Money Making Venture? Get It Right in Three Steps

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31 Oct. 2019. Launching your own business venture can be an exciting yet daunting time. There will be moments when you will be thinking why on Earth you decided to wave goodbye to your excellent full time job, your sound promotion prospects and your office colleagues. When times get fraught or you start panicking about your finances, you will have moments of wishing that you were back at work with your overbearing boss for company. However, this will soon pass as you come to realize just how incredible it can be to be the master of your own professional destiny.

Many people choose to make the move from full time employment into entrepreneurship every year. However over eighty per cent of these new businesses fail within their first eighteen months of trading. It’s crucial that you do everything within your power to ensure that you don’t fall foul of this statistic.

Being a new entrepreneur can be scary, and your head is probably whirring with the thought of getting all of your financial ducks in a row. You need to ensure that you have adequate funding for your startup, you need to maintain a buoyant cash flow and you need to make sure that your supply chain is intact. If you think that your finances are the be all and end all of your business then you would be wrong. There is so much more that you need to consider to transform your startup into a money making venture.

Money

While money isn’t everything, without it your business will inevitably fail. To prevent that from happening, you need to make sure that you have your funding in place before you even consider launching. You could head to your bank and make an appointment with their loans department. If you want to secure a professional loan to boost your coffers, you will need a business plan in place. This cannot be a generic template that you print off the Internet and fill in. You business plan should detail your financial forecasts for the next three years of trading, you should detail your growth predictions and you should consider the risks that your startup may have to address.

If you aren’t keen on going down the traditional funding route, you should consider seeking business angel investment. These individuals are market leading experts of their chosen industries and are looking to invest their own cash into startups that they see as profitable. You will need to pitch in the most professional and engaging manner. Get suited and booted and be ready to impress. As a new entrepreneur, get clued up on financial terms such as gross and net, and be prepared to be scrutinized. If you secure business angel investment, you will receive a cash boost as well as a knowledge injection and a book of ready-made contacts.

If you don’t fancy giving away too much of a stake of your business or you’re looking for a more post modern way of securing investment, then you might want to look at crowdfunding. Here, you might find yourself enjoying the admiration and investment of hundreds of amateur investors. This is a fantastic way of getting your brand out there, having a global reach and having a highly visible online presence. Exposure is vital when you are looking to compete with your industry rivals.

Working practices

As a new business, you need to employ a methodology that suits the structure of your business. You may choose to follow Prince 2 or Six Sigma processes to streamline your startup and become more productive. Even as a solo venture, you need to consider formalizing your working ways. It’s all very well and good trying to wing it, but you will end up with substandard work and a lack of consistency across your business.

Whether you are a freelancer or a larger entity, you should be considering your working practices in terms of your IT provision. If you are looking for database integration and you work with DevOps it’s important to compare SQL Server databases before committing to one. You also need to look at the sort of software you need specific to your industry. If you are a new legal firm, perhaps an answering phone service or a virtual assistant would be perfect for your customer service provision. Or perhaps you need to look at open source graphics software like Gimp if you are keen to work with a Photoshop equivalent.

Sort out the structure of your business and consider implementing policies to formalize the way you work to ensure that you strive for quality assurance from the get-go.

Online presence

Any business in the twenty first century that doesn’t have any inclination to get online and appeal to the millennial market is doomed to failure. You need to ensure that your social media presence is visible and exposes your brand worldwide. At the very least, you should have active Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. Instagram is the best platform if you work in a visual or creative industry. Here you can show off your work using incredible filters to generate an aspirational feed. Appeal to your niche market and you could expand your customer base.

Twitter is a solid platform to converse with your customers. Here, you’ll find more followers eager to get in touch via a public forum. As people can see responses, it’s vital that you hone your company voice. Make it less corporate and stuffy, and chat to your followers on a friendlier level. Ensure that you respond promptly and use an appropriate tone. You must link back to your website and blog, post meaningful and relevant content and use hashtags to your advantage to foster an online buzz about your startup.

Being online makes you visible. This also leaves you open to reviews. Don’t be scared of this. If you provide an exceptional customer experience, you have a solid product or service and you are great value, then the positive reviews should flow in. A bank of solid feedback will help you to be more appealing to the customer who is less decisive. You also need to consider what to do if you receive a negative review. Deal with it promptly and respond to it. There are always two sides to every story. However you should try and resolve any complaints before it even gets to the review level.

Ensure that you pay enough attention to your business blog and website, and ensure that you update these at least twice a week. You want to be seen as continually moving forward, active and relevant. Don’t be tempted to use a drag and drop builder to create a generic looking website. You won’t stand out online. Instead, employ a web developer to create something more unique and bespoke. This will set you head and shoulders above your rivals. Aesthetics count as does SEO so ensure that you embrace both in an effort to increase your visibility online. Get a professional in to hone your digital marketing strategy to link your social media feeds, your blog and your website. The more interconnectivity, keyword usage and link-backs you achieve, the more visible you will be.

Being a new entrepreneur and trying to break into your chosen industry is tough at the best of times. With the volatile financial markets and uncertain political environment, it has never been more challenging to start a successful business. However, follow this guide and you will have a money making venture rather than a misadventure on your hands.

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