Having your own business brings you independence, to do things your own way, to choose your own hours and be your own boss. But with this comes stress and responsibility. When you first start out in business you may have to put in way more hours and work harder than you ever have in your life, but starting off on the right foot can be the key to your success. Investing all your time at the beginning will pay off and eventually you will get the work life balance you desire.

Here are a few tips to help you along the way;

Create a business plan

A business plan is an important asset to your business. We strongly advise writing your business plan before you start your business. Putting down in writing what your business goals are and how you will achieve them will map out the direction which you need to go in order to achieve them. 

A business plan will encourage you to check out the competition, research the prices they are charging, who’s their target audience, how saturated is the market? etc. This will help you to establish whether or not your business model is feasible. You will know how much you have to invest, the price you would need to charge and how many hours you need to work in order to make it profitable. 

In order to secure funding, a business plan is essential. Without one you will not be able to get a loan or government funded grants. Your business plan will open new doors for you when it comes to investors. It’s definitely worth taking the time to sit down and plan out your business before you make that leap.

Be organised and prepared

Plan out each day with a to do list. Writing down all the tasks you need to get through in the day will help you to stay motivated. Put the tasks in order of priority so that you know what order you need to work through them. This will keep your day organised and less stressful. It will also give you a sense of accomplishment when you see how much you have achieved in the day. Task management software such as Asana and Trello will also help you to stay on track and if you have a team, you can allocate jobs to them easily and efficiently. 

Be prepared, things can go wrong, you just need to know how to deal with situations. Make assessments of what the outcome could be for everything you do. It might seem a little over exaggerated but if you’re a step ahead of the game it will mean you can react quickly to urgent and unexpected situations. 

Prepare for meetings well in advance. You need to be organised when speaking to your clients or suppliers. Set out an agenda and map out what you want to achieve from your meetings, this will ensure the meetings are productive. If you find you have lots of meetings it may be a good idea to use software such as Calendly so that people can book in with you at a time that suits them. This way it cuts out any email tennis, saving you and your client time.

Make sure your appointments are all in one place. Using a calendar on the cloud will mean you can access it from wherever you are. Set all appointments to give you reminders so you never forget an important meeting. 

Think outside the box

To stay ahead of your competition you need to think out of the box. Do your research, see where the market is going and think ahead of it. Doing things which your competition is not will make you stand out from the crowd. 

What’s your Unique Selling Point (USP)? What makes you different from them? To be successful you need to be an expert in your industry and your customers need to see this. Put yourself in your customers shoes when creating your brand. What would appeal to them? How can you be different from the competition in your branding and your marketing strategy? When designing your logo and building your brand, have your ideal client in mind, portray the high quality you represent, be appealing and your brand will do the talking. 

Invest in software

Having the right software for your business can mean make or break for your business. It’s important to research the software you need and make sure the software you invest in can grow with your business. There will be all different types of software you need, we’ve touched on a few things above, but your focus needs to be on the main software that will be customer facing. Having an online presence is paramount to your customer. The first place people go when they want to buy goods or services is the internet. Making sure that your website is presentable, easy to use and more importantly loads quickly, this will be key to you winning your customers over. 

Be present on social media too, that’s where people will go to research you, or may even come across you accidentally. No matter what industry you are in, this is relatable. 

Focus on your customers

The pivotal part of any business is the customer. As mentioned earlier, think of them when putting together your marketing strategy. Where would they go to look for your products or services, where do they hang out? Make sure you’re present wherever they are. When you have won them over the hardest part is keeping them loyal. Make sure you nurture them by keeping them in the loop with communication, don’t let them forget you are there. 

Always remember that in business you will learn from mistakes and failure is actually the key to success.

For further information on how to maintain the best standards of customer service read our previous blog here