The Ultimate

Guide to Starting
Your Business
BY GRAEME DONNELLY
Contents

Introduction............................................................................................................ 2

Part One – In The Beginning ................................................................................. 3

The first steps of starting a new business ................................................................................ 4

The importance of a business plan.............................................................................................. 7

Part Two – Getting Serious Now ........................................................................ 12

How to finance a new business .................................................................................................. 13

Should you hire staff to run your new business ................................................................. 17

How to set up business premises ............................................................................................. 21

Part Three – The Essentials ................................................................................. 26

Never use your home address as your registered office................................................. 27

Why you should consider registering for VAT ..................................................................... 29

The benefits of a business telephone answering service ................................................ 34

Part Four – Spreading The Word ........................................................................ 37

How to create a website for your business .......................................................................... 38

Branding – and why it is important for your business .................................................... 43

How to market and advertise your business ....................................................................... 48

Part Five – You’re Off and Running ................................................................... 54

How to sell your business’ products online........................................................................... 55

The skills you need to make your business a success ...................................................... 61

How to cope with the stress of running your business ................................................... 66

About the author ................................................................................................. 71

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Introduction

Here at 1st Formations, our job is to help your business succeed - but at the end of
the day, the success of your business rests largely upon your shoulders.

That’s why I’ve written this guide to starting your own business. I know a lot about
how businesses work, and I know what it takes to lead a business and find success.
So, to help you get started along your business journey, I’ve broken the typical
business journey into five parts:

Part One explores how you can cultivate a business idea and develop that concept
into an organised business plan. This section will provide you with brainstorming
strategies to help you come up with a great idea for your business, and how to
organise and write your business and marketing plans.

Next, Part Two will guide you through some of the the key aspects you’ll need to set
in place for your business to ensure its success. You’ll find information on potential
funding strategies for your new business, a pros and cons list to help you decide
whether you’ll need to take on staff, and advice on what you should and should not
include on your wish list when researching company premises.

Part Three walks you through the essentials you need to consider when operating as
a limited company. It will explain how a registered office address and service address
work, and why you should consider not using your home address for these. It will
also explain the benefits of voluntarily registering for VAT, and the benefits of paying
for a business telephone answering service.

Following on from this, Part Four outlines some of the crucial processes you’ll need
to set in place before your new business starts trading. I’ll walk you through how you
can set up a company website, how you can develop your ideas into a recognisable
brand and how you should go about advertising and marketing your business.

Finally, Part Five offers some advice and support for your business after it has started
trading. I’ll explain the basics of e-commerce and selling your products online, the
skills you’ll need to hone and develop as a business leader, and some friendly advice
on how you can cope with the ups and downs of managing a small business.

This guide is by no means exhaustive. No two businesses are alike, and so you can
expect your business to face its own unique set of hurdles. But to get your ideas up
and running, these are the basics you need to master.

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 PA RT ONE

In the beginning
All successful businesses start with a fantastic idea.
Whether you’ve spotted a gap in the market for a new product, think
you can provide a better service than the competition or simply want to
escape the rat race and go it alone.

Part One of our guide explores how to sharpen your business ideas, give
your start-up some crucial legal protections and get started turning your
dreams into well-written business and marketing plans.
The first steps of starting a new business
Starting a business can often seem quite daunting. We all like to fantasise about
quitting our dull day jobs and becoming our own bosses – but many people find it
incredibly difficult figuring out how to transform that dream into a reality.

Thanks to the UK’s thriving start-up scene and business-friendly regulatory

environment, more and more entrepreneurs are finding out that starting a business
can actually be a fairly simple process.

Since the global financial crisis of 2008, the number of self-employed workers in the
UK has shot up to 4.8m. According to the Office for National Statistics, the self-
employed now account for around 15% of the UK’s total workforce – and those
people collectively own almost 3.9m companies.

So, how did they do it? It all starts with a fantastic business idea.

How do I come up with a business idea?

One of the hardest parts of starting a business is simply figuring out where to get
started. Some entrepreneurs are lucky enough to stumble upon a brilliant idea
without ever having considered starting their own business. Unfortunately, it doesn’t
come that easily for everybody. Most self-employed workers need to think long and
hard about what it is they’d like to do, and how that could be applied to a new
business.

