How to get a small business started – 20 most important points to consider

Are you one of those people who get plenty of business ideas everyday but have no idea where to get started ? I have interacted with so many people and felt people either lack the motivation to execute those ideas or are clueless about the road they can follow. This post on “How to get a small business started” is for all of you who belong to any of the above category.

Ahead with digital motive is to provide you with any information you need to get started with your business or to ace your business digitally. I hope we are sending some valuable information and positivity in your business journey. Do share your feedback and questions in comments & don’t forget to subscribe

What you can expect from How to get a small business started?

Through this blog post, I will be putting some light on the most important aspects which are mostly missed by business while starting :

• Initial Research – It is important to know the demand of your business offering

• Competition – Don’t neglect your competition

• Aimless promotion – Don’t do everything but the most important thing

• Choose Frugality – Choose spending when done with all experiments

• Goals setting – Work towards goals & targets

Now, we will move to next section of “How to get a small business started” i.e. 20 most important points to consider while executing your business idea to action. These points will give details about above pointers and will provide steps for efficacy and better results.

20 most important points to consider while starting a new small business

Pointers will be part of three phases of your business: Launch, Promotion, Goal Tracking

Phase 1: Before launch of the business

1. Do proper research

Most of the businesses start in instinct and sadly, halt within the months of the launch. This happens mostly because we didn’t do our initial research before taking steps. Research doesn’t means one need to reads books or something hard but just interact with people. The most simple way to do research is create a google form and share with people. Ask people what they think about your business idea and will they be willing to take that service. With the social media, the research has become simpler. Just add stories to your profile ask people about the views. If you are thinking of targeting particular group of people, find places where they will be present. Could be colleges, offline events or social media groups or channels like Quora(great site to know what people are talking about), Reddit & others.

Basis the response of audience & people, you can launch your product or even can modify it for better acceptance.

2. Interact with audience to know their expectation

Have you experienced no from your audience after listening to price or USPs of your product or service? This could be because of mismatched expectations. We all know businesses are successful because audience is interested in buying product or service. So, be clear about your audience expectation and make up-gradation in your brand accordingly.

3. Decide Pricing

Pricing is an important factor which makes you stand out among your competitors. It is important to have pricing according to the audience you are targeting. For example

• Higher income segment – This audience will be more interested in quality and brand. So, your communication should more focus on quality and standards and pricing for this segment will not play a major role.

• Middle income or lower income segment – This segment is more concerned about pricing so communicate the competitive price you are offering. Be ready to give offers on festivals, events. Create excitement by giving additional benefits or giveaway.

4. Decide & analyze Competition

It is imperative to know who all your competitions are and track the activities they are doing on different channels to entice the audience. This will offer learning for your own business and let you adapt strategies that work the best. The important things while deciding the competition are pricing, audience, quality & USPs (your competition should have these points similar to your own brand). Don’t copy but innovate and bring something new in your business.

Phase 2: After the launch, create promotion strategy

5. Who is your audience ?

A very simple question for your business while you are at the stage of How to get a small business started is Who is your audience? Ask below questions and then create strategy to market and target your product or service

• Gender – Whether men will be interested in your product or women
• Age group – Which age group is more likely to buy your product or service
• Interests – Are these people interested in health topics, fashion, shopping, nature, traveling, feminism, e-courses etc. These are some of the examples to suggest you kind of classification you need
• Income bracket – who all can afford your service or product
• Location – Where you can deliver and are accessible
• Language – How comfortable your audience is with particular language

These targeting options will also play a huge role while you will start with promotion on digital. For organic promotion, all the activities & communication should be basis the above audience and for paid promotion, you can target above audience by applying proxies. Will discuss about these in my another post. So, subscribe and stay tuned 🙂

6. Offline, online or both?

Do you need to reach out to your audience through online channel or just offline will work? There is no doubt that online marketing is inevitable for small businesses but sometime we need time & money to invest in our business. So basis our spending capability or time devotion, we can decide which one to choose. To know about why digital marketing for small business, read this post

7. Select medium for promotion

No doubt, there are plethora of options to confuse you while choosing a medium to promote your business. Your business need not to be on all mediums but on medium where your target audience is present. If you want to know the audience specific to every medium, read this post

8. Don’t rush for everything

Always remember 80-20 rule. Don’t run for everything instead choose one thing at a time and create best content and strategy for one medium. Paid marketing might entice you but stick to organic promotion till the time you are done with the experimentation. Paid can boost inquiries and spike followers for your business but retaining the business will require the best organic efforts (content, communication & obviously the best service)

9. Give time to your communication strategy

Whatever new strategy you adapt or execute, give time to reap results. Don’t be in a hurry to reach to a conclusion or switch to a new one. Remember not to bore your audience with constant selling and promotion. Believe in having two way communication with your audience. This article can be a great help for you if you are looking for social media post ideas for small business.

10. Don’t fall for competition actions : Know the difference between need & fad

Just because your competitor is having a website, it doesn’t mean you need to have the same for your business or vice a versa. Always measure investment with the value addition. Services or tools you choose for your business should make life simpler and should contribute to sales or better ROI(Return on investment).

11. Choose organic first

Choosing the paid promotion while you are at How to get business started phase is definitely not a good option. Exhaust your organic efforts first then switch to paid promotion. Money is really important while one is starting a new business so use it wisely

12. Don’t overlook word of mouth marketing

No matter in whatever stage your are in your business, word of mouth will always be the most effective and influential marketing tactic. Imagine if somebody is actually saying good about something, you will listen to them with all your ears and whenever it will come to buy a similar product or service, one will consider the same brand. So, always invest in word of mouth marketing. Ask your clients to share feedback of your brand with others. Ask them for review / feedback on website and social media. Record their feedback and publish on your pages. Let your customers come and talk about your brand. This is really important when you are thinking of launching your business digitally.

13. Consistency is a key

Nothing can beat consistency. Be consistent with your efforts and promotion. There might be a delay in seeing results but consistency will help you in cracking the best promotion for your audience. Consistency is very important step in how to get a small business started.

14. Be clear about your brand and its USPs

Never confuse your audience about what are you offering. Promote USPS and brand intelligently. Don’t oversell but use mixed of content while promoting. Show USPs of your business with real life examples. Try to showcase impact in your communication

15. Go for diversity

Complacency can harm your business. Use mix of content from promotion, quizzes, contest, feedback, story telling, giveaways to testimonial. Experiment with all the new tools that different platforms are offering and try to find new ways to engage with the audience. Engagement is the key to win your audience. How to use Instagram reels for Business Promotion ? Read this to know how to experiment with new tools

16. Prioritize your audience

If you have half an hour daily to promote your business then choose one medium for promotion. The medium that you are choosing should be according to the audience that is most important for you. Prioritize and then work for your targets

Phase 3: Goals setting

17. Set Goals : monthly. quarterly, half yearly, yearly

Most of the time we start business and don’t have goals. More defined your goals more likely the result will be . Define goals for every small thing and every medium. You can decide goals for

• Likes
• Followers
• Sales
• Conversion
• Feedback
• Return on investment(ROI)

18. Track your channel wise goals

It is important to track performance of each channel. Tracking can be done on daily basis or monthly basis. It is one way to track the reward against your time investment

19. Analyze the effort vs result graph

Proper analysis is must to know what all efforts are giving you the best results. It not only helps in understanding the audience but cracking the strategy what works best for your audience. So, consider analysis an imperative part of How to get a small business started

20. Never stop experimenting

Business keep you on toes but give you reward as well. Experiment & learn, these two points will help your audience to stay connected and enjoy your content & brand forever. Keep experimenting and growing!