We all have thought about entrepreneurship at least once in a lifetime. Where some of us have started their journey, others are still contemplating their decision.
If you are a budding entrepreneur, you already have the drive and passion to start a business. All you need is an effective strategy to make your product or service stand out from the crowd as process of starting a business.
If you’ve started a new venture recently, these are the seven basic requirements to set up a strong business foundation. Let’s check the steps to starting a business:
Don’t judge a book by its cover. Sure, but we think that appearance is important to create a lasting first impression. Your visual identity includes everything a customer can see- logo, image, font, illustration style and color.
Your visual brand identity is vital for first impressions. If you have a unique logo, you can bet people will recognize it when they see it again. A strong logo along with complimentary colors, fonts and images applied across all marketing platforms ensure a coherent brand aesthetic which would leave a mark on the audience.
It is almost impossible to change your brand’s visual identity once it has been established, so you better make it the first step towards building your new venture.
If you are making a product that solves a particular problem, the audience would accept it and make it a hit in no time. Providing a solution to a problem will make your product market ready.
Interview your customers as soon as you start a business. Set up phone calls or initiate surveys and ask them about their preferences. Listen to how they talk and what language do they use.
In your research, you’ll probably discover some patterns among your audience. These commonalities can be grouped together to create an image of what your ideal customer looks like and how it behaves.
You can also have different sets of potential customers who will react differently to your product in the market.
The first steps to starting a business and creating your web presence should be to build a website. Building a website can be daunting for some, but you can always take professional help.
Once your website is developed, you have to build a strong presence on those online platforms where your customers are most active- be it Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or YouTube.
With the over saturated content across all these platforms, it is difficult to stand out. But creating fresh, engaging and relevant content will surely make you stand out.
You can adopt SEO and SEM practices to promote your content among your customers. SEM involves PPC (pay per click) ads that are displayed on the search engine result page.
These ads can be placed through Google AdWords and Bing ads. SEO is used to increase traffic to your website with the help of organic search engine results. Both of these give a greater chance of brand visibility, which is essential when you start a business.
If your budget allows, you can also use paid promotions to increase your presence across various digital platforms. You need to promote your content on those social media platforms where your target customers are most active.
Remember to keep in mind your audience and the time they are the most active on all these platforms as steps to starting an online business. Have a look at these digital marketing tools available online for your new venture.
Print Collaterals are pieces of your brand that are available offline. The most important print collateral you have to create is your business card. A great business card can create an ever-lasting impact. You can also try print ads to market your brand offline.
It can be done by printing your ads in newspapers, magazines, brochures and pamphlets. Though print is expensive but it reaches a variety of audience, even those who do not use digital as much.
Unlike digital, not all brands pay attention to print. You can select among full, half or quarter page ads in newspaper, depending on your budget, and strategically invest your time and money in the same.
Also, you need to take care of the print volume equation to be more efficient and cost-effective when you start a business. You can get your standard marketing materials printed in high volumes to reduce printing costs significantly. Printing in high volumes is the trick to save money on print collaterals.
You should never start a new venture without counting the costs. One of the most important tasks to perform when you start a business online or offline is to create a budget for the company, so you can plan for the expected expenses and cash needs.
Furthermore, you should include the costs for preliminary accounting and legal advice, lease agreement, telephone and internet installation, power connection and bond, initial marketing, staffing and wages, and equipment.
For creating a business budget, you will need a accounting software for small business which helps you manage your finances and cash flow. You can also use a spreadsheet program, but it gets difficult to keep track of everything in the long run.
Whereas, an accounting software focuses on delivering peace of mind to the entrepreneurs. It offers comprehensive business functionalities for accounting, finance, inventory, sales, purchase, manufacturing, costing, and payroll management. You can get the latest accounting software for your new venture here.
Why not work alone to stretch out the limited financial resources? We are sure every budding entrepreneur has thought about this at least once. But is it feasible?
Soon enough you all realize that you couldn’t do it all on our own. So, it’s better to realise this as soon as possible and start building a strong team for business. Building a team can be challenging, but analyze your business needs first.
Analyze your core competencies, and remember that there are always others who can help you with other operational and administrative tasks to bolster your strength areas.
Now, while hiring the core members of your team, you need to make sure that they have the same values and share the same vision as you. The core members for your new venture can be the sales guru, the marketing genius, the industry specialist and the finance professional.
But wait! Hiring employees after starting with your small business ideas is the easier part, managing them is where you need to work on. Try these HR management solutions for your new venture to make your life a little easier.
These HRMS software applications provide comprehensive features for workforce management and offers employees direct access to view and manage their own information.
Product and price are not the only reasons for a customer to choose you. It is about the overall customer experience. So, how can you make your customer’s experience extraordinary?
You have to be on your toes about solving your customers problems and taking care of their current and future needs. A disappointed customer is a lost customer. You have to keep in touch with them constantly and give them what they actually want, and CRM software gives you exactly that for your new venture.
A CRM software helps you ensure that no customer inquiry is lost, as each request is logged into a central system that can be accessed online. It helps organizations manage sales pipeline, leads, contacts, accounts, and critical business information.
CRM can also assist you in post-sales customer service management by giving you a complete history of customer interactions on their previous and ongoing issues. This reduces the amount of time spent per customer and also increases the efficiency of customer service representatives.
At the end,
These were the seven basic tips to start a business successfully. We know you are going to make it up to the top with the help of these tips and your brilliant skill set. We wish you all the best for your entrepreneur journey ahead.
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