The rise of startups in technology, direct-to-consumer digital native brands and solopreneur bloggers has changed how we see small businesses. We don’t live in a world where a business has to have a store-front or has to have a factory to be viable. I have worked with tonnes of successful small business owners helping them increase their revenue, sales and profitability with proven strategies that work. In this series, I am going to cover every base that you need to know about starting an online business, making it grow and flourish so that it can be successful. I also feature special subscriber-only content for people who are determined to succeed so don’t forget to sign up for my exclusive newsletter.
This guide is ideal wherever you are in the world. You just make small tweaks to adjust for your country’s rules and regulations.
For the purpose of clarity, this guide is going to be for anyone who is starting a business that will primarily generate leads and revenue online. So if you are launching an online business such as an e-commerce store or if you are launching a B2B business that relies on online lead generation, this is the perfect business guide for you.
In Part 1, we are going to cover the basics of starting a business which includes:
- Admin such as getting a licence and adhering to your country’s laws
- Choosing the right idea
- Creating a budget for your business and your personal life for your personal life
- Getting your first sales
How to start a business – The Admin
Don’t start any business without being fully licensed. For the sake of clarity and ease, I will focus mainly on online business. Get your business licence sorted out and get a website made for your business. If you are starting a B2B business, you need to ensure that you are fully licensed for certain industries such as construction.
Your website should have basic web pages explaining what your business does and it should also have a contact us page that allows people to get in touch with you if they want to hire you for your services. If you are starting a B2C business such as an e-commerce store, you should be focused on creating an excellent website that makes buying easy. I like Shopify’s interface for beginners because it is easy to manoeuvre in the long term.
By the time you have finished setting up your company, you should have done the following before moving onto my next steps:
- Get your company licences set up
- Have your tax information for your business ready
- Open a business bank account
- Set up your website for your business
How to choose the right idea for your business
This is probably the most important thing that you need to do when you are starting an online business. If you choose the wrong idea that doesn’t have any profitability, you will be toiling away and it won’t work and trust me, I’ve been there, it’s not fun. That said, if you choose the right idea, you can grow a successful and profitable business which I have also done. Take time to learn what types of products people want to buy. For B2B entrepreneurs, the buying cycle is longer and it can take a while for clients to decide to go with your company although in general B2B businesses are more profitable quicker. For B2C businesses, there are tonnes of niches to explore.
For 2019, I have a lot of hope in consumer sub niches within fashion, beauty, style, jewellery, shopping and the mother & baby market. I also really like men’s fashion so if you want to start an online business, men’s fashion is a huge opportunity if you know what you are doing. For B2B in 2019, marketing services such as SEO, PPC and digital marketing are competitive but there is always new room for growth and there is also new room for startups in financial services and industrial markets as well.
For B2C, look for underserved markets that actually have buying power. Everyone wants to start a jewellery store online. However, perhaps you should just start a jewellery store that sells stylish bracelets for women. Bracelets are a huge part of the jewellery industry but by specialising you give your store the chance to stand out from the competition. For B2B, try and create a B2B product that clients actually want to use. There are tonnes of apps and tools for SaaS on the market and a lot of them are struggling to differentiate themselves. I think 2019 could be lucrative for enterprising people in B2B who can create tools and products that help businesses to make more money. Always bring it back to them bottom line for this market.
How to figure out who your target customer is
And no, you can’t just make this up. Spend time doing research and finding out who actually wants to buy your product, not who says it looks good. Your friends and family don’t count because they love you so they won’t necessarily tell you the truth when it comes to this.
For B2B brands, your target customer needs to be honed by thinking about who controls the budgets in the businesses your target and who is the problem-solver of the company. If you are planning on creating a payments startup that targets B2B, you need to target anyone and everyone who works in the finance department of B2B companies since they are the ones that would have a say in whether your startup’s products are used or not.
This is where you have to start doing the work yourselves. A lot of ‘how to start a business online’ guides want to sell you a river. I want you to start with drops of water and slowly pool your droplets of water to make a bucket full of water that you can continuously drink from. You have to do the work in terms of research but don’t spend all day either. Put yourself in the mind of a consumer and think who is going to seriously pay for your product. I have super detailed ideas on customer marketing and shopper marketing if you are ready to get started.
How to price your services competitively
Nothing annoys customers more online than new brands and businesses charging tonnes of cash for products and services. If you are starting a new business, you need to price your products in a way that is competitive. Don’t undercut yourself but don’t charge Cartier prices just yet either. Once you have a book of sales for your business, then look and see where you should price competitively. This is only relevant for general B2B or B2C businesses. If you want to launch a luxury brand, you do need to price relatively high but remember that it will be an uphill battle as well.
How to create a budget that makes sense
Don’t start a business on an extremely low budget. Yeah, I know. It goes against a lot of what is plastered around online but without a sizeable budget for marketing and promotions, it will be difficult getting your business off the ground. Have a decent budget to account for slow days where you won’t generate sales and also have a budget for marketing and advertising. Many budgets for new businesses also don’t include contingencies. You need to have a buffer in case things go wrong with your business. What if you fall ill? What if sales are crushingly slow? The last thing you want to worry about is your personal finances so make sure you launch with 6 months living expenses already in the bank to avoid feeling super stressed about growing your business. My advice for people who want to create a small business is never do anything that will hurt you personally in order to grow a business. Always be responsible and ethical with your personal finances and as the old saying goes ‘never bet the farm’.
Getting your first sales
In this section, I’m going to go through how to get your first few sales in your B2B or B2C business. Let’s start with B2B.
If you are starting a B2B business that is based on services such as consulting, getting your first sales is going to be based on your ability to sell. It’s that simple. You either sell your services aggressively and generate sales or you don’t. Change your outlook in order to make money in B2B. Send at least 50 cold emails every single day at minimum. Normally when clients contact me for advice via email, I tell them that they need to be sending at least 200 cold emails per day to generate new business for their B2B brand. Within a week of sending from 200 to 500 cold personalised emails, you should have a bunch of leads that you can nurture and convert to purchase your B2B services and products. My personal approach is more aggressive just because I know the competition in B2B is a bit more aggressive, but I also understand that it isn’t that way for everyone. Ultimately, you should be able to get new clients after 1-2 weeks of cold emailing as long as people actually need your service and if you write a good cold email. I have free cold email templates if you sign up to my newsletter.
If you are starting a B2C business that is based on consumer products, you need to understand that the days of selling organically are over. Everything with online businesses is all about pay to play. If you are going to be selling on marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay, you will invest in paying for PPC ads and marketplace fees. If you are going to build out your own e-commerce store, you will need to pay for search engine marketing via Google and Bing, Facebook and Instagram ads, Pinterest ads and YouTube advertising as well as investing in influencers. A solid paid marketing plan will bring in sales for your B2C online business as long as you are targeting the right people. Some of my clients have gotten sales in as fast as one week after listening to my advice on how to target people for their e-commerce stores, so make sure to take in my actionable advice. For some e-commerce brands, it takes longer. In my experience with online business, B2C entrepreneurs can get sales faster with niche e-commerce stores compared to general stores.
In Part 1 of my starting a business guide, I hope you have learned the basics of getting set up, finding out what your business will be and who you will sell to. Getting your first few sales can be difficult but once you have done this, it should be fairly straight forward to grow from there. I will be adding Part 2 and Part 3 soon so that you can get the full picture of how to start a successful and profitable business in 2019. I save a lot of exclusive content for my current group of clients but you don’t need to be an Imperial Drive client to get a slice of some exclusive case studies. Simply sign up for my newsletter and you will receive exclusive tips and case studies that I don’t upload here.