Starting a business is a big step, but it’s one that hundreds of thousands of people take every year. It’s easy to see why: starting a business puts you in charge of your time, gives you the opportunity to earn more money, and gives you control over your destiny.
If you’ve decided to take the plunge and start a business, here are 4 tips that will let you hit the ground running.
1. Get A Website
Over 65% of the world’s population has access to the internet, which is just crazy to think about. As this number continues to increase, so too does the importance of having a functional, attractive website for your business.
Thankfully nowadays the barrier to entry is much lower than it used to be. From website building platforms like Wix and Squarespace, to freelance marketplaces like Fiverr where an expert can whip you up a bespoke option in a couple of weeks, you have a lot of options.
2. Lay Solid Technical SEO Foundations
Getting a website is just the first step towards having an online presence. It’s also the only step the majority of businesses will take: they’ll build a site, launch it, then watch in confusion as nobody discovers it.
To stand yourself apart from this crowd and draw real, engaged traffic to your site is a crucial step on the path to business success. And doing it requires investment in one area: technical SEO.
This is the discipline that ensures a website performs well for human visitors, and that it meets the best practice requirements for achieving visibility in search engines. Technical SEO covers things like:
- Page speed
- Responsive design
- Website hierarchy
- Indexability
For a business owner who’s just starting out, investing a lot of time in technical SEO probably isn’t an inviting option: you’d much rather be focussing on creating and promoting your product or service. That’s why we recommend working with a specialist agency, someone who can leverage years of experience to help your fledgling business put a solid structure in place.
3. Think About Your Branding
In the early days, half the battle (or more) is getting your business out there, and getting people to remember it. Branding is a fundamental part of this process: your business needs a name, a consistent aesthetic, and a memorable logo in order to cement itself in the memory of your prospective customers.
Just as it’s possible to work with freelancers to get your website built, freelancer marketplaces like Fiverr are replete with experts who can design you a striking logo. You can also run the design project on a bounty system, where designers compete for a one-off payment: this is a great way to draw on the collective expertise of many designers while only having to pay once for the end product.
4. Believe in Yourself
The most important piece of advice we’d give to new business owners is to believe in yourself. It’s a time rife with doubts, where you may not see immediate return on the time, effort, and energy you’re putting in. But keep this in mind: you had an idea that you believed in enough to take this risk in the first place, and the work will pay off.
In the moments where you find yourself asking if it’s all worth it, imagine looking back in the future. Visualise what that future looks like, and believe that you will get there.
