Looking for business start-up tips? Getting a new business off the ground isn’t easy and for new entrepreneurs, it can be especially hard to master. Here are 7 business start-up tips and tools to help you on your way.
A Good Management Program
Every start-up business will be looking for ways to increase revenue. Your lead management program will play a vital role when it comes to increasing revenue.
Do you have a structure in place that allows you to manage and react to prospect leads? A good CRM (customer relationship management) system will allow you to manage enquiries and prospects.
Consistency of information is critical to conversion and a great CRM will help you keep customer’s details up to date, as well as allowing you to track interactions.
Good lead management will improve your sales pipeline and ability to hit revenue targets.
Good Accounting
If you are a start-up company then staying on top of cashflow and other financial business matters is essential. A start-up company’s accounting needs is going to be a little different to an already established business with a high revenue.
Luckily, there many accounting systems out there such as QuickBooks, which can help you track sales and expenses.
With Quickbooks you can:
- Control cashflow
- Track invoices
- Categorise income and expenses
- Calculate and track VAT automatically
Consider Your Brand Logo
You need to communicate your value proposition in a way your business wants consumers to perceive it. You will need to consider your brand logo very carefully. You will need to consider image, colour palette, language and tone and stick with it – consistency is so important. Consistency builds trust.
If you already have an in-house Graphic Designer, then making sure your employee is kitted out with the latest Adobe software if a good starting point.
Analyse!
Do you know where and what to invest in? If you have a website (why wouldn’t you?), then you need to be analysing your website data.
It can provide you with lots of useful information regarding consumer behaviour, helping you to increase your ROMI.
However, converting information into meaningful and actionable data isn’t easy. This is why we recommend Google Analytics.
With Google Analytics you can:
- Analyse new and returning customers
- Analyse individual web pages
- Discover who visits your site
- Track the consumer
- Locate your audience
- Gain social insight – which channels are bringing the most traffic?
Get Social
A social media strategy is often at the heart of a company launch. By having a strong and effective social media presence, a new company can create and build meaningful relationships with their customers.
By giving your brand a voice through social media, you instantly become more personable and more importantly, reachable.
Social media marketing is very cost effective however, if you are not managing your posts correctly, it can eat into valuable time.
Hootsuite is a great tool for managing your social media channels. It allows you to monitor all your social accounts in just one place and even gives you the ability schedule posts and tweets ahead of time.
Another benefit of social media marketing, is networking. Social media channels such as Linkedin, allow you to surround yourself with a power network of people.
Reach Out With Email
Email marketing is a very effective way to drive traffic to your website and boost sales. If you’re a start-up business then you will need to work at harvesting the appropriate data to build a strong email list.
Many email accounts will have a limit on the number of emails you can send. This is where useful email marketing programs such as MailChimp can be utilised.
MailChimp allows you to create and schedule emails that can follow up on purchases, nurture leads and provide product recommendations. It also allows you to send emails at scale, allowing you to reach 100’s of customers in one sitting.
With automated campaigns, you can personalise your brand’s efforts by enhancing the interaction between you and your subscribers.
With MailChimp you can:
- Inbox preview and test emails
- Geotarget your email campaigns
- Analyse email data
- Grow and establish email lists
- Integrate ecommerce
Forget Powerpoint
If you’re a business start up then you are inevitably going to be giving the odd presentation. Do yourself a favour and ditch the cheesy checkerboard and flash transitions. You need to be at the top of your game with something a little more professional.
Prezi offers a great alternative to the boring Powerpoint presentation. If you are after dynamic and engaging presentations then you will want to be downloading this program.
Designed for people who aren’t designers, prezi gives you a library full of easy to use templates that you can customise and make you own. Perfect for any business start-up.
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