Business Essentials: A List

Starting a business can be quite stressful. There are so many things that you have to worry about that it is easy to become overwhelmed. One of the simplest and yet deceptively difficult things to decide on is the name of your business. It has to reflect who you are and what you believe in just a few words. Not only that, it should give some indication of the sort of business that it is; if a prospective customer just sees an advert as they go past in a car, and all they see is the name of the company, they should have some idea of what it might sell or the services it might offer. Some people become so consumed with picking the right name that they spend lots of time and money conducting customer surveys and focus groups until they find something that they think will work in practice. The only problem with this is that it is a great expense of time before you have started your business. If you deliberate so much over every decision, you will quickly find yourself going nowhere. However, that is not to say that doing market research is not important. You should give some thought to the name of your business because once you start to trade, you will develop a reputation with your customers. They will hopefully associate your name and brand with a good experience. Changing that name is a big risk because you may have to start all over again with a new name and you’ll have to start that long process of earning your customers’ trust all over again.

Once you’ve chosen your name and you are confident in it, you will need to start to put together all the other crucial aspects of your business. When you start to think about it, you may realize that there are a lot of things that you’ll need. Here is a list of some of the major ones and why they’re important:

A survey conducted in the UK last year found that of the 350 small businesses asked, 46% did not have a website. As a point of reference, the total global worth of the e-commerce market is estimated to be $22 trillion. M-commerce alone is thought to be worth $3.2 trillion. Not having a website is therefore simply not an option. If your business will not trade online (if you run a landscape gardening business for instance), you should still invest in a website because it is a way for people to find you. Besides, websites are not that expensive, and a lot of companies will offer hosting services for free. The popularity of the internet speaks for itself: 88% of Americans are now using the internet, with 73% of those people having broadband at home. Not only that, 77% have a smartphone and 69% use social media. Besides having a website for your business, you should also utilize social media accounts. It is estimated that 1.92 billion people use Facebook regularly and over 350 million people use their Twitter account at least once a month. It is free to sign up to both sites, and you can use them to great effect to advertise your business. However, you have to be creative about it. Simply extolling the virtues of your products or services will not induce a lot of people to follow you. They want to be entertained as well as informed. The Merriam-Webster dictionary Twitter account is a great example of how to do it right. Dictionaries may not be the most conventionally interesting things, but the Twitter account is acerbic, witty and socially and culturally relevant. Their tweets are so good that they are collated and reported.

However, the internet is not just fun. It can be dangerous too. The threat of cyber attacks is real. In fact, research conducted last year found that 60% of small businesses that suffer a cyber attack are out of business within six months. On a larger scale, some estimates suggest that cyber attacks cost the global economy $450 billion each year. Not only that, most small businesses are not prepared for potential attacks. That is why it is so important to invest money in IT support services. It may be a big expense initially, but it is a lot cheaper than having to try to repair everything once it is damaged. Also, your customers will trust you with their sensitive digital and financial data, and if you do not warrant that trust, they will not use your services again. Encrypting your databases and proving that you are able to look after sensitive information is crucial. The number of companies which have been breached is astounding, as is the amount of data that they lost. To prevent it from happening to you and ruining your reputation, you should install the appropriate infrastructure to defend against the threat.

One thing that you’ll quickly learn when you start your own business is that if you do not delegate, you will not be able to keep up. Following on from that, you will realize that your employees are your greatest resource. You may have the most sophisticated computer system around and the best marketing strategy of any of your competitors, but if you do not have reliable, hard working people around you, it will not get you very far. That is why a professional, dedicated HR department is a necessity. You do not need lots of people. If you have a small business, one person may be able to handle it all themselves. It is so important because paying your employees on time is a mandated by law. Also, you need to keep your employees happy. A study conducted a few years ago found that happy employees are 12% more productive. Resolving potential disputes is one way of making sure your employees are satisfied, but the place where they will work is important too. You can boost motivation in lots of ways (pay rises tend to work), but designing a welcoming, pleasant office will make sure that your staff are more inclined to want to go into work each day. While it represents another expense, investing in chairs that support the back is a good idea, as is having a fresh, vibrant color scheme and providing a space where people can relax and escape from the pressures of work when they are on a break.

You may not be surprised to learn that on a list of professions that people dislike, lawyers feature prominently. It is also the most common profession in the country and there is a reason for that: as much as you may dislike them, they are necessary. They are useful if for no other reason that they help protect you from another of the most vilified professions in the country: IRS agents. Paying your taxes on time is a lot tougher when you run your own business. If you have worked in a corporate structure before, you may be used to your company sending off your details to the IRS and the money simply being taken from your paycheck. However, when you are in charge, you have to submit your returns yourself, and if they are not correct, you could face a fine or time in prison in some cases (it depends on whether the deception was intentional). Lawyers are useful in other situations as well though. When you start a business, you suddenly become liable for any accidents that may take place at your office. Defending against potential lawsuits takes a lot of time and money, and if you are unprepared, it could close down your business. Speaking to a lawyer to find out how to best protect yourself is something you should do before you start trading.