Basic Tips for Beginning Entrepreneurs

Becoming an entrepreneur offers an exciting opportunity to share your creativity and hard work with the public.

Being in charge of your workday, your product, and your marketing plan gives you ultimate control. However, along with the leadership experience that evolves with your small business startup, you will need to learn a new skill from time to time to keep your business running smoothly and minimize initial expenses.

Here are a few hats you will likely have to wear in the early days of your company’s growth.

Managerial supervision

Everything that happens in your company falls directly under your watchful eye. You will need to become familiar with all processes involved with the business your company transacts. This may include tasks such as creativity, productivity, troubleshooting, advertising, community outreach, and acquiring funds to name some of the more prevalent duties.

While all of this can seem like an exciting challenge, it is important to continue learning new skills to ensure your company survives and thrives, as you will be the responsible head of operations.

Accounting oversight

Although you may decide to hire a part-time bookkeeper or a year-end tax accountant to manage company records, you will need to set up a well-organized record system that follows an established budget and accurately tracks income and expenses. This can be done using a record-keeping app or on a computer spreadsheet.

As the heart of the company, you should keep track of the financials by routinely running reports and comparing figures at least quarterly, if not more often. If a problem occurs, you will have to figure out how to solve it. Enrolling in a business finance class or workshop could be very helpful in this regard.

Marketing plan

Social media makes business marketing much easier, faster, and cheaper than using traditional media like print or radio ads. However, you should develop a business plan based on your start-up business needs and goals. This can be used to appeal to investors if you go that route, or to track and when necessary, adjust, your company’s mission and goals.

You will then want to orchestrate marketing efforts through social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. It is a good idea to register on LinkedIn, as well, to build a professional image and platform where industry colleagues and prospective customers can learn more about your and your organization.

Creative design

You might prefer to work with a graphic artist to design a logo for your business, but you will likely want to add input about colors, symbols, and size, among other elements. To do this knowledgeably, you should try to learn something about branding and logo creation to ensure the one you use will attract public attention in a positive and memorable way.

You should also build a creative and professional looking website to help your business. There are many good drag and drop website builders that even people with no experience can use. If you want quality servers and a professional look you might have to spend a bit of money for it.

Customer service

Serving customer interests is always a vital part of any company. Even VP’s and owners sometimes get involved in customer complaints or in loyalty-building initiatives. Find out all you can about customer needs and expectations, and do your best to meet them when customers bring questions and problems to your attention. If accounting is the heart of a business, customer care is its life blood. Take care of your customers, and they will take care of you.

Owning a business is a wonderful way to make your mark on the professional world and in the industry of your choice. Pay attention to building blocks like those noted above to run your company efficiently and effectively.