If you’re in the beginning stages of starting a small business, congratulations! It’s an exciting journey ahead. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and overwhelm of such an undertaking, so you must have strategies in place to ensure the best chance at a successful start. Here are some of the most important parts of your business plan – the processes and strategies that should be prioritized and put in place even before you have your first customer.
Payroll Strategy
Contrary to what you might think, payroll is a bit more complicated than just automatically paying your employees. There are laws you need to abide by and there is always the unpleasant possibility of automated systems experiencing glitches or failures. You can optimize your payroll process by signing up for a payroll service. Depending on the structure of your company, you should also hire an accountant or an experienced HR representative to keep track of payroll and ensure that you are always in compliance with laws and regulations.
Hiring Strategy
The people who help you run your business are the soul of the company. Therefore, hiring the right people is incredibly important. Of course, your employees should have the right skills for the job. However, they should also be a great fit for the culture of your brand. For example, if you’re starting a clothing brand, hiring the kind of people who would actually enjoy wearing the clothing will be a better move than hiring someone who doesn’t understand or enjoy the styles you sell.
Consider the type of customer you’re trying to attract, and who they would like to encounter when they encounter your brand. If your customers are relaxed and easy going, you likely wouldn’t want to hire employees who are very high-strung and businesslike.
Branding Strategy
Your company’s branding includes the brand name, logo, tagline, brand colors, fonts, brand voice, and any other stylistic features that will be used to represent the brand. Once again, you should think about your customers when deciding on these features. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. What brand name will excite them and make them want to associate themselves with your brand? What kind of logo will draw them in and make them want to learn more? What colors will let them know that this brand is a great match for them?
These are all important considerations, and it is always a good move to hire a branding expert if you’re unsure about any facets of your company’s branding. A branding designer or expert can help to name your brand if it doesn’t have a name yet, design your logo, choose the colors that will best represent your brand to your ideal customers, and help with any other considerations having to do with your branding.
Many business owners design their own logo without thinking much about it, but this is a mistake. It may seem small to the business owner, who fully understands the intention of the brand and how it can help people. But for people outside of your brand, you only have a second to communicate who your brand is, via your overall branding strategy including your brand name and logo. If your branding doesn’t communicate well to your ideal customers, you’ll have a much harder time connecting to customers and making sales.
Marketing Strategy
Once you have the other strategies in place, marketing your brand is an exciting step that can help to bring in your first customers or clients. Marketing refers to how to get the word out there about your business. This can include social media, advertising in publications, and even something as simple as leaving your business cards or flyers up on local bulletin boards. If you aren’t familiar with marketing techniques and strategies, you should consider hiring a marketing manager. This can be an in-house position, or you can outsource to a marketing company. Having an expert’s help with advertising your brand can truly make a world of difference. Trying to do it yourself when you don’t have experience or insider knowledge will likely lose you a lot of money in the long run, so don’t see hiring a marketer as a loss. They can help launch your brand to success!
Of course, starting a business is always somewhat of a risk. But if you follow these important steps and stick to good business practices, your chances of seeing your business succeed and grow greatly increase!