It seems that autumn is the time of year when more new businesses start than in any other season. This could be as simple as all the children are now at school and people are finding they have time on their hands, so why not start a new business?
When you are starting out you may have a limited amount of funds, but you do not want your customers to know that.
You have to make your business look as though it is thriving or why should they have the confidence to buy from you or use your services? You can make your business look professional with a bit of effort, as long as you have the commitment and drive to make it work and soon it will become a successful business.
Start with the Name
You need to come up with a name that will stick in people’s minds. It should not be too way out so that they have no idea what it is you do, but try to make it different to anything else around. Then you need to get the URL to go with it. The two need to be the same to save confusion and to keep it easy for potential customers to find your site. There are sites that specialize in the URL’s and it is easy to check if the name you have chosen is free to use.
It could be a good idea to have several variations ready to check out as you may be surprised by how many names are already in use.
When you are thinking of a name there are a few things to remember that will help. Keep it short, no more than two syllables would be best. Make sure it is easy to say and easy to spell. It should not be something people have to think too hard about to work out the correct pronunciation.
Make Your Brand
Once you have decided on a name you can start to put your brand together. This involves a logo and anything else that reflects your brand and your ethics. You should keep the design simple so that it is easily recognizable but delivers a message about what you do.
It should go without saying that it needs to be original or you could have to change the whole thing if a long-standing business with something similar objects. At the same time. it needs to be relevant to the industry or profession your new business will be in.
It is also good if you can produce something that will not date. If your business is running for years you want to be able to keep the same logo, as by then it will be easily recognizable.
Don’t Show Your Home Address
The beauty of online businesses is that certainly to start with you can operate from home, and this can help to keep your overheads low. A home address does not look good on a website though so you need to find a way around it. The simplest way is one of the low-cost virtual address for business, as this will then keep your home address out of the equation.
It also means you will not have any customers turning up on your front doorstep looking for your business.
Develop a Website
Whether you do this yourself or use a professional agency to do it for you, no business will succeed these days without an online presence. A website is vital, and this is where you can make your business look as though it is doing really well.
Your website will be the first impression many users have of your business, and one that is appealing to the eye and very user-friendly is less likely to produce questions about how long you have been trading. Your site needs to be responsive to all devices. Whether a consumer is viewing on an iPhone, a Samsung, a tablet or a PC, it should always be the same. The screen size or make of the device should not matter. It should still be easy to navigate, and if it isn’t the viewers will soon disappear.
Make sure the content of your website in interesting to viewers. It is said you only have 4 seconds to grab the users interest, and whether it is videos images or test, you need something that will keep them there longer than that. The more viewers you have and the longer they stay on your site affects your place in the search engine rankings. This means good content is crucial if you want your business to succeed.
Make Heavy Use of Social Media
For many years social media was ignored by businesses and marketing companies. Not anymore though. They have all realized the power of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. and Instagram, and now there are very few businesses that do not have a social media presence. Even the large multinationals are involved in social media and have pages they use to promote their products and special offers. They also use them to run competitions and to get surveys completed, as this interaction with followers, tends to bring even more.
With literally billions of users and millions of them signing in every day, the potential for promoting your new business is enormous. Best of all it is free, but it can be very time-consuming.
Always be positive and friendly and you will soon start to build a following and they are all potential customers of the future.
Get Right Email Addresses
You should set several email addresses up and they should all be linked to your business name. Generic email addresses never create a good impression. To start with there will be many tasks you do yourself to keep the costs as low as you can.
You could have email addresses such as sales@, accounts@, payments@, and no end of others.
You could even use people’s names if you want to, but the whole idea is to give the impression that there is staff at the business and not just you sitting in a home office.
You will have to work hard to make your business a success, but it will be worth it to be your own boss.
Leave a Reply