If you’re starting from scratch and haven’t got any ideas for a new business, one way
to set the cogs in motion is to ask yourself: ‘what’s the next big thing?’ The most
successful start-ups are typically businesses that are totally ahead of the curve. So,
you should sit down and think about the industries that interest you. Then, do a bit
of research and brainstorm up-and-coming trends within that industry you might be
able to capitalise on.

You should also try to look for some sort of niche. Have a think about big industry
players and what it is they’re offering customers. From there, try to figure out what
they’re not offering customers. Sometimes, great businesses aren’t trying to reinvent
the wheel – they simply complement businesses by filling an existing gap in the
market.

Another way to come up with an idea for your new business is to write down a list of
your skills, and then brainstorm how those skills could be useful in a totally different
sector or field. For example, how could you apply computer skills to the catering
industry? Or what could your engineering experience bring to the agricultural sector?

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It might not be totally obvious at first, but these sorts of comparisons and exercises
can give birth to fantastic business ideas.

If you can’t come up with a new business idea, just take a look at all the products and
services you use on a daily basis. Are there any products you think you could do a
better job of making? Think about whether you might be able to offer a particular
item or service cheaper than what is currently on offer. This is often a brilliant way to
set the wheels in motion and can lead to proper innovation further along with the
start-up process.

What is market research, and why is it important?

Once you’ve come up with a great idea for your new business, you will need to figure
out how it will fit into the wider business ecosystem. The best way to do that is to
conduct some market research.

If you’re unfamiliar with the idea, market research is simply the process of gathering
information about the viability and feasibility of your business idea. By conducting
market research, you’ll be able to develop a firm idea of how the people you’re
wanting to sell goods or services to will react to your business and the products
you’ve got on offer. Market research will also help you to develop the foundations of
your new business plan.

Why you should conduct market research

Without some external feedback on your business idea, you’ll be totally unable to
make informed business decisions about how to make your business succeed. And
although you’re able to apply market research in various capacities to answer
different questions, your initial research should be able to answer these four Ps:

• Product – You might think you’ve come up with an incredible idea for
something to sell people, but you need to ask those people what they think of
your idea.
• Price – Once you’re satisfied that there is some existing form of demand for
your product or service, you must establish a price point. The best way to do
this is by taking a look at potential competitors and what their products are
going for, but also asking potential customers what they would be willing to
pay.
• Placement – You need to research where it will make the most sense to set up
your business, and where and how you should distribute your products. A
good place to start is by comparing the characteristics of various locations, as
well as looking at the value of contrasting points of sale.

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 • Promotion – Research the best ways to reach your target audience. Figure out
who your customers are, and then think about what types of marketing,
publicity and branding will speak to those individuals.

How to conduct market research

One of the easiest ways to gather information is to create a survey for your would-be
customers. Surveys can be time-consuming to carry out, but they’re very cheap – and
you could even start with your own friends or family. These can be conducted in-
person, by phone, by email or simply online. If you need a hand, there are loads of
free survey generators around the web.

If you’re planning to create a survey, you should be sure to try and keep it as short as
you can and make it very easy to read. Try not to ask general questions – ask specific
questions only. For example, rather than asking people what they like about going to
the cinema, ask them what they don’t like about their local cinema. Don’t ask leading
questions, don’t be ambiguous and always pre-test your survey to find out if any of
your questions are confusing or irrelevant.

Another place to start good market research is by analysing your competition. You
need to figure out everything you can about the businesses that are already doing
something similar to your new business. This research often starts on the web. Take a
look at how many locations they have, where they’re based and what they sell. Figure
out where and how your competitors are promoting their business, what prices they
charge and how those products are received. Above all else, pay your competitors a
visit and develop first-hand knowledge of their customer experience.

These sort of research methods are chalked up as primary research – but secondary
research methods can be equally useful. Secondary research uses information
gathered by other people or organisations to help you firm up your business idea,
and there’s loads out there.

Start by having a look at reputable statistics relating to your industry or target

market. Trade bodies and government agencies often provide extensive online
reports that are freely available to the general public and should be able to provide
you with a bigger picture of your industry. You can learn more about the economic
conditions your business will be operating in, what sort of trends are influencing your
chosen industry and the consumer behaviour researchers are learning about your
target demographics.

