Ten Top Tips for Starting Your Own Business

Do not waste money

There are two aspects to this piece of advice. First, to use the American expression: make sure you always get a ‘bang for your buck’. That is to say you need to make sure that you achieve maximum value for all money that you spend. Glossy advertising does not create business. Secondly, do not create recurring liabilities such as an expensive office rental, or buying a company car on contract; do not lease a photocopier and do not employ personnel who are not revenue generating. Instead consider what people are looking for and how you can make contact with those people in a way that maintains their awareness of your company name at the minimum cost to you, such as social networks.

Learn how to sell

Everything in business comes down to an ability to sell. You have to be able to sell yourself and your service. If you cannot pick up the telephone and ask for business don’t go into business. Lean how to be an effective communicator so that you can enjoy making sales.

Duplicate yourself

Consider how you can delegate or share responsibility. If you are only selling your own time and nothing else there is a limit to how much you can earn. However, if you duplicate what you do and there are two of you selling time then your earnings can double. Therefore, you need to design your business so that it can be replicated and run by individuals who are selling your systems, programmes and trainings.

Don’t save the world

Realise that the only purpose for a business is to make money. You can only do socially responsible work after you have first made the money. Therefore charge proper fees, don’t give your services away and don’t undervalue what you do. If you do not value what you do why should anyone else value what you do?

Consider your finances

Be innovative in the methods you use to access funds for your business. Look for people who might be interested in investing in your business. Never spend more money than you actually have.

Look for a niche

Avoid the oversaturated market and avoid replicating what many other are doing, instead look for an area that you can concentrate on. The people who make money are the people who focus on delivering something specific rather than something general. Specific means specialisation which means greater value and by implication, greater expertise, therefore your specialisation can make yours a successful business because it does its own niche better than its competitors. Analyse the marketplace and find an area where you can become expert.

Care for your clients

Your business plan should set out how you are going to get clients and how you are going to keep your clients. You do not have a business until you have recurring work. If all you’re doing is one off work with a client you’re only as good as the client work you have already done. Your business has no intrinsic value unless it has a projected future workflow based on recurring work generated by what has been achieved. Therefore, your business needs to offer sequential products and/or training so that a client can stay with you over a period of time and can evolve themselves by using the series of products and services and programs that you offer. Design a database that keeps a record of inquiries and client activities so that you know who your prospects are for each of the products or trainings that you offer. Maintain regular email and telephone contact so that you stay fresh in the mind of the client. It takes less work to keep a client than it does to gain a new client, so minimise client loss.

Be realistic

It takes time to build a business. Do not expect to get rich overnight. Ideally you should have a three years plan in realistic terms. Realistic in this context means a results projection that is between optimistic and nothing. Most people overestimate how much they can achieve in the first year. In that period of time much of the ground work has to be done and this as a consequence detracts from sales efforts, which only can become significantly more effective from the second year onwards.

Stay informed

Read everything that you can in connection with the work you are doing, the better informed you are the better decisions you can make.

Have self respect

Respect what you do. Treat it as valuable and worthwhile. Believe in yourself. Understand that excellence is a thousand small gestures, so make all your gestures count by having self belief and making all that you deliver excellent.