Entrepreneur's toolkit - an A to Z Guide - Part 2

This is the second part of this 2-Part guide. You can read Part 1 here.

Funding

There are numerous different ways to finance a business. The bottom line here is that you do need to consider which options best suit your needs. You can find a lot more detail regarding the types of financing available in Bytestart's dedicated business funding section. Finally, as with all larger decisions, it is worth involving a professional such as your accountant when deciding upon the optimal financing arrangement.

Google AdWords

The Google search engine is one of the most powerful ways to market to customers. When users search for products such as ‘Business Plan Pro’ the results contain a mix of ‘organic listings’ and ‘paid for’ listings.

Organic listings are simply the list of website links Google decides are important. These cannot be influenced by paying more to Google so as to make you appear at the top of the rankings. Paid for listings, which appear on the right-hand side are the links that people pay for.

The beauty of this setup, from an advertiser’s perspective, is that you only pay for adverts that are clicked on. The Google AdWords system also supplies significant amounts of data, so you can manage budgets, track Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and so on.

Google Alerts

Once you have identified your main competitors and the main search terms people use to find your goods or services, you should set up alerts. Google Alerts is a free process that emails you alerts when your chosen terms show up. This is a low-cost way to monitor the activities of competitors and competitive providers.

Google Analytics

While Google is best known for its search engine, it has been adding to the breadth of its service offerings over the past few years. With Google Analytics you add some tracking code to your website and this enables you to obtain rich data about the behaviour of users. Marry this to AdWords and you can really get a bird’s-eye view of user behaviour vis-à-vis the effectiveness of your marketing. The best thing is that it is free, although Google does get access to all of your user behaviour data. So if you are concerned about your Internet data you may want to explore paying for a locally installed analytics tool.

Homeworking

Homeworking i.e. working from a home office is an increasingly popular means for people to start businesses in the UK. There are a number of advantages to this, not least the fact that overheads are kept down as the entrepreneur seeks to establish a ‘proof of concept’- generating sales to demonstrate that there is indeed a demand for the product or service.

As well as Bytestart's own homeworking section, there are a number of specialised websites that help advise people looking to start a business at home. Enterprise Nation is one free resource to help you start and grow your business at home.

Instant Messaging

Along with email, instant messaging (IM) has proven to be one of the most used online applications for Internet users. By opening a messaging account, you are adding an extra communication tool to your portfolio, ensuring you can communicate effectively with colleagues and customers. If you want to offer an IM service to your customers, you can add applications such as LivePerson to your website. If it is just for in-house communication, free products such as Yahoo! Instant Messenger will suffice.

Insurance

It is vital to ensure that you are adequately insured from day one. This is particularly important if there are obvious risk areas, such as public access to premises. In such instances, you will need Public Liability Insurance.

It is also worth undertaking a risk assessment to understand where insurance is needed across the business. Obviously, buildings and other assets such as vehicles will need to be insured.

If you are providing a service where people will be relying on your advice, you may also need Professional Indemnity Insurance. Thankfully, insurance is pretty competitive so it’s a case of just shopping around.

Legal Structure

The main legal structures in the UK tend to be Limited Company, Sole Traders and Partnerships. Again the type of business you are in will play a role in helping you decide which best suits your needs. I would recommend that this is something your accountant would help you with, as there are various financial and accounting pros and cons associated with each.

Location

With the increase in entrepreneurship, there has been a growth in the facilities available, from offices from the likes of Regus to people working from home offices to short-term lets. It is worth taking some time to work out both your immediate requirements and requirements 6 -12 months down the line. Be prepared to negotiate terms – have a walk around the building and try and assess occupancy levels. Obviously this will give you a feel for your bargaining power.

Most office rental options will include phones and Internet, but make sure you have flexibility to leave if it just does not work out. Many providers will be keen to lock you into a 24-month contract with two to three months of rent up front.

There has been an increase in hot-desking operations which offer you more flexibility if you are a new business and have yet to generate sufficient sales to suggest that you will have a guaranteed income to support longer term commitments.

Logos and Branding

You will need to design a logo and brand for your company. While the start-up stage is often characterised by expense after expense, it is important not to cut costs with your brand. Assuming you’ll have a website; it is worth getting a designer to create a site brand template and logo to ensure a professional feel.

Marketing Plan

Once the business is set up, a key requirement will be the need to market effectively so as to attract customers. A marketing plan will help ensure that focus is on the correct areas and that marketing activities are prioritised. Palo Alto Software produces Marketing Plan Pro, which is ideal for the creation of a marketing plan.

Office Equipment

The cost of equipment has come down a lot in recent years, largely as a result of increased competition but also price transparency. People nowadays would not even think twice about sourcing office equipment from the likes of eBay.

Again, it is a matter of personal circumstances. Are you going to be receiving onsite client visits? If yes, then it will be necessary to purchase good quality equipment. If, on the other hand, you are running a website without visitors to your physical location, the aesthetic qualities of the equipment are not as important.

PR

‘Public relations’ is a broad term for activities that help get your name out in the open. It is a vital part of any marketing initiative, and for smaller companies it can be managed in-house. When you finally launch your offering, a press release is issued to draw attention to the offering. These press releases are fairly standard and can be released through websites such as Daryl Wilcox Publishing.

Trade Marks

The annoying thing about registering a Trade Mark is that it can be a costly and drawn-out process. Nonetheless, it is important to ensure that the brand name you have chosen is not already in use. One quick way to check is to use Google to see if there are any obvious conflicts that show up. After that it is a case of securing a trade mark for your product within certain geographic areas. Obviously you will also want to ensure that the trade mark is available as a domain name so people can find you.

Websites

Practically every business nowadays creates a website to market their wares. It is definitely a highly recommended option regardless of your business. Thankfully, it is a very competitive marketplace so the cost of getting online has come down significantly in recent years.

It is worth doing a competitive review to assess the quality of competitor websites. You can then use these to help you map out the sections you require. Once you get a website live, the next challenge is to get traffic to it. This will be one of the key strands of your online marketing activities.

Summary and Conclusion

Starting a new business is a very exciting time. It is not a time to make snap decisions when investing a small amount of time can help ensure you set up on a solid foundation. Thankfully, countless other people have experienced the same feelings you are feeling now, and there are plenty of resources available, if you know where to look.

This guide is designed to help signpost some of the key resources you need to consider to maximise the chance of survival. As you will undoubtedly have heard, the first few years of a new business are the most challenging. While this guide was not designed to be exhaustive, I am hopeful it will have helped in some small way to reduce the challenges you face.

Finally, it is worth noting that the above recommendations are personal and are not based on any commercial relationships. One problem I feel that entrepreneurs in the UK face is the reluctance of some advisers to recommend services, given a desire for impartiality. I disagree with this notion and feel that recommending a few providers is a much better option, and hence, where I have used products or services I have benefited from or are familiar with, I have recommended them.

Good luck with your new venture.

Alan Gleeson

Palo Alto Software