When you’re kickstarting your very own small business, it’s important that you are ready in a number of ways. You must establish connections, be protected legally, be ready financially, create an optimized website, and have the personal resources that will allow you to be successful. Look to the following professionals as you draw up a business plan and start making strides to start your own business in your community.
Other Business Owners
Start with talking to other business owners in your community. They have the experience to help guide you in the right direction when it comes to jump-starting your own business. Business owners in your area will also be able to provide advice, access to other professionals, grants, and funding, and help with other aspects of business you may not even be aware of.
Small businesses must stick together. Making connections with other business owners in your community will allow for relationships to form, allowing for future business to occur. Due to the pandemic, you may consider joining forces with a local cleaning company to ensure your future employees and workspace is clean, as the average desk contains 10 million bacteria. You may buy office desks, tables, and chairs from a local furniture company, too. You may buy your office lunch from a local diner or restaurant at some point. The possibilities are endless, so it’s important to make and maintain positive connections before you even launch your business.
A Lawyer
A lawyer will help protect you legally as well as ensure your business structure will work for you. If you plan on going into business with the help of investors or alongside business partners, it’s best to enlist a lawyer so everything is done correctly and legally. You don’t want to be surprised or in trouble down the road due to a legal obligation you weren’t aware of.
An Accountant
An accountant will help you plan your finances. Especially once your business is launched, your trusted advisor can provide you advice as to how to grow your business and establish financial stability. Hiring, expansion, and cash flow are a few areas you’ll likely want to talk to your accountant about as well. If your business grows and you decide you want to build your own workspace, you’ll want to obtain advice from your trusted advisor. They could guide you in deciding whether to hold off, rent a bigger space, build a modular because construction costs are reduced by 9% to 20%, or invest in the construction of a brand new building. Questions and decisions like this are best to go over with an accountant first.
A Website Designer
Your business can’t be successful without customers. This is where a website designer is needed to create your business’s website. It must be well-designed, efficient, functional, color-coordinated, well-organized, mobile-friendly, and contain quality content and pictures. Your website designer needs to create a website that highlights your business and draws in customers. Similar to how Ford built a successful vehicle brand even though their signature blue and oval logo was not introduced until four years after the company had already been in production, you want your company to be recognized by everyone in your community and for customers to want to do business with you as soon as you launch.
An SEO Consultant
Your website also must be optimized, which is where an SEO consultant comes in. SEO stands for search engine optimization, which is essentially the process of optimizing a website to gain more organic, or non-paid, traffic and to rank higher on search engine results pages. An SEO consultant will help you create quality content with targeted keywords so that your website is highly optimized. They may even suggest you hire an SEO company to do the work for you, as they have the knowledge and skills to get you the best results possible.
Friends, Family, and Your Significant Other
While your friends, family, and significant other may not necessarily be business professionals, they do know you the best and can help you in starting your own business. Ask them for advice and to help you fill in the gaps. Especially when you’re stressed while preparing your business plan to secure loans and while obtaining financial and legal advice, the people in your life may have pointers you hadn’t thought of before. Trust the people closest to you for help when you need it. Be sure you have the proper support from people in your personal life, too. Without that, you may find yourself struggling in a number of areas.
As you’re preparing to launch your very own small business in your community, enlist the help of these professionals. You can’t do it all yourself, and these professionals have the experience and knowledge to help you be successful.
