You’ve taken the plunge and legally established your new business in the UK. Congratulations! However, the work is just beginning. There are several key areas you need to prioritize in those critical first few months to set your venture up for success.
Get Your Online Presence in Order
In today’s digital age, having a professional website is absolutely essential, even for small local businesses. Your website is often the first impression potential customers will have of your company. Make sure to:
- Include clear contact information like your phone number, email, and physical address if applicable
- Double check that any pricing info or product/service details are fully up-to-date and accurate
- Properly integrate links to your social media profiles like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.
- Ensure the site looks clean, modern and mobile-friendly
- Claim your business profile on local business directory sites like UK Business Portal, Google Business Profile and Bing Places
Don’t skip this vital step. An unprofessional or incomplete website can hurt your credibility and cost you customers right off the bat.
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Build Trust Through Positive Reviews
Potential customers naturally tend to be sceptical of brand new businesses with no track record. Getting some positive online reviews as quickly as possible can go a long way toward alleviating these concerns and building trust.
Incentivize your initial customers to leave reviews by offering a small discount, freebie or entry into a prize draw in exchange for their honest feedback on sites like Google, Facebook or Trustpilot. Just make sure you comply with truth-in-advertising regulations.
You can also send follow-up emails after a purchase asking for a review. The more gleaming testimonials you accumulate early on, the more confidence prospects will have in choosing your new company.
Implement Budgets & Cash Flow Projections
They say “revenue is vanity, profit is sanity.” Having a financially sustainable business model is crucial from day one. Implement a startup budget laying out your expected revenue sources and all projected costs like payroll, material/inventory costs, rent, utilities, marketing spend and more.
Carefully map out your cash flow forecast so you know how much runway you have and can make adjustments before you run out of capital. Underestimating costs and overestimating sales is the downfall of many new businesses, so be cautious in your projections.
Maintain a good cash flow buffer and consider scaling growth more gradually than you might prefer at first. It’s better to under-promise and over-deliver than vice versa when getting established.
Plan a Sustainable Work Schedule
As a new entrepreneur, it can be incredibly tempting to work 18 hour days, 7 days a week in those first few months. And for brief periods, that level of hustle may be required. However, if you sustain that frantic pace for too long, you’ll quickly burn out—both mentally and physically.
Determine reasonable working hours that still allow for family time, social activities, rest and rejuvenation. Perhaps 7am-7pm six days per week to start? Or split shifts with some morning hours, a midday break, then some evening work?
The right schedule will depend on your business, living situation and personal preferences. But be cognizant that you’re in this for the long haul. An unhealthy, imbalanced lifestyle is not sustainable and will undermine your business in the long run.
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Final Comments
There are countless other aspects to get right as a new business owner, from marketing and sales to operations, accounting, legal and more. But if you nail these core priorities of developing your online presence, building customer trust and reviews, prudent financial management, and maintaining a reasonable work schedule, you’ll have a solid foundation to build lasting success.