5 Great Tips for Starting a New Business in 2024
Starting a new business at any time can be tough, challenging, and confusing. But if you get the right advice, seek the right help and support, it could be the best thing you ever do.
I certainly believe as we move into a new era of A.I. replacing traditional jobs/roles that it is a great time to take the plunge and become your own business owner. With that in mind, here are five great tips to get you started on your new venture.
1. Build a business around what you love to do!
Every fresh entrepreneur’s goal should be to introduce their services/ products to a fast-growing or an already developed market. In popular sectors, competition is big, which makes your job even tougher. So, it is critical you pick a service, profession, or product range that you are passionate about. You are going to need that energy and drive if you want to survive the first few challenging months, sometimes even years in business. Doing what you love every day will help for sure.
2. Get yourself out networking and build your community quickly.
A big lesson for me was that business networking is so much more than getting new business. On the contrary, as you start a new venture you are going to need partnerships, suppliers, services, insider knowledge, trusted advice, and new community followers.
My advice is to make a conscious effort to start networking on day one, and my recommendation is to network at least once per week. Do not measure the success or failure of networking based on new business. Base the success of your networking on new connections made, the support you have provided and the growth of your network or community.
3. Create a Solution – What problem will you be solving today – (specifically)
Rather than considering what you will sell and how much you will earn, focus on what you can solve for your target market. This will make it easier for you to gain a better customer base. Putting yourself in your customers’ shoes will tell you exactly what to offer, how to offer it, and who to aim toward.
Your business should be a solution, not just a broad offer to whoever comes across it.
When people buy things, they usually do this because they need them. Call it an itch that needs scratching – most of your customers will have a problem that your company offers to solve. They are on the hunt for the solution, and if you offer it to them, they will pick your brand in an instance.
- What problems does your customer/client need to be resolved?
- How do you want your customers to “FEEL” when they use your product or service?
- What benefits do people have from choosing your new business?
4. NUMBERS – The language of Business.
There are literally hundreds of data points and metrics you could track in a business. Start small and slowly build datasets, reports, and dashboards for your business. But more importantly start on day one!
Your behaviour will be driven by the data you gather and what it is telling you. Very quickly you can start to forecast and predict future outcomes on previous/past recorded data. The ability to accurately forecast your critical numbers can transform a business.
Here are just a few recommended numbers you should and need to track in your business.
- Revenue/Turnover – Actual and targets
- Conversion rates
- Lead source
- Profits
- Costs – Fixed and variable
- Average order value
- Debtors
- Marketing budgets
- Marketing activity levels
- +++
5. Leverage the Power of Social Media
Did you know that nearly three-quarters of us use social media? Many people find the services and products they need on platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram, making social media a critical part of any modern business strategy.
This makes it essential for new companies to use social media to reach out and target a wider audience. This is a way to establish your brand, find new customers, turn interested parties into leads, and communicate with your potential buyers.
Some of the latest strategies for using social media for a business include:
- Set objectives and goals specifically for social media channels.
- Use social media to research your competition.
- Find inspiration and ideas from the social channels.
- Build community, reputation, trust, and presence using the social channels.
- React and communicate quickly by responding to market trends and topical events.
Social media is one of those strange activities that is often hard to quantify the direct benefit to a new business. Suffice to say you are better to be regularly present at the Social Media party than showing up infrequently or not at all.
Bonus Tip!
Set meaningful and realistic goals… Set them daily, weekly, monthly, and beyond.
TRACK the goal and MEASURE your activity levels to get there. Think of the SAT-NAV in a car. Be clear about where you want to go each day-week-month-year. Only then can you set off accordingly, tracking and measuring as you go to ensure you are and remain on-track.
Also, if you find yourself failing to achieve your goals, there are just two courses of action. Change the GOAL or change your actions to get there.
Final thoughts
Stepping up into the world of business ownership is a brave and often difficult decision. It isn’t always easy to run a business, but as those who get through will confirm, it is always worth it.
If this is your year to take the plunge into starting a new business, I congratulate you on your decision and wish you the very best of luck! It’s a great time to start a business.