also reduce overhead costs. For example, if there are kids in your immediate or extended family and you know everything about child care, then you may consider starting your own small kindergarten at home. Another great example is digital marketing. First of all, the demand for these professionals has been steadily growing and we are sure this trend will be dominating for the next decade. Secondly, it doesn’t require any costly equipment or complicated licensing. However, you would need to have a good relevant skill set and knowledge of graphic design software. Luckily, much of this is you can find online for free and is really easy to learn. Also, you will definitely need a professional portfolio – for a start, you can try to create your first designs and add music to photo online free.
Don’t Rush to Spend Money
Understandably, any fresh entrepreneur would like to see the successful results of their work as soon as possible. And sometimes they believe that in order to achieve that, they need to invest more and more money into their business. But when you get too aggressive with spending, you become careless and begin to lose sight of what matters to the long-term survival of the business. Plan carefully on every dollar you invest so that you can reinvest cash flows back into the company. And don’t spend your budget spontaneously without previously making necessary calculations.
Show Value to Your Customer
At the initial stage when you need to stand out among your competitors and win the customer’s loyalty, you should impress them with your knowledge and work ethic. Demonstrate evidence of value until they are convinced they want you as their long-term partner. Sometimes it implies providing some service for free in the trial mode, so be ready for that. In a highly competitive market, customer’s trust is the one and only way to your business’s sustainable success.
Calculate Your Decisions
When you are setting up a new company, you should have a very good and detailed understanding of all figures and calculations behind every business decision you make. First of all, numeric data is a very efficient tool to use in evaluating pros and cons of a decision you are considering to make at the moment. Secondly, this makes you look professional and trustworthy in the eyes of your customers and partners. Calculating every step will prevent you from committing costly mistakes in your business planning.
Start Locally
As a rule, a small business is closely associated with the local community it is located in, which is a very good thing. You can begin with your extended family, friends, colleagues and neighbors as your first customers, and slowly with the help of word of mouth your client list will be gradually expanding. Luckily, many people like the idea of buying locally and supporting small businesses in their neighborhood rather than buying products or services from big international corporations.
Establish Online Presence
Even if your dream business model implies running a business offline (for example, physical store or face-to-face service), to be successful you need to be present online. Having company pages on various social media platforms will secure better recognition among your audience and will help to spread the word around. For the period of lockdown, it would be wise to provide your services or sell products online, at least for the time being until the situation gets back to normal. Then you can consider shifting to in-person mode only.
Wrapping Up
Launching a business from scratch is far from being so simple and easy as we often see in movies. You must be ready to face a number of obstacles along the way as well as comprehend the fact that first attempts in business are rarely very successful from the start. However, if you have a plan and believe in yourself, you’ll be able to turn your passion into a business.
Photo by Andrew Neel
The New Jersey Digest is a new jersey magazine that has chronicled daily life in the Garden State for over 10 years.