If becoming a business owner is your lifelong dream, you’ve come to the right place. Greg Gillman knows what it’s like to grow a business since he’s done it himself, helped other companies do it, and can help you do it too with these ten tips:
1. Do What You Know and What You Love
The first step to becoming a business owner involves choosing the kind of business you want to start. This can be challenging due to the sheer number of possibilities out there. If you don’t yet have a business idea, a good place to start is with what you know.
What industries have you worked in? What did you get your degree in? For example, if you worked in tech and got a degree in programming, then it might make sense to stay in that area since you have relevant experience.
However, experience isn’t everything; you also need to be passionate about the business you’re starting. What do you love to do? What are your hobbies?
If you worked in tech for years without actually liking it but picked up a woodworking hobby building tables, cabinets, and signs for friends and family members, you might want to turn this hobby into a legitimate business.
2. Set Yourself Apart
Once you have an idea in mind, you need to set yourself apart. No matter what industry you’re in, there’s going to be competition out there and companies that seemingly do the same thing as you. So how are you different from the rest?
The best way to set your business apart is with a unique value proposition or UVP. Unlike a marketing slogan, a unique value proposition shows off the value of your business to potential customers. A unique value proposition should communicate your business’s problem, how you solve it, and how you do it better than the rest.
3. Know Your Customer
When creating your unique value proposition, it helps to keep your customers in mind. First, however, you need to figure out who your customers are. Think about who could benefit from the product or service you’re providing and go from there. These days, it’s not enough to simply use a few demographic factors to describe your target customer group.
Instead, you need to take it further by creating a customer persona. A customer persona expands on demographic factors to create a profile that reads like an actual person.
By incorporating wants, fears, and hobbies, you can learn more about your customers and better cater to them.
4. Create a Plan
Coming up with a unique value proposition and a customer persona should aid you in creating a comprehensive business plan. No business is complete without one, and even though making one can be difficult, you’ve already laid a lot of the groundwork.
Some other sections that you should have in your business plan include an executive summary, company description, market analysis, organization and management, service or product line, marketing and sales, and financial projections.
Remember that your business plan is for you, first and foremost. It acts as a roadmap to help you establish a successful business.
Business plans are also useful for securing financing, so be thorough and informative if you seek outside funding.
5. Set Goals
Another important component that you need to consider, whether inside or outside your business plan, is your goals. Without goals, you have nothing to work towards. While your goals don’t have to be extremely ambitious, they have to be realistic.
Try setting both short-term and long-term goals for your business. For example, you may want to get five new clients by the end of the quarter and 50 new clients by the end of the year. Or you may want to do $1,000 in sales by the end of the quarter and $10,000 in sales by the end of the year.
These goals can guide you and help you stay on track as you run your business.
6. Consider Your Finances
Finances can be one of the most challenging aspects of being a business owner, but they don’t have to be with the right approach. Before you even begin your business, you need to consider your finances. If possible, try to save up money that you can then use to cover your business startup costs.
If you need outside funding at any point, there are several different possibilities to consider. First of all, you could obtain a small business loan given by a bank but backed by the Small Business Administration (SBA).
You could also obtain a business credit card for business-related expenses. Finally, you could get funding from investors, whether they’re venture capitalists or angel investors.
7. Rely on Your Network
Your network is extremely valuable as a business owner. Take funding, for example. You could potentially use your network to access funding opportunities. You could use your network to help you gain clients and business.
Finally, you could use your network for general business advice if you run into any problems along your business journey.
8. Ask for Help
As a business owner, you should never be afraid of asking for help. After all, your network is useless if you don’t ask them for help. Even if you don’t want to ask your network for help or they can’t help, you can look elsewhere.
For example, there are experts that you can go to for help. Let’s say that you know nothing about marketing and are having trouble launching effective advertising campaigns for your business. Working with marketing experts like Greg Gillman could go a long way towards establishing and growing your business.
9. Get the Word Out
Even if you’re not a marketing expert, there are things you can do to get the word out about your new business. Start with your family and friends as word of mouth marketing can be extremely effective. Next, create a website for your business so that customers can easily look you up and get information.
From there, you can bolster your marketing approach with paid social media marketing and search engine optimization (SEO). For an omnichannel strategy, feel free to incorporate other marketing avenues like email marketing and text message marketing.
10. Make It Official
Finally, make your new business venture official by registering your business with the proper authorities. You may have to obtain business licenses from your state and county, depending on your location. You may also have to obtain special business permits depending on your industry. Finally, consider incorporating your business as a partnership, a limited liability company (LLC), or a corporation.
Wrap Up on Becoming a Business Owner
Thanks to these ten tips, you can become a business owner and launch a successful business quickly. Just remember that if you ever need any help along the way, you can reach out to Greg Gillman for tailored advice and guidance on any aspect of business ownership. Also, feel free to check out the blog for even more business tips and articles.
Sources:
4 Ways to Find Your Unique Value Proposition | Inc.
Business Plan Template: What to Include | Forbes
8 Powerful Ways to Market Your Business on a Limited Budget | Entrepreneur
