• Plan compulsively, Plan meticulously

I am a huge proponent of planning and writing down on paper your goals, steps and action plan, and it’s not without a reason. Studies have shown that people who write down objectives and action plans are more likely to reach their goals! So, before you start waiting for the money from your bag-making business to start coming in, do your research. Is this a viable marker? Is there a gap you can capitalise on? Who is your target market? Where do you want to be in the first 6 months, and what steps do you have to take to get there? 

Asking these questions and having answers for them will surely differentiate you from the competition and bring you that much further from those new businesses that fail in the first year!

Golden tip: Always have a backup and contingency plan if anything goes wrong. You don’t want to be caught unprepared. Track your progress by writing down how much closer you got to your goal and how; and what further steps you need to take to reach your next goal.

• It’s all in the marketing

There’s maybe an advantage about starting a business in the year 2021 that wasn’t afforded to those of us that weren’t around for the growth of social media. If you want your small business to really take off, then you have to get social! Through #smallbusiness on TikTok and Instagram, you can reach a massive audience that is looking to support you. If you find a product, know your audience and learn how to use your platform of choice for engagement, you will be on your way to profit-town in no time!

Golden tip: Be active within your community. Match your personality to your audience’s, encourage engagement and reply as promptly as possible to comments and suggestions. Use hashtags to make sure you are seen by who you want to be seen.

• Start small

A big mistake many new businesses make is to set up too much, and want too much, too early. If you start off by setting your end of year goal as “being the top bag-making brand in the UK” not only are you leading yourself to disappointment, but you’re likely also setting yourself for failure because no matter how well planned your steps are, chances are that as a small business in its first year, that goal is unattainable. For most new businesses, the first year is about staying afloat, so make sure that you keep it simple, straight forward and keep it contained.

Golden tip: During the planning process, make sure that you study how attainable your goal is and then plan around them. If they aren’t attainable, you might as well be going in with no plan.

• Know your budget, and use it wisely

We finally reach the question of costs. Given that the first year of a new business is the part where they are most likely to struggle to break even, you will want to pay attention to this part. Make sure that you have enough money to produce and ship your product. It’s usually a good idea to start by having a service or product that doesn’t cost too much to make. Usually, homemade products or mobile services that require booking, deposit and bringing your own products, are a good way to make sure that time and money aren’t wasted. You also want to make sure you allocate some of your budget to hire experts to help with creating a website and other such more technical work. Your goal is to make sure that you have enough to at least break even by the end of the year.

Golden tip: When you are researching, you need to look at sales prospects. Having an idea of how much you’ll make from your business helps you budget more thoroughly and makes your contingency plan more likely to be effective.

That’s it. Those tips will guide you through the process of starting your business. Applying them will make you an entrepreneur who is worth being celebrated this week. Do you want to tell me about your business? Are you looking for more content like this? Well, you need to follow our socials and keep up to date with every new blog post!

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