You just created your small business, now what?
There is simply no better feeling than taking that first step and becoming the master of your own financial destiny. It is a time of creativity, excitement, and the slightly scary understanding of one simple reality: Reaching your audience with a great first impression is crucial. If you do it well, you survive and thrive. If you don’t, you become a statistic. Based on recent studies on Startup Business Success and Failure Rates, by the third year almost half of all businesses fail to continue. If you can make it through the first few years however, your chances of long term growth are much greater. It’s not certain why as markets and individuals vary. The best course of action for one to take is to cover the essentials and grow appropriately from experience afterwards.
What are the Essentials?
Most new businesses begin with a great idea and one or more individuals who believe in that idea and are willing to work for it. After getting the necessary documents to begin conducting business comes the time to build, display and reach your audience. Whether it’s gaining clients, finding buyers, reaching potential patients, or displaying your talents and services, it is incredibly important to have all your communication bases covered with a consistent message. This message should represent your core fundamentals and how and why you (and the team) have decided to take on the endeavor to do it differently. How are you delivering more value? Those are questions that fuel great businesses.
1. BRAND & IDENTITY
This would include a unique and appropriate company name, company logo, business card and stationary to represent your new business to the world.
2. WEB DOMAIN
Securing the web domain for your company name is sometimes a bit tricky. When the domain you want is taken, it may require a little flexibility and creativity to decide and secure a new domain name. A good thing to remember is if your domain name has your offered service in it (i.e. greentaxi.com) it will perform much better in search engine rankings which is very important in reaching your audience. Names that are personal (i.e. ecoride.com) are memorable to some but expensive to brand and market to a wide audience.
3. WEBSITE
I don’t know why some people refuse to admit it, but having a website for your business or company is as essential as wearing socks and underwear. The way you present yourself in today’s world begins and ends on the web. Period. The same way we comb/brush our hair and teeth, we should take care of our web presence. It is the new storefront the owner should sweep, wash, and stand in front of to engage potential sales, patients, clients, etc…
A new Website should be
- developed correctly at the foundation level with the most up to date software platforms (most of which are very affordable or free)
- aesthetically engaging and cohesive with your brand and message
- informative about your message, business information, and contact options
- designed using high resolution photos taken by professionals or appropriate stock photos. (With today’s technology there simply is no excuse for blurry and low resolution pictures)
- integrated with today’s top social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Youtube, etc…
- mobile-friendly and highly functional, meaning it will display properly on any web browser and any mobile device (ipad, iphone, android, smartphones, etc…)
- developed with an on-site company blog to share information and stay in touch with the target audience
4. SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES
Today’s business moves at the speed of light compared to 20 years ago without the internet. Having social media channels allows for easy access to your target audience at the exact moments they want and need your services. Social media has simply revolutionized advertising and those who know the game are producing great results by sharing great information and staying socially connected. These avenues also make it easy for your customers to directly share important feedback which will help your company grow. It is undeniably the most important free tool that skeptics like to mock but successful businesses can’t live without.
Essential Social Media Pages
- Google+
5. CREATION OF NEW CONTENT
Picture the web as an ocean in the dark and your website a lighting beacon. The more original, informative and optimized content you create on the web, the brighter and more visible your beacon becomes. Keeping it consistent is not always easy, but like exercise the more you do it, the better the health of your business on the web.
Gathering these simple essentials may not seem like the most important thing by yesterday’s business standards, but even giant corporations who did not adapt to today’s fast-paced, web-dominated business world, have found themselves slow dancing with dinosaurs under the rainbow. Making sure you have these bases covered is not as difficult as it seems and it doesn’t have to cost a fortune to do appropriately. It simply takes the right team who is equally committed to excellence as you are, and practices what they preach. We at Persius definitely understand the mind of the business owner and are experts at creating the perfect starter package for your new business. Contact us and let’s share your new vision.
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