small business owner tips
Startups: How to Survive the Recession
There’s an old Chinese proverb that says “a crisis is an opportunity riding a dangerous wind” – and that is how many are treating today’s lack of job security. More and more professionals these days are looking to make it on their own steam. If it’s done right it can be extremely fulfilling. Imagine earning all the fruits of your own labour. Most new startups, however, don’t make it through the early years. Planning things properly from the outset can meant the difference between success and failure in those early days.
The tips below are not a complete list, of course. In my view, though, the following tips will take you a long way towards success:
- Ask yourself: Is this your passion. The road ahead is likely to be arduous and demanding. You need to be involved in something where your heart is, or you wont last the distance.
- Get a pro to do your accounting. My advice is don’t go it alone when it comes to taxes unless you have experience with it – letting an accountant deal with it can really save a lot of hassle. Even if it’s only for the first year or so.
- Make use of the internet. The net is your friend. Even if you’re not planning on selling online. Never before has there been such a cost effective way of gaining business. Ensure that you get yourself a decent website. I would especially recommend delving into Google Adwords and SEO to gain traffic from search engines.
- Get your branding & image right. This is frequently something that is done poorly at the start and then left untouched for many years. A good quality logo design can take you a long way. It’s your customers’ first impression of you and it can tip the balance in those tough early years. Have a look online for some examples of custom logo designs and go from there. It’s not expensive to get a professional these days. Also get things like business cards and stationery design sorted out from the outset.
- Learn from your competitiors. Then Improve on it. Dont try and reinvent the wheel – learn from the wisdom your competition has gained of how to be successful. Have respect for the fact that they know what they’re doing to a certain extent at least. But go one further and see what they could be doing better. Identify a Unique Selling Proposition, however small. If you don’t give this some serious thought you could be defeated before you start.
- Track Return on Investment with your advertising. You have plenty of options to look at for sources of advertising and marketing. However you’d be surprised at how many small businesses aren’t aware of whether their advertising is paying off, and consequently they keep wasting money on ineffectual methods. Try and get an idea of where your business is coming from.With online marketing this can all be automated within an analytics package – but it can be as easy as asking your clients how they found you. Review every few months and act accordingly.
Hopefully this advice has been useful. Do drop a comment to suggest any other tips you may have!
Google’s Matt Cutts gives tips to small business owners