101 Start-Up Tips for New Businesses | Tips #11-20

101 start-up tips is a free PDF guide for the newly self-employed, available to download by subscribing to our nesletter.

Following on from start-up tips 1-10, you can read tip 11-19 below.

Start-up Tip #11 | Use & Abuse Friends, Family & All Contacts for your start-up

With the likes of social media it’s a lot easier to market a small business, so use and abuse all friends and family, on and offline to get the word out about your business idea.

Make everyone you know either a salesperson or a client.

They say never do business with family but if you can keep it formal then it can be your leverage.

USe an abuse every contact you have and don’t be shy about it.

Start-up Tip #12 |Using Free Resources to start-up

As a start-up, you may be looking to invest in equipment, stock, software or even procedures, and that’s great thinking.

However, these are changing times and it’s amazing how many free resources are out there to help you get started.

From accounting software and word processing to time  keeping and even PAYG manufacturers.

Invest in good tools that you need but utilise whatever free tools you can until you realise you need something better.

Start-up Tip #13 |Should you start as a Sole Trader or LTD?

You’ll have 3 months after your start-up your business to register with the HMRC but for now just get started and make some money before registering. 

When it comes to choosing your registration chose carefully as your business may benefit specifically from choosing one over the other.

In hindsight it might have been better if I had started as a limited  company but in terms of speed, starting as a sole trader is much  quicker.

Don’t be hasty though, find out what would be most beneficial for your start-up business before registering.

Start-up Tip #14 | Business Bank Account for start-ups

If you start to make money with your start-up then you may think that you need a business bank account.

The truth is that you don’t actually need one.

Any bank account will do for preliminary stages.

A business bank account helps to make your business banking a little easier for yourself and for tax purposes but don’t worry about being too official at pre-startup stage.

Start-up Tip #15 | Tax Benefits for start-up businesses

From time to time the government offer special tax benefits for start-up businesses such as deductions for equipment or a deduction of tax in general so be sure to check these out to see if you’re entitled to any benefits.

It could help your start-up, start-up.

Start-Up Tip 16 | Remember the term business

Start-Up Tip #3 was to forget the term business.

This tip is to now focus on the term business in every way.

In order to sustain a business, you have to act like one.  You need to charge people and make money and you need to be dedicated to doing so.

You’ll also need to spend money to keep a business going, so focus on both in goings and out, processes and time, and start operating like a business in order to stay profitable.

Start-up Tip 17 | Investing in your start-up

Today there’s lots of ways to secure investment for your start-up.

The best method is still to borrow from family but if that’s not possible then a bank might be willing to help however I’ve found that banks are rigid in their lending and you have to abide by their rules.

Angel investors have become popular but what’s taken the world by storm is crowd funding where investment is made open to the public.

Check out the likes of kickstarter.

Start-up Tip 18 | Forget the Launch Date for your business

Don’t tie yourself down with launch dates to officially start your business.

I’ve done this myself and it achieved nothing except waste time.

Keep yourself in the pre-start-up mode for as long as possible, in fact never really launch.

Just start the business now and get on with it. In doing so you’ll save yourself a lot of amount of time.

Start Up Tip #19 | Start promoting locally

I’m based in Essex and when I started up I attracted clients everywhere except locally.

It wasn’t until a few years later that I managed to get my first local client and now more recently they seem to be steadily coming through the door.

Although my journey was different I would advise start-ups to focus more on their local areas for a quicker start-up.

It’s a better way to test the business, create sales and build local recognition.

Start-Up Tip #20 | Don’t be clever, be good

I find many start-ups try to be too clever with their ideas and start-ups.

They try too heavily to break the mould in order to break through.

Your business and idea don’t have to be overly clever, it just has to be good.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading tips 11-20 from our 101 start-up tips for the newly self-employed.

If you want to read more, subscribe and download the full PDF.