The best advice I can give you for starting a business is to minimise your initial costs. Don’t go crazy and buy all the unnecessary junk that’s on sale for small business start ups. Invoice books, instead use your pc and printer. £500 “marketing kits” including junk like bumper stickers etc, instead stick to your regular advertising in the yellow pages or have the brochures/bumper stickers printed separately at a lower cost. Also initially doing your own taxes shouldn’t be that hard there’s no need for an accountant or accountant software until you’re making a decent wage.
To start your business you need a logo. It doesn’t have to be fantastic, just professional and neat looking. You could give it a go doing it yourself on your PC or hire a professional. If you’re looking to start up your business low cost, use ebay.co.uk to search for and hire a logo designer. You’ll find people who’ll design you a great logo for under £20!
Initially stick to advertising that you know will work, so you get the best return for your money. Use pay-per-click advertising online, Google, MSN and Yahoo! all offer advertising along with their search results for £0.05+ per click and an initial start up fee of £0-£50. Offline, use the yellow pages / phonebook / Thompson directories. Be wary of local newspaper ads even when they call you with a “special deal” as you’ll often spend more per sale on this advertising than any of the others. You need to run a series of adverts to get customers, and free newspapers are rarely read by people either!
Create a business plan and stick to it. Too many small businesses start up without a business plan, if you don’t know where you’re wanting to go how will you get there? A lot of small businesses only write a business plan when their bank asks for one. Your business plan should include describing the type of customers you intend to target, your financial spending and an evaluation of your expected income.
Your bank is not your friend when starting your business. I've seen too many small businesses start up with a bank loan and never cleared it! In the end when they sell their business they still have to put a great chunk of it to the bank. Do as much as you can yourself, bank "business advisors" often cost £15 an hour just to discuss things you can get a better comprehension of studying them using the internet. Look up marketing tips and tricks online and save yourself as much money as possible.
Initially it’s always good to work part-time at your small business and have another steady job as you learn the ropes. It’s not easy to effectively promote a small business on a shoe-string budget and learning how will take a little time. Don’t overestimate yourself, placing an advert in the yellow pages and having a 3 page website will not allow you to earn enough to quit your day job.
Planning makes perfect. When making a business plan don't drool over the calculator thinking "With 10% sales I'll make....". That type of planning overlooks things like consumer demand and the actual response rate of customers.
Don’t just jump into you business strategies, test the waters first. Start using a smaller version, make a couple of sales and see what the work’s really like. This could save you from losing large amounts of money in non-profitable businesses.
Join industry and small business associations. You can use their logo and earn respect from customers and also network with other members to increase your sales and learn new tricks. Almost all industries have unions and associations you can join. The internet has allowed business networking to consist of association email groups and website directories allowing you to exchange business nationwide or worldwide.
The internet is changing the way small businesses operate. With online phone services like skype.com you can call people using your computer from anywhere in the world, as long as you’re connected to the net. It’s incredibly cheap as well, international calls are 2p a minute and all you need is a £15 telephone headset like the ones they have in call centres.
Be realistic when starting a business. Don’t for a second think that programs like “Paid to read emails” or “Earn $100K online without a website” are actually going to make you any money, or even a sustainable income. These programs are usually based on multi-level marketing and only work for the first people to become involved. Using affiliate programs can earn your small business an additional income, but I wouldn’t advise basing your whole business on them, unless you’re a fantastic salesman
The name of your business is important. Don’t go for an unspecific name like “Jones Consulting” instead have your business name describe your services like “Jones Investment Consulting”. Having a specific business name helps promote your business by word of mouth as people can remember it easier, it also tells the customers exactly what you’re offering.