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The importance of a business plan
No matter what type of business you’d like to start, it always pays to have a business
plan.

According to research published in the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal,

businesses with a formal, written business plan are actually 16% more likely to
succeed than those without a business plan – and with 50% of all UK start-ups failing
within five years, entrepreneurs certainly need all the help they can get.

What is a business plan?

If you’re working on your first business venture, the concept of a business plan may
seem alien to you. Don’t worry – business plans are actually fairly straightforward.

A business plan is essentially a written document that describes everything there is to

know about your business. It covers everything from objectives and strategy, to your
products, marketing plan, logistics and projected finances. Just think of your business
plan as the blueprint for how you want your finished business to look and operate.

It should essentially weave together a great narrative outlining where your business
is coming from and where you’d like it to go.

Why is a business plan important?

On the one hand, a business plan is important for your sanity. By writing down
everything you know about your proposed business, you’ll be able to get a much
better feel for your start-up and what sort of expectations you should be setting.

The writing process also affords you the opportunity to perfect your idea, set
benchmark goals and come up with different ways to measure your progress and
success. Above all else, reviewing your plan will enable you to spot potential
oversights or mistakes you’ve made during your initial planning stages. Additionally,
writing a business plan has crucial, external impacts on your business development.

If you need funding to get your start-up off the ground, investors or creditors will
almost always request to see your business plan before they’re willing to extend your
funding. To gain a small business loan, for example, government agencies will want
to know that your business has a clear direction. You must demonstrate exactly how
a proposed loan will fit into your business plan, show how every single penny will be
spent and prove there will be some return on investment.

The easiest way to illustrate all of these points will be to present the government
agency with a watertight business plan.

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What should I include in my business plan?

Business plans aren’t a legal requirement for businesses in the UK, and so there
aren’t any set rules on what your business plan should or should not include.
However, there are several key items that your business plan must include to
demonstrate your business’s overall viability. First and foremost, your business plan
needs to include a quick pitch.

Executive summary

You should start your business plan with an executive summary that clearly and
concisely outlines everything a reader can expect to find inside your business plan –
and that executive summary should never exceed two pages of text. You should also
include an elevator pitch alongside your executive summary that could adequately
sell your business to investors in just a couple of paragraphs.

This is because the people looking at your business plan will often be incredibly busy
and might not have time to look at your entire business plan right when you hand it
to them. If you don’t give your reader something short and sweet to lure them in and
make them want to read more, your business plan might simply be forgotten.
Because the executive summary is essentially a recap of everything else in your
business plan, it’s normally the last thing you’ll write.

You should also include a short ‘about me’ section. By talking about your
background, experience and motivation for starting a new business, you’ll be able to
humanise your start-up and show potential investors that real people are at the heart
of your business and how it will operate.

Next, you’ll need to outline precisely what it is your business is going to do. Are you
going to sell products, offer services or do both? Go into some detail about what
you’re planning to offer and why. Tell the reader how much you plan on charging
customers for those goods or services.

Remember: in terms of pricing, the amount of money you charge customers must
exceed that item’s production cost, and must also include enough to cover some of
the overheads you will need to pay to keep your business up-and-running.

Customer profiling

Most business plans include details about customers, too. You should generally
devote a section of your business plan towards identifying exactly who it is you think
will buy your business’s products or services. For example, what age group or
demographics do you anticipate will be more likely to become one of your
customers? You need to outline why those individuals would be likely to buy your

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goods or services – citing real and current statistics, studies and anecdotes. That
feeds into a wider section on market research.

Nobody will offer funding to your business unless you can prove to them you’ve
done your homework. So, you need to conduct both primary and secondary market
research about your competitors, consumer base, industry trends, logistics and
anything else you think might be helpful.

Competitor analysis

In terms of what types of research should be going directly into your business plan,
you should always include a section on your competitors. For reference, a competitor
is any sort of business that offers a product or service that will be similar to what it is
you’d like to sell. As a brand-new start-up, chances are you’ll have lots and lots of
competitors – so, start local and work your way up.

Find out what businesses are operating in your local area, what they offer to
customers and how your goods or services are going to be different. One of the
easiest ways to organise your thoughts on competition and how your business will
be able to survive it is to produce a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
Threats (SWOT) analysis. That will show bank managers or potential investors that
you’ve got very real expectations in terms of your ability to outperform competitors
in the market.

