A how-to guide on starting your own business

1. Starting a new
business

2. Contents
1. Advice when starting your own business
2. Finance Options for businesses
3. Maintaining your brand
4. Keeping employees motivated
5. Keeping your business afloat

3. 1. Advice when starting
your own business

4. Test Your idea
You need to make sure you have a good idea
before you start
Do some market research:
O Does your idea already exist?
O Who are your competitors and how strong are
they?
O Do your potential customers even want what
you are offering?
O Is there anything else they would like to see
(think about future development opportunities)?

5. Write your business plan
Write a detailed business plan so you know
where you are going
Make sure you include:
O An overview
O Detail what the business is all about
O Your Marketing and Sales Strategy
O Who you are and your experiences
O Details of operations (what you need e.g. office
space, computers, business broadband, etc.
O Financial details (your sales projections, how much
cash you have to put in the business and what your
costs will be including your business energy or salary
costs)

6. Pick a good name
O Picking the name of your business is a delicate
process so here are some things to consider:
O Make sure you stand out from your competitors
O But don’t be so obscure your customers don’t
understand or remember your name
O Don’t pick something geographical, you may
expand
O Be broad with your name which allows you to
diversify
O Test out a few different names on potential
customers, they will give you honest feedback

7. 2. Finance Options
for businesses

8. Finance options
O Think you can only get funding when you
are starting out? Wrong! There are a
number of options available to you.
O Go to your bank and get some invoice
discounting advice as this service can be
a big support to your business
O Re-evaluate your spending- could you
save some money and improve your cash
flow?

9. Re-evaluate your finances
O The first thing you need to do before you
look for alternative finance options, have a
look at your own finances.
O Go over your in-goings and out-goings to
make sure you are not over spending in
any area.
O Evaluate if you can run your business
more efficiently to cost save.

10. Government Grants
O If you are interested in getting a
Government Grant try this tool from the
Government.
O There are a number of different options
from skills and training, access to advice
and knowledge and financial.
O There are also country specific grants to
look at both the UK site as well as the
Scottish/Welsh/Irish/ English support
options.

11. Innovate
O Cloud Computing- Can your employees
work from home via an online network? It
would save you money on an office and
it’s costs.
O Flexible Hours- Can you change the hours
your employees work to save money on
travel tickets?
O Ask your employees if there is a better
way they could work? Ultimately they will
know how to work more effectively.

12. 3. Maintaining your
brand

13. Maintaining your brand
O Tip one: Brand goal setting
O Tip two: Brand reinforcement
O Tip three: Employee and client interaction

14. Tip 1: Brand goal setting
Setting goals for your brand will help you keep a
measurable agenda for your brand success so
making sure that you list these goals right at the
forefront of your brand launch is essential.
1. There are for steps to take to formulate your brand goals:
2. Identify what you want to ultimately achieve with your
personal brand
3. Break down your ultimate goal into milestone goals and set
timeframes for achieving them
4. Create supporting tasks to help your milestone goals and
schedule them quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily etc.
5. Keep your goals in a place you will see daily to keep them in
the top of your mind

15. Tip 2: Brand reinforcement
There are various ways to ensure that your brand is
reinforced in the public eye and there are 5 ways to
go about this either individually or as part of a greater
campaign:
O Advertising: Brand advertising plays a huge role in reinforcing
brands. It showcases brand worth through multiple media
outlets from online advertising to print media.
O Trade Shows, Exhibitions and Conferences: Exhibitions are
used to demonstrate your brand and allow your buyers and
shoppers in interact with and your brand.
O Events and Sponsorship: This is another viable medium to
strengthening your brand virtually and at events.
O Merchandising: In-store displays are vital communications
tools which guide customers towards making purchases.
O Promotions: Promotional activities can go a long way to
strengthen brand relationship and loyalty through rewards and
incentives.

16. Tip 3: Employee & client
interactions
There are simple ways to gain a brand reputation
amongst your existing client base and these can be
instilled by a few easy to do techniques:
O Answering machines: Make sure that your business telephone
systems are set up to automatically answer prior to pick up
from clients or potential clients which communicates your brand
in a clear and professional way.
O Employee awareness: If you are re-launching or changing your
brand, you need to hold unit meetings within your company to
explain your brand to your employees so everyone is on the
same page.
O Signature templates: Create an email template signature that
promotes your new brand and social networking channels for all
employees which will help everyone adjust to the brand name.

17. 4.Keeping employees
motivated

18. Tip 1: Competition
O Encourage some friendly competition
between your employees to encourage
them to work more efficiently.
O They can be graded on a leader board for
certain benchmarks that you set which will
not only increase productivity and
employee motivation but will hopefully
result in positive outcomes for your
company in terms of increased sales.

19. Tip 2: Incentives
Co-ordinate your leader board competitions with
incentives as well as launching company campaigns
that encourage employees to do better by offering up
incentives like bonuses, staff nights out, more days
off or even an activity day in the office. Some ideas
could be:
1. Having a party
2. Conducting small to medium contests
3. Introducing beverage days such as breakfasts or drinks
after work
Incentives could also range to more useful, long term
rewards like earning business health insurance or
profit shares.

20. Tip 3: Team building
There are lots of ways to motivate your employees
with team building but here are two great ideas:
O Blind Fold Jigsaw: “This is exactly what it sounds! It is a giant
jigsaw and each team member will take it in turns to collect the
pieces scattered around, with the use of a wheelbarrow.
However, the team member will be blindfolded and will need to
listen to their other team members who will be giving clear
instruction and guidance towards the pieces of jigsaw. Once all
the pieces of the jigsaw have been gathered, the team will need
to assemble the jigsaw”
O The Rope Bridge: “Get each of your squad and the de-activator
across the rope bridge (mind your heads on the cross beams).
The rope bridge then gets washed away and with the
equipment remaining you must construct another bridge to get
across the ravine to safety.”
Bainzaivents.com

21. Tip 4: Skills development
Make sure that your employees feel that they have
regular training so they can perform their job well.
The benefits of training are:
1. “Improves morale of employees- Training helps the
employee to get job security and job satisfaction.
2. Less supervision- A well trained employee will be well
acquainted with the job and will need less of supervision.
3. Fewer accidents- Errors are less likely to occur if the
employee is adequately trained.
4. Chances of promotion- Employees acquire skills and
efficiency during training therefore are more eligible for
promotion and become a valuable asset for the company.
5. Increased productivity- Training improves efficiency and
productivity of employees so there is less wastage of
time, and resources
Management Study Guide.com

22. Tip 5: Communication
It is vitally important that you communicate with
your employees so that they feel like they are
being heard and that their opinion counts for
something which will motivate them in their day
to day routine.
Most importantly when it comes to
communication:
O “Your employees should be made aware of
the benefits you offer early and often. An initial
discussion before they are hired and frequent
communications thereafter will ensure
everyone remains engaged and up-to-date.”-
insperity.com

23. 5. Keeping your
business afloat

24. Be social
Social Networks are free to run and only
cost you the time to keep them maintained
but they can be a great way to encourage
loyal customers as well as attracting new
customers.
Ensure you are on a few different sites so
you attract a wide range of customers:

25. Constant Reviewing
It is important to constantly review your
business so you know how you are
performing:
O What do your customers think?
O What about your employees?
O How are you spending your money?
O Do you need to sell all you are? If there is
not a demand for it, lose it.

26. Additional Sources
A number of sources were used to compile
this ebook some of which are hyperlinked
on the slide page, the others are below:
O BT Business Insight
O Government Support and Advice
O Invoice Discounting Advice
O UK Government advice
O HMRC