Launching Your Start-up: Business Advice

Planning a start-up business can be a daunting experience for any eager entrepreneur, with big decisions determining whether you hit the ground running or fall flat at the first hurdle. It can be a difficult game to get right, with fierce competition and battles for investment making it a thrilling yet startling experience.

With your newly found business idea being the burning passion inside of you, we’ve teamed up with Total Enterprise Solutions to highlight some of the key details you must know about building your start-up business from scratch.

Storing Business Information: CRM Systems

With the majority of start-up businesses having a small workforce to begin with, many business owners do not think about implementing a sophisticated project management system such as Microsoft Dynamics NAV as this can be seen as an inconvenient expense. However, this is a huge mistake that could be detrimental to the company’s operations in the later life of the business.

Due to a small workforce, organisations think that they are able to manage projects and a diverse range of data through software like Excel — and although this can be a reasonable and cheaper alternative, it can have its drawbacks. When your start-up finally expands and widens its workforce, it can be difficult to transfer all of that data into a CRM system; which could then potentially cause your business a lot of downtime as a result.

If you were to be wise and invest in such systems from the beginning, you’ll not have to worry about the later change that could badly impact your business. With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) taking priority in terms of unifying and strengthening data across Europe, you can rest assured that the security provided by Microsoft will deliver a risk-free service whilst allowing you to install industry-specific solutions that can enhance the operations of your company.

If you continue to use software that is susceptible to risks, such as mishandling of data, you could find yourself the victim of harsh penalties orchestrated by the European Parliament. This shows that it’s incredibly important to introduce the right features to your business from the beginning, especially at a time where discussions on data are pivotal across every sector.

Not only that, you will experience a rapid return on investment which will ensure faster results that can minimise disruption within the company and save time and expenses on what you would spend on additional training for your employees.

Determining the right office space

Picking the perfect office space for your business can be difficult too — but this is all dependent on your location as rent prices will vary. Choosing an office space is often the biggest downfall of start-up businesses, with many wanting to make a lasting impression and picking a location that is extortionate. You must avoid this at all costs.

London is often dubbed as the ‘place to be’ and is thought to make the best impression on your clients. You couldn’t be more wrong. Your clients would prefer to spend more money on your delivery team — employing the best people in your field than they would on you picking an expensive location; because ultimately, that doesn’t impact them.

An office in London comes with many drawbacks and the office prices is just one of them. If you situate your business in the capital, you will have to pay higher salaries and probably reduce the number of workers in your business as a result — are you really willing to take this risk?

It’s important to remember that office prices outside of London are considerably cheaper, and cities such as Newcastle, Manchester and Leeds are all developing at a rapid rate and becoming a more lucrative option for all.

Moving away from office prices, you need to determine your office culture as this can have a profound impact on your employees. Happy employees outperform the competition by 20% and happiness in the workplace makes people 12% more productive, which is something that you should be working towards. This can be achieved in various ways, whether this is creating a unique and quirky office space or adding great employee benefits that can’t be resisted. To create more of a community feeling within your business, it might be worth opting for an open-plan office so that everyone feels involved in the company’s objectives and can work together towards it.

An online presence

When you’re starting up your business, you want to make sure that you have your online presence already established so you can instantly gain some brand recognition — you want your customers to know who you are, after all.

Create a consistent account (preferably with the same username handle) across all social media platforms — especially LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If one platform does not specifically apply to your business, direct your audience to where you’re mostly active. It’s important to show your customers that you’re involved with modern developments and care about how your company is perceived by the public.

Post regularly across your platforms and to ensure you’re staying within your brand guidelines, create different ‘social personas’ that can be used to outline the types of posts you’re about to publish. From this, you will also be able to gain greater insight for your social pages.

Those were just some of the areas you must consider when starting up your business — remember that all are equally important and can determine the success of your company.

Sources:

https://www.findalondonoffice.co.uk/toolbox/rental-guide/#rent-table

https://growtheverywhere.com/management/statistical-case-company-culture/