Operations

Another crucial aspect of your business plan will be to spell out the A-Z logistics of
how your business is expected to operate on a daily basis. That means explaining
how you’ll create products or offer services, how customers will receive what they’ve
paid for, who will get paid and how and everything in between. You should also add
in a broad marketing plan outlining how you’ll promote your business to reach
customers.

A lot of these titbits will seem trivial or banal but include everything you can possibly
think of. The more details you include, the more it will demonstrate your
professionalism.

Cash flow forecast

You’ve also got to include a section in your business plan about how much money
your business is going to make. To secure funding, you’ll need to adequately explain
and rationalise your income expectations so that you can demonstrate a positive
return on investment (ROI). The best way to do that is to add in a cash flow forecast.

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A cash flow forecast estimates the amount of money you are expecting your business
to bring in and pay out over a specific period of time. How far in advance you choose
to forecast is totally up to you, but certain business loan or grant schemes that you
might want to apply for could have specific requirements. For example, the UK
Government’s Start Up Loans scheme requires a minimum 12-month cash flow
forecast.

To create a cash flow forecast, you’ll need to record:

Your revenue: This is all the money that will come into your business from sales,
equity or other investments. Most revenue sections include around three-to-six
items. By adding all these items together, you’ll get your business’s total income.

Your expenses: This is all of the money that you know you’ll need to spend to run
your business. Examples might include property rental, local authority business rates,
insurance, staff wages, supplier costs, marketing and advertisements – literally
anything you can think of. You’ll also need to think about less regular expenses like
VAT payments, which are due every quarter rather than monthly. By adding all of
these items, you’ll get your business’s total expenses.

Net cash flow: This is the final section of your cash flow statement. You can find it by
subtracting your total expenses from your total income. If this figure turns out to be
negative, it means you’re expecting your expenses to be greater than your revenue
across that period. If the figure is positive, it means you’re expecting to make a profit.

If you’d like a head-start, the Start Up Loans Company has an easy-to-use cash flow
statement tool that you can download online for free.

Back-up plan

Finally, most good business plans include some form of back-up plan. Nobody wants
to contemplate a future in which their business plan fails, but it happens. By showing
a bank or that you’ve planned for a range of ‘what if’ scenarios, like your cash drying
up or a new competitor moving in across the street, you’ll prove that you’re ready for
any outcome. That makes your business look stronger, and it prepares you to
weather any storm.

How do I structure my business plan?

Once you’ve figured out all the items you want to include in your business plan, it’s
time to think about how you’d like to structure it.

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Deciding what to add in versus what to leave out and how you structure your
business plan is totally up to you. There aren’t any set rules. However, the vast
majority of business plans are structured as follows:

1. Executive summary and elevator pitch

2. About you
3. Your products or services
4. Your market and customers
5. Market research
6. Marketing strategy
7. Competitor analysis
8. Operations and logistics
9. Cost pricing and strategy
10. Financial forecasts
11. Your back-up plan

You don’t necessarily need to have 11 sections in your business plan. You can
combine certain bits together that seem related, and you can create totally different
sections unique to your business that not every business would need to include. But
this is the most popular running order used by UK businesses.

If you need a bit more guidance on how to structure your thoughts or develop each
section of your business plan, there are loads of organisations that offer basic
business plan templates online.

The bottom line

Developing your business plan might seem like a dull administrative exercise – but it
doesn’t need to be difficult, and it’s actually pretty exciting. Your finished business
plan is effectively a concrete blueprint for your business’s future. It tells the story of
where your idea came from, how you plan to achieve your goals and what’s going to
happen when you do.

Your business plan is where it all begins, and it’s how you can finally start
transforming your career dreams into a reality.

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 PA RT T WO

Getting serious now

It takes more than a pocketful of dreams and a great attitude to find
business success. It takes meticulous planning, extensive market research
and a firm understanding of what you want your business to achieve.

Part Two of our guide explores the different ways in which you can finance
your new business, a breakdown of why you should or should not take
on staff and a detailed list of what you’ll need if you plan on setting up a
business premises.
How to finance a new business
The best businesses are built from the ground up. Most entrepreneurs haven’t got a
lot of money to fund their very first business venture – they scrape together whatever
they possibly can and hit the ground running. But what is the bare minimum you will
need to start trading and make ends meet?

