Starting your own business is a great way of becoming self dependent, and taking ideas that you’ve got and turning them into a reality. However, the business world is much different to what you might have thought, and many new startups open a business a little blindfolded, which can lead to disaster. Did you know that more than half of new businesses fail within the first year? Whether that be because of lack of knowledge within the industry, or it simply not turning out to be how imagined, it’s important to clue yourself up so that you don’t become part of that statistic. So, to make your life a little easier, we’ve compiled a list of tricks that all startups should consider to help their new business run smoothly. Check it out!
Learn how to utilise social media
Pretty much everybody uses social media in this day and age, and that’s why it’s possibly the best way of reaching out to people with your business. However, each social media platform has a different algorithm, which means that simply posting might not bring in the customers you’re after. Here are some tips on utilising your social media accounts:
- Invest in a social media scheduler such as hootsuite. This will automatically post lined up content for you at the best time in correlation with each platform. Not only that, it saves you or someone else having to constantly man your social media accounts.
- Images and videos will get more attention. Use relevant photos/videos to post to your audience for more chance of it being seen and more importantly, shared.
- Run competitions and giveaways using your social media accounts. This encourages people to like, share, follow, and generally become more interested in your business. It’s best to run a competition for at least a month so that it has the chance to reach plenty of people, but the choice is entirely yours. Remember to abide by the rules and regulations of competitions on social media.
- While you don’t want to spend lots of time manning your accounts, it is also important to respond to any queries and messages that you might receive. As your business grows bigger, you might consider employing someone to be your social media manager.
Hiring help for IT management
The whole world is technology based in this day and age, and even if your business isn’t going to solely rely on computers, it’s likely that you’ll have one or two somewhere for the admin side of things. However, technology can go wrong from time to time, and while you might have a basic knowledge on computers, it’s always best to hire professionals to ensure that all of your IT based parts of your business are running smoothly. You can read more about it here but trust us, it will save you a lot of hassle in the long run!
Exploring all avenues of marketing
Marketing is the avenue in which you display your business so that people notice you. Many business owners make the mistake of only sticking to one or two forms of marketing (usually popular ones such as internet adverts), but it’s important to trial each avenue of marketing. You need to think about your target audience, how you’re most likely to reach them, and also what’s going to be cost effective for your business.
Employing a dedicated accountant
Money management isn’t the easiest of things, especially if you’ve got a payroll to concentrate on as well! A sound investment for your company and the financial side of things is to employ a dedicated accountant to concentrate on it for you. This will also allow you to put your focus into other important aspects of your business.
Use time management tools
Speaking of aspects of your business, have you thought about how you’re going to manage your time? Many business owners make the mistake of spending too much time on some tasks, and not enough on others. This can quickly lead to your business failing, so it’s a good idea to use time management tools to help you delegate your time wisely and also make sure that everything is done!
Fairness and equality for staff members
If you’re going to be employing members of staff, it’s important to know how to be a good boss so that your staff turnover remains low throughout your years of business. Here are some tips that can help you become a great boss:
- Be empathetic with people’s personal lives. While it’s important that your staff remain professional and should leave personal issues at home, sometimes they will need some empathy to help them through a difficult period at home. Whether this is reducing their workload temporarily, or even giving them the afternoon off to recuperate, it will make a huge different to how you staff see you.
- Build a staff room that has a vending machine, coffee maker, water dispenser, and anything else you deem appropriate so that on breaks, you and your staff can refuel properly.
- Appoint a second in command to help keep an eye on employees and also take some of the workload from your back.
- Ensure hours are delegated fairly so that there isn’t a particular one or two members of staff doing all of the work.
Create a great website
Finally, we’ve mentioned a few times that technology and the internet is the way forward for your business, and that’s why it’s also important to create a great website. This is so that when people want to check you out for either opening times, products, or even prices, they can find you easily. Not giving people that option will likely send them elsewhere, which is the last thing you want!