Starting a new business and keeping it running, whether it is something you have had in the works for a while or something you are just keen to see on its feet, is no small task.
Starting a business may seem like a fairly easy task to complete, actually continuing its success and bringing in new customers and new innovations at a steady rate can be quite difficult, particularly if you haven’t much experience in your particular field.
With today’s online society, it is much easier for young and old professionals and budding entrepreneurs alike to start up their own business, if all they have is a free domain name, a dream and a little know-how of the internet.
However starting up, and keeping up with a business are two very different things. It is easy to start up a business; anyone can do it. To establish and maintain a successful business, that’s where you may need a little help.
Read on for four helpful tips on what you need when starting your own business.
Hiring an Accountant
If you are planning on being in it for the long haul there are essential items on your agenda that you will need to address. Hiring an accountant should be high up on that priorities list if it is not directly at the top.
As business men and women themselves, accountants have situation specific experience on handling business finances, making the right decisions when it comes to budget and business, and helping other businesses find their feet.
If you are creatively minded and need a logical thinker to back you up on your ideas, hiring an accountant is the way to do.
An accountant will also help to reduce your stress levels on managing certain other aspects of the business, such as tax, paying your bills and managing employees, so it is highly recommended.
Business Bank Accounts
Image Source – From The North
Check out our list of the best app-based business bank accounts here.
You have an ISA, you have a personal instant account, now you need to think about setting up a bank account solely for your business.
Mixing your personal and business finances is simply a recipe for disaster as one can easily spill over into another.
It is better to simply pack all your finances up into different boxes in order to better differentiate between the two.
Having a business account makes it easy for you to set up payments to that account for your own business. It gives a layer of security to your business so that your personal and professional finances are kept separate.
All bills payments, taxes and services charged will go into and out of your business account. This will likely also make your accountants job much easier, which they will be grateful for.
A business bank account will also be subject to a number of benefits not received by a personal account, although the monthly fee is most likely going to be higher than that of a personal account.
Setting up an Email Address
Any good business owner knows that they need a contact number and email address. For online businesses, an email address that potential customers can send queries to is imperative, as it provides a professional means of communication between you and your customers.
It is also separate from your personal account, meaning that you won’t have to sift between work and social emails; you’ll have one email address for each.
It is also a chance for you to create a professional sounding email address that you would be proud to see on business cards. For example, ilikemuffins1337@hotmail.com doesn’t have the same professional ring to it as samproctor@legalmatters.com.
Everything counts towards creating this professional image for you as an individual. An email address is just one more thing to think about.
Your Online Presence
Have you built a website yet? Is your service or product local or transferable to a worldwide service? If you are selling a unique service, your target audience is more likely to be local than global, but setting up a website is still important as it reaches a good portion of the market.
You can have a website built and managed for you or give it a go yourself, although there are benefits and disadvantages to both choices.
If you are selling a product that is easily transferable to a worldwide audience, you could do business through Ebay, Etsy or other online seller.
However, it is also recommended that you create a website as well. This is so that customers looking for your brand or products have a viable website with useful information where they can find out more and contact you etc.
Either way, you will need to create an online presence or risk losing all the marketing potential that the internet is capable of.
Starting a new business, whether you are looking at providing a service, selling products or offering professional advice, is not a short term job. There is no point in starting a business and then giving up on the process halfway through.
All you’re left with is a broken investment and potentially some stock that you might have difficulty selling off. If you’re going to go for it, you need to go all out and put some real effort into achieving results.
Aspiring entrepreneurs have all been through it at least once and it takes some perseverance to make it through into the ‘successful business’ territory.
Stick with it and when you start to finally see results, don’t sit back, push yourself a little more!
Article provided by Mike James, an independent content writer working together with London-based Chartered Accountants Wellden Turnbull, who were consulted over the information in this post.
Main Image Source – By Li JIE
