In today’s day and age more and more people are deciding to take the entrepreneurship route and start their own business. With the evolution of the Internet this is becoming easier but there are few things that these start ups need to keep in mind to ensure success.
When starting a business one must always consider there brand and what persuades a customer to trust a brand and start placing orders for products and services.
Below are some key points that will help you better prepare to tackle your new start up and hopefully drive success:
1. Logo
When a customer looks at your logo what do they think? What do the colours say about your product or service? Is the font bold and strong or soft and trusting? Depending on the product or service you will be offering you will want to explore these options with your graphic designer who can explain the effects that these colours and fonts have to your customer.
2. Business Cards
There is something to be said about have a nice business card that is professionally designed and printed to thick sturdy card stock that has a nice feel to it. The trick with business cards is that you don’t want then to be like everyone else’s. There are a lot of serves out there that offer templates stuff, but this just means that you will have something that the masses are doing. This doesn’t always work out to your advantage. Although the cost savings are there, the cards will be just like the next persons. When choosing a paper stock you should look to see what options are available and what will work best with your brand and product and service you are offering. For example, if you are in the technology sector you might want to consider a silk finish that offers a spot uv that is a little more advanced than a typical card, following a similar trend in the technology sector.
3. Stationary
Nothing looks better then having all your stationary match. From Letterheads to envelopes, noted pads and email signatures, all these items are used to communicate with your customers on a daily basis and are prime opportunities to help reinforced your brand awareness.
4. Banners and Signs
With more and more options of large format printing available to the everyday business owner, we are seeing a large number of new business putting up large banners, signs & display boards to help them get there message seen. These print items are no more cost effective and gives you the opportunity to update and change the artwork and promotions more frequently, helping keep the customer interested and engaged.
5. Flyers/Brochures
When trying to promote a product or service, try putting yourself in the customer position, and offer a solution to a problem. With the use of a Flyer or Brochure you will be able to list all/some of your offerings that a potential customer can read about and help them make a decision to move forward. Flyers and Brochures also work well for doing mailers and general campaigning. The Information can also be placed online on your website and used for social media advertising, with a little modification to fall within best practice guidelines.
6. Website
When building a website there are lot of options on how you can proceed and they really depend on your comfort level and what your needs/future needs will be.
A few pointers to consider when starting the process are:
1. Have your registered a Domain name?
2. Decide on how many pages do you require
3. Do you want to have a gallery for your products?
4. Do you require a contact page/ From to screen potential inquires?
5. Will you be selling your product and service online, that would require a online cart.
6. Will you be have links to your social media platforms?
7. Are you planning on blogging?
8. Do you need a SSL certification
9. Are you planning on doing your own updating?
10. Hosting options.?
There are more to consider, but utilizing the list above will give you a good stating point and the ability to start and contact potential web designers and companies to provide you with a quotation and get your website online.
7. Search Engine Optimization
Once all the above are done and customers are coming in or visiting you online, you will want to consider taking your website/advertising to the next level but increasing the traffic/viewers that are visiting your website that could potentially lead to an increase in sales. There are a few different ways that you could approach SEO (Search Engine Optimization) that would include organically or with the use of Google Ad words.
Organic SEO –Organic SEO is the process of updating your website and increasing the speed, content and working with affiliates and bloggers to drive traffic to your website.
Google Ad Words – Google Ad Words utilizing google tools you can pay to come up when someone is Looking for something online. This method is based on a budget and key word search. In this instance the highest bidder will come up first in the Key Word search and could be very costly.
Entrepreneurship is not for everyone, and it by no means all sunshine and cake. Successful Entrepreneurs have been known to spend 16-18hrs a day in there business, especially in the beginning stages to get there vision up and running. These long hours and days help you to understand your business and build it the way you want. With a plan of action, hard work and consistency you too can strive to be an entrepreneur.
It has been said that “ A person with a plan will always beat a person skill”.
Plan your business, stay consistent and don’t be afraid to make changes along the way to help you succeed.
Until next time, Stay creative.
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