4 Tips for Success When Starting a New Business
February 3, 2021
Starting your own business can be rewarding and life-changing but the key to success is proper planning and execution. Here are some tips for starting a new business and how they can be applied to starting a local business directory and coupon website for your area with Ideal Directories.
1. Think Big but Start Small
You might have grand plans for your new business but it's important to remember that you will be building your business from the ground up. While your long-term goals might be to replace your current 9 to 5, generate a six figure salary, and pave your way to an early retirement, it's better to break your long term vision into smaller, obtainable goals.
When you first launch a local business directory website, you're going to be excited about the potential to sign up hundreds if not thousands of local businesses who will pay you each month. While this is certainly an obtainable goal, your first priority should be getting your first sale. Landing your first handful of clients is often the hardest part, but once you get in the groove, you'll find the process gets smoother, sales become easier, and your income will grow exponentially over time.
Starting your own business can be rewarding and life-changing but the key to success is proper planning and execution. Here are some tips for starting a new business and how they can be applied to starting a local business directory and coupon website for your area with Ideal Directories.
1. Think Big but Start Small
You might have grand plans for your new business but it's important to remember that you will be building your business from the ground up. While your long-term goals might be to replace your current 9 to 5, generate a six figure salary, and pave your way to an early retirement, it's better to break your long term vision into smaller, obtainable goals.
When you first launch a local business directory website, you're going to be excited about the potential to sign up hundreds if not thousands of local businesses who will pay you each month. While this is certainly an obtainable goal, your first priority should be getting your first sale. Landing your first handful of clients is often the hardest part, but once you get in the groove, you'll find the process gets smoother, sales become easier, and your income will grow exponentially over time.
2. Have a Plan
When starting a business, a business plan is super helpful in letting you identify who your potential clients are, how much you might charge them, figuring out your costs and how you will scale the business for long-term profitability. This is a task that can be confusing, painstaking, and could even cause you to never get your business off the ground because too many questions are left unanswered.
Here at Ideal Directories, we've helped hundreds of individuals launch a successful directory website so we already know exactly what it takes. We make every effort to spell out all the parts of running a business directory website for our clients so that they are not left guessing and very little is left up to them to figure out. Take for example: with our affordable pricing, you already know how much you’re going to be spending to keep the business afloat – you know your ongoing costs. We even show you the best types of businesses to target and ways to market your site. And using our suggested retail pricing, you can get a pretty good idea for how much you might be charging and therefore making, with each client you take on. Also, thanks to the marketing material templates, sales scripts and ongoing training, you have pretty much all the elements of a business plan spelled out for you, eliminating the need to invest your time, money and effort into a formal business plan.
3. Get the Required Equipment
Equipment and supplies are one of the more obvious, but often overlooked costs associated with running a business. Restaurants might think about food costs but overlook the expensive cookware they need to prepare the food they serve. Cleaning companies might revel in not having to stock inventory of products to sell, but look past the expensive vehicles and heavy cleaning equipment they need buy and maintain.
By starting a business directory and coupon website, you can accurately predict your equipment costs by looking at a Best Buy circular. All you need in terms of equipment is a laptop, a reliable internet connection, and a cell phone. You might even have these items already in your possession, making your equipment investment negligible. By running an internet business like this, you don’t need an office, expensive machinery, inventory, or anything else that might tie up precious operating funds and eat into profits.
4. Assess Your Risks
Knowing what risks you’re up against in your new business venture can be the difference between turning a profit and operating at a loss. Businesses that are highly regulated like health care, credit repair and tax services have strict oversight compliance that you have to constantly conform to. Some industries are even legally restricted by the profit margins they’re allowed to make, like insurance companies. Other industries are required by law to carry expensive insurance policies to cover them should something go wrong, like in construction, cleaning, and other home service industries. Not to mention, having big investments in your equipment, inventory, and supplies equate to significant risk as well. You might need to spend tens of thousands of dollars just to get your business off the ground.
With Ideal Directories, your costs and risk are both extremely minimal. We offer affordable pricing plans and you can cancel anytime. Since running a local business directory website has very few legal requirements and regulations, and the likelihood of, and level of, potential harm you could do to a client of yours is so minimal, your risk exposure is also very low. There’s always risk when starting a business, but if your upfront costs are low (meaning you don’t have a lot in it) and you’re in a safe industry that’s insulated from potential harm and downturns in the economy (online advertising will always thrive) then it’s a win-win situation. You can be risk-averse and still be a business owner if you do it the right way.
Final thoughts...
When you can lean on the expertise and industry advice of an expert or group of experts, starting a business can be a lot less intimidating. Ideal Directories aims to be that expert, assisting you with starting your own website business. If you're ready to start your entrepreneurial journey, get started today and put these tips into action!
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