According to researchers, the average UK start-up business spends £22,756 in its first
year. That includes everything from accounting fees and legal costs, to staffing
overheads, utility fees, marketing and production costs – and it’s perfectly possible to
kick-start a business on less than that.

But if you’re keen to give your new business its best possible chance of success, it is
definitely worth attempting to secure some form of financial support.

What are small business loans?

The most common way to secure funding for your new venture is to apply for a
business loan.

In case you’re new to the concept, a business loan is simply a type of borrowing
instrument that is designed for commercial businesses rather than individual use.
With most business loan providers, which are normally banks, you could borrow
anywhere from £1,000 to £3m. This is ordinarily repayable for any period of time up
to around 15 years, and there are two types of business loans you should be aware
of:

• Unsecured loans are borrowing instruments that enable your business to

receive money without having to use your business assets as a security on the
amount you borrow.
• Secured loans enable you to borrow money from a bank or investor using an
asset that belongs to you as a security. If you fail to repay the loan as specified
in your loan agreement, your lender then has the legal right to sell that asset
to recoup their losses.

Most of the small business loans you’ll encounter on the high street are going to be
unsecured and will be payable over one to five years.

There are also way more subcategories of loan types, and they vary in size and
popularity. For example, invoice financing enables a lender to purchase your
outstanding invoices for a fee – releasing money owed to you by customers. Some
lenders will also extend cash advance loans, which is essentially just a payday loan for
your business.

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No matter what type of loan you receive, it will generally come attached to one of
two types of interest rate: a fixed rate or a variable rate. A fixed rate loan means that
the amount of interest you pay back on top of the amount you borrow will not
increase over time. Variable rates can go up and down unexpectedly – so you will
generally want to avoid variable rate loans if you’re on the hunt for a long-term
funding solution.

You can use any loan you secure for just about anything that relates directly to your
business, from purchasing products and taking on staff, to paying off debts and
buying new equipment.

If you’re worried about your personal credit history and how it may impact your loan
application, it’s also worth going to your local bank and chatting with an expert.
Most lenders will assess business loan applications on a case-by-case basis, and your
own personal circumstances will often be weighed or discounted against a rock-solid
business plan.

Just remember: before signing up for any sort of business loan, you should always
shop around. There’s always a better deal to be had somewhere else, and so you
should take your time and do your homework.

Government loans

Since its launch, the government’s Start Up Loans Company has extended over
£400m worth of funding to some 50,000 businesses, and each one of those loans are
backed by the government.

These loans are designed exclusively for businesses that have been trading for less
than 24 months. By applying for the scheme, you could borrow up to £25,000 with a
fixed interest rate of 6%. That might not be the lowest interest rate deal on the
market, but it’s certainly generous.

Loans are repayable between one and five years, and the government will never
charge you a set-up fee or an early repayment charge if you want to settle your debt
early.

Those great terms do come at a cost, though. Unlike a lot of bank loans, Start Up
Loans have a few special requirements. For example, you’re not allowed to use a
government business loan to repay any existing debts, train for an industry
qualification or investment opportunities that don’t already form a part of your
existing business activities.

The Start Up Loans Company keeps a full list of criteria on its website if you’d like to
see what else you can and cannot do with a loan.

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How do you apply for a government business loan?

The government has made this scheme quick and easy to apply for.

Simply register your details online, and then you’ll be directed to the business’s
application form. It includes a few questions about your personal situation, how
much money you’d like to borrow and what you plan on doing with it. You’ll be given
access to a personal business advisor if you’ve got any questions during the
application process, and then you’ll be asked to consent to a credit check to see
whether you’re eligible and can afford a loan.

Next, you’ll need to finalise and submit all of the business documents that support
your application. These will include your business plan, a cash flow forecast and a
personal survival budget.

The Start Up Loans Company also offers a range of document templates – including
a cash flow forecast generator – on their website.

Once you’ve gotten all your documents ready to go, you can submit your application.
The government will then assess your loan to ensure your business plan is strong and
viable, and that your business will be able to afford the repayment scheme
associated with the amount you’ve asked to borrow.

If your application is approved, you’ll then be sent a Loan Agreement in the post.
Sign and return it to the Start Up Loans Company, and your funding will then be sent
directly to you. You’ll also be invited to join the government’s business mentoring
scheme.

The UK Government isn’t the only public organisation in the country that offers
business funding schemes. A huge number of local authorities offer grants to start-
ups in their various catchment areas that are city or industry specific. Many of these
do not need to be paid back, as long as you fulfil the specified agreements.

You’ll also be able to find industry-specific grants and loan schemes on offer by local
trade bodies. If you need a starting point for your search, the UK Government has
compiled an excellent directory of UK-based business financing opportunities.

Crowdfunding

If you’re new to the concept, crowdfunding is simply the act of persuading lots of
individuals to donate very small amounts of money towards your cause. The idea is
simple: if enough people like your business idea and are willing to donate £5 or £10
to help you launch that idea, you could easily end up making thousands of pounds.

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Crowdfunding has almost become a cultural phenomenon in its own right – with
musicians, charities and artists all using increasingly popular web platforms to secure
funds for their projects. There are now more than 600 crowdfunding sites all across
the globe, and chances are you’ve already heard of some of the more popular sites
like Kickstarter, GoFundMe and Indiegogo.

Simply sign up, write your pitch to users and promote your page. As always, different
platforms do have different rules. For example, Kickstarter has a long list of all the
types of projects or businesses it has banned from the site.

Unlike a business loan, you won’t normally be expected to pay any of that money
back. Some platforms allow you to offer some small reward, such as a free product
sample or thank you card, in exchange for a donation towards your business. But you
keep everything you raise – it’s really that simple. The only risk you’ll encounter is
that some of these crowdfunding platforms require you to set a predefined funding
target prior to the start of your campaign, and you’ll only be able to keep the funds
you raise if you exceed that target.

The bottom line

It’s worth pointing out that this list is by no means exhaustive. There’s no right or
wrong way to fund a new business venture. If you’re really keen on exploring your
opportunities, you could even check out the UK’s expansive network of venture
capitalists and seed investors.

As always, just be sure to do plenty of research before agreeing to a borrowing

arrangement. Always read the fine print, ask questions and don’t be afraid to consult
an accountant for professional advice. That way, you can be sure you’re giving your
business the best possible start.

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Should you hire staff to run your new business?
As your business becomes more successful, and you begin to develop a bigger
workload, chances are you’ll need to move out of that garage and find somebody
who can help you run your business.

Hiring staff can be incredibly exciting, and it can make the life of a business owner a
whole lot easier. However, there are a few things you should know before you start
handing out employee contracts – including legal requirements you must fulfil.

Why should you hire staff?

Not every business needs a huge team. In fact, a lot of businesses don’t even need
multiple individuals to operate. If you’re operating as a consultant or contractor, you
might be able to carry on happily and successfully as your business’s sole employee.

But if you’re operating in a number of other industries or are expecting a workload

that you simply cannot hope to cope with on your own, it’s definitely worth looking
into hiring some additional help.

What counts as an employee?

The UK Government defines an employee as someone who works for you under
an employment contract. According to UK law, a contract or some form of written
particulars must be awarded to any person you’ve contracted to work for your
business for more than one month. That means if you’ve contracted someone to
carry out work for your business, they are an employee in the eyes of the law, and
have several protections and rights that you must uphold – but we’ll get to that in a
minute.

How to find employees for your business

If you’ve decided your business would benefit from the hiring of additional team
members, the first step you must take is to map out your vision for each new role
and what the person fulfilling that role will be expected to do. To attract staff, you’ll
need to come up with credible job titles with detailed job descriptions so that
prospective employees will know the type of worker you’re looking for and be drawn
to apply.

Your job description should include the role title, a clear description of job
responsibilities and a list of the primary (and secondary) duties the successful
applicant will be expected to perform. You should also include any personal
attributes you’d like the employee to demonstrate, education requirements or

17
certifications you want to see and any other important points you think are
necessary.

Finally, don’t forget to sell your business. In your job description, tell prospective
applicants a little bit about your business, what it does, what it stands for and – most
importantly – where it’s headed in the future.

After completing your job descriptions, it’s time to advertise them to attract some
applicants. The first place you should advertise is your own business website. And if
you’re operating locally, one of the best places to promote your vacancy is your local
newspaper. Most newspapers still have classified sections either in print or on their
websites that are regularly searched by job hunters.

You should also explore targeted online job sites. Most sites are free to advertise on,
and some, such as Indeed, are incredibly popular. If your business is performing
niche industry activities, you could also advertise your jobs with trade publication
websites.

Finally, never neglect the power of social media. If you’re not already on mainstream
social media sites like Facebook or Twitter, set up a business page or account now –
and if you’re already on social media, you should definitely be posting to followers
about your new job vacancies.

Between all these platforms, you’re bound to get loads of applications to choose
from.

How to conduct a job interview

The first time you meet your prospective employees is ordinarily at their job
interview. If you’ve ever experienced an interview, you’ll know there’s a fairly resolute
formula that most businesses adhere to – and it’s fairly simple.

The first step you should take prior to the interview is to prepare your questions. As
the employer, you need to have a think about exactly what it is you’re looking for in
terms of a new hire, and then come up with a set of questions that relate directly
back to those requirements. Flip back through the job description you advertised and
try to create at least one broad question that you think relates directly back to each
skill or duty.

When you do ask your interviewee questions, you should try and ask them to come
up with real solutions. Everybody’s used to getting asked about their biggest
weakness or their proudest achievement to date, but that doesn’t normally relate
directly to that person’s ability to do the job you want them to do.

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Instead, you could try coming up with on-the-job scenarios that person is likely to
face if you offer them the job, and see how they’ll react. Alternatively, you should ask
them to tell you about a specific time they exhibited a certain skill or quality you are
looking for in a previous role in their career.

Something else to think about when conducting your first job interviews is whether
you’d like to involve others in the decision-making process. If you have a business
partner, mentor or a trusted friend, it could be worth inviting them along to the
interview so that you’ll be able to receive an additional opinion about the
interviewee.

You don’t want to get too many people involved, because a wide range of opinions
might only make the process more difficult. But sometimes getting an outsider’s view
will open your eyes to reasons why you should (or shouldn’t) have a second look at a
candidate.

Once you’ve conducted each interview and are happy to select one of the
candidates, give them a call or send them an email with the good news and send
through an employment contract. If you’re new to employee contracts, they don’t
have to be super long and complicated documents.

To help get you started, the UK Government offers advice on what you should
include in the contracts you issue employees. You can also find templates to use on
the UK Government website.

Regulatory requirements of employers

When you hire an employee, you inherit a short list of statutory responsibilities that
you must adhere to. If you fail to meet government requirements as an employer,
you could land your business in hot water.

There are seven things you absolutely must do when you’re hiring staff for the first
time:

1. You must pay your employee at least the National Minimum Wage.
2. You must check your employees have the legal right to work in the UK.
3. You must apply for a DBS check if your business works in a field that requires
one (for example, if you’re working with vulnerable people of providing
security). For reference, DBS checks used to be referred to as CRB checks.
4. You must acquire employers’ liability insurance, and that insurance needs to
be in place as soon as your employees start work.
5. You must give your employee a written statement of employment– or a
contract. This applies to anyone you’re employing to work for you for more
than one calendar month.

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 6. You need to register as an employer with HMRC. You can do this up to four
weeks before you’re ready to pay your new staff.
7. You must check to see if you need to automatically enrol your staff into a
workplace pension scheme.

If you need further assistance getting started on any of these requirements, the UK
Government provides step-by-step guidance on its website.

The bottom line

At first glance, this might all seem like a lot to take in. Making the decision to hire
additional staff can be difficult enough – let alone trying to write and promote a job
description, conduct interviews and ensure you’re adhering to a suite of regulatory
requirements. But the truth is, a lot of these processes come naturally, and they’re
incredibly simple to complete.

Just remember: if you get stuck, the government offers plenty of guidance online. An
accountant or solicitor will also be able to provide you with credible advice in relation
to the employment of staff. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, and don’t be afraid to ask
lots of questions. Hiring staff is a hugely exciting step forward for your business –
make the most of it.

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How to set up business premises
One of the most exciting aspects of starting a new business is often setting up a
physical, brick-and-mortar location for your new business to call its home. In this day
and age, not every business actually needs a physical location that people can visit
regularly – but a huge number of business owners continue to find the process of
opening up a premises enthralling.

After all, not only does setting up a business premises enable you to take a huge,
tangible step towards achieving your business ambitions, but it also allows you to
create a new and very public face for your business.

Why is it important to have business premises?

Various businesses elect to set up their own premises for a variety of reasons. Your
own reasons will depend entirely upon your business plan and the type of business
you’re envisioning – so before you start shopping around for potential workspace,
you should always brainstorm what you could hope to achieve with setting up a
business premises.

You might need warehouse space to manufacture products, retail space to sell
products directly to customers, office space to offer business services and house staff
workspace, or you might simply want a bit of space to physically separate your new
business from your personal life. After all, most of us don’t like taking work home –
which is unavoidable if you’ve set up your new business in your garage.

When in doubt, produce a detailed pros and cons list, consult friends and family and
ask anybody you already know in the industry. If you can avoid opening a business
premises, you will save a whole lot of money on running costs. But if you think your
business might benefit from opening up a brick-and-mortar location, then the
overheads associated with that location are normally outweighed by all of the other
potential benefits.

Perhaps that’s why there are still a huge number of UK businesses opting to invest in
a brick-and-mortar premises to attract footfall. According to PwC’s Total Retail
Survey 2017, some 59% of consumers say they want an inviting ambience when they
shop – and 37% of businesses are responding in kind by either expanding or creating
new in-store experiences for members of their target audience.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Before you start dreaming up fantastic window
displays and immersive customer experiences, you’ve got to do some level-headed
research about what it is you’re looking for, when you need it for and how much you
should be paying for it.

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How to research and price workspace

When conducting research into the type of premises that may be perfect for your
business, you should always start out by creating a wish list.

After figuring out what it is you need your premises for, you’ll need to work the
numbers and develop a ballpark figure in terms of how much you’ll be able to spend
on commercial rent or purchasing a business property. Just like paying rental for
accommodation, most commercial or retail space can be paid either monthly, or
multiple times throughout the year – for example, quarterly. Based on your projected
income, think about how much you’ll be able to spend renting or purchasing a
property without putting a substantial dent in your income.

Combined with rent or property purchase, premises-based overheads like utility bills
and insurance form the second largest overhead most UK companies and businesses
experience, after staff wages.

You’ll also need to take into consideration having to pay a deposit, local authority
business rates and any potential service charges. For example, you might need to
completely renovate a workspace or shop to realise your vision or make it habitable.

After you’ve developed a ballpark figure relating to how much you’re allowed to
spend on a monthly or annual basis, think about the other considerations specific to
your business that will impact on your choice of workspace.

How much space do you actually need? How much room do you need for
equipment? How much power will you need? How many employees do you predict
will work in this space, and do you need space for a shop floor? Do you want the
flexibility of an open-plan, or do you want your premises split up? Depending upon
your industry, there might even be legal health and safety requirements you must
fulfil.

Potential requirements could relate to the wellbeing of staff members you’re

employing, customers or accessibility requirements relating to individuals living with
a disability. That could mean setting up shop on a ground floor, or setting up
multiple entrances.

If you need help getting started identifying potential legal requirements, the UK
Government’s Health and Safety Executive has a checklist on its website.

The best way to figure all this out is by drafting a property specification, illustrating
your dream location, why it’s perfect and – crucially – what in your wish list you can
live without.

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Location, Location, Location

The next step is location, location, location. In your market research, you should have
developed an idea of who your customers are, where they’re currently shopping and
how they get there. When shopping around for your own brick-and-mortar location,
you must bear all that in mind.

Do you need to be close to public transport? How close is the nearest competitor,
and will that help or hurt your business? How remote is too remote, and what sort of
infrastructure or logistics will you need in place for deliveries?

And at a far more material level, will the neighbourhood a property is in impact the
way customers or potential clients view your business? Again, conduct research
about your target market, what they like to see in a business and what they don’t. If
you’ve found a cheap deal with the perfect amount of space, but that space is in a
run-down neighbourhood far away from where your customers are shopping, you
should probably sacrifice price over image.

Once you’ve figured out your budget, property specifications and understand what’s
expected of your business form a legal standpoint, you can start hunting. Property
websites, trade publications and local media outlets are usually the best place to
commence searching.

Just remember: when in doubt, always explore your options and avoid jumping up at
the first opportunity you encounter. Don’