Three New Business Pointers

Starting a new business? You can make life easier for yourself by setting things up the right way, the first time. In this article, we provide three examples to illustrate this point. Get it right in the beginning, and avoid making corrections later on that are time consuming and expensive!

Diving Straight into a Website – Think Again.

Websites are an important brand & marketing asset for most businesses… but it’s not the first thing to focus on when you’re setting up a business. It is surprising how many people come to us to set up a website as their first action. Setting up a website before tending to other vital tasks can lead to the need to replace your website in the future, and compromise your established brand and ITC assets. Before you even think about a website, other aspects should be actioned first, including:

  • Establish the business entity: sole trader, partnership or company?

  • Establish & register the business name (through a suitable process)

  • Register the appropriate domain names for the business

  • Undertake a brand development process

While it is tempting to get your business up and running, going straight to the website is putting the cart before the horse. It is on of many avoidable mistakes in sequencing the roll-out of a new business.

A website is ideally like the tip of the pyramid of your brand and marketing; a concise, perfect expression of your in-depth comprehension of your business.

Success – How long Will it Take?

People have different objectives for starting a business. From a practical point of view, a lot of the time, the goal is to create a profitable enterprise. However, it can be a mistake to anticipate immediate profitability. A great question to ask yourself is, “what will I do if my business isn’t profitable?” Some businesses take years to become profitable. If that is the case for your business, what will you do for an income in all those years in between?

Learning Everything the hard way..

Do you love doing everything the hard way? There is another way.. Having a coach or mentor is a great way to optimise your approach to your business (or anything serious you’re trying to achieve in life). After all, if avoiding mistakes is the goal, why not partner with someone who already knows which mistakes you need to avoid? By adopting the assistance of someone with experience who understands your type of business, you can avoid doing everything the hard way.