Basic Business Tips to Help New Small Business Owners or Those Looking to Start a Business

1. 13 Small Business Tips Everyone Should
Know

2. #1
Do Something You Love

3. What Do You Love?
• What do you do that time just flies by?
• What do your friends get bored of
hearing you talk about?
• What won’t feel like work?
Starting a business is hard. If you don’t do what you love then you won’t follow through.

4. #2 Know Your Customers and Competitors

5. Customers
Imagine your typical customer…..
• WHAT IS THEIR
AGE,INCOME,STATUS,GENDER?
• WHAT IS THEIR ROLE IN THEIR
ORGANIZATION?
• WHERE DO THEY LIVE?
• WHAT ARE THEIR BIGGEST PROBLEMS?
• WHAT ARE THEIR GOALS?
Establish a buyer persona [link]

6. Competitors
Who are your competitors…..
• WHAT DO THEY DO?
• WHAT DO YOU DO THAT IS
DIFFERENT THAN THEM?
• WHAT PRICE ARE THEY CHARGING?
• HOW WILL THEY FEEL WHEN YOU
GET INTO THE BUSINESS?
Perform a competitive analysis [link]

7. #3 Know What Type of
Business You Want

8. ONLINE, BRICK AND MORTAR OR BOTH?
• WHAT KIND OF
RESOURCES DO YOU
HAVE?
• WHAT WORKS FOR YOUR
TYPE OF BUSINESS?
• HOW MUCH RISK DO YOU
HAVE?
• SOLE PROPRIETORSHIP,
LLC, CORPORATION?
AN ONLINE BUSINESS CAN BE
DONE FOR ALMOST NO MONEY,
CAN YOU LIVE WITH
THAT IN THE START?

9. #4 Take your Friend’s and Family’s Input
With a Grain of Salt
• They will be tentative of change
• They may attempt to tell you why
you can’t do it
• They may try to offer advice (usually
not applicable to what your are
doing)
KEEP THE FAITH!

10. #5 Brand Yourself

11. Your name and
domain should match your brand
Make sure your
domain is available

12. #6 Start NOW!!!

13. DON’T WAIT UNTIL YOU HAVE THE EXPERIENCE
There will be so many things you haven’t done
before. The best teacher is doing. You can
teach yourself as you go. It is the best and
quickest way to learn. You are an entrepreneur
therefore you are a risk taker by nature. Take
the risk and jump in!
-Elissa Talley

14. #7 Get an Accountant

15. Accountant > Attorney
Here is why…..
1. An attorney will almost always refer you to an accountant if the questions are tax related
2. Most questions around starting a business are tax related
3. In most cases, accountants are cheaper than attorney for business tasks (i.e. setting up an
LLC)
4. They will be your new best friend!

16. #8 Know Legalities

17. You May Not Need an Attorney Now but
You Will at Some Point
In the early stages, try to do legal “stuff” using
online tools or paralegal
Use your first meeting with an attorney (usually
they don’t charge for this meeting) to ask as
many questions as you can
Usually bigger legal issues don’t come about
until you start to grow
Meet with several different attorneys

18. #9 OUTSOURCE
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Virtual Assistant Writer Bookkeeper Accounting/Taxes Programmer Attorney
Chart Title
Level of Difficulty in obtaining skill (1-10) Cost Ratio (ratio = cost per hour/difficulty)
As the level of difficulty per task increases and the cost per hour
to perform that task increases, the more logical it would be to
outsource. Comparing this set of data, anywhere the lines are
close together or intersecting, outsourcing should be
considered.
A bookkeeper is a perfect example of a skill that makes sense to outsource. It can take quite a while to learn QuickBooks and bookkeepers don’t charge very much.

19. #10 Get on Social Media
channels where your customers hang out

20. Source: http://us.accion.org/business-resources/articles-videos/choosing-right-social-media-platform-your-business

21. #11 Get on Forums and Network

22. Source: http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/
Around 40% of the world population has an internet connection today.
• In 1995 it was less than 1%.
• The number of internet users has increased tenfold from 1999 to 2013.
• The first billion was reached in 2005.
• The second billion in 2010.
• The third billion in 2014.

23. #12 Let Things Follow Their Natural Course
You will feel overwhelmed sometimes.
You will feel anxious sometimes.
1. Set up a plan
2. Get help from a mentor
3. Pick the important things for the week
Things evolve as you go…the things that
seem important today may not even exist next
week.

24. #13 Never Stop Researching
Business
Plan
Marketing
Plan
Sales Plan
Organization
Structure
Financial
Model
SEO
Social
Media
Mission
Vision
Blogs/
Videos
Web
site
Buyer
Persona
Competitors
Business
ProcessesHuman
Resources
Research
Research
Research
Research
Research
Research
Research
Research
Research
Research
Smarketing
Legalities
Content
Creation
SMART
goals

25. 13 Business Tips Everyone Should Know
1. Do Something You Love
2. Know Your Customers/Competition
3. Know What Type of Business you Want
4. Take Your Friend’s and Family’s Input With a
Grain of Salt
5. Brand Yourself
6. Start Now!!
7.Get an Accountant
8.Know Legalities
9.Outsource
10.Get on Social Media
11.Get on Forums/Network
12.Let Things Follow Their Natural Course
13.Never Stop Researching

26. www.elissatalley.com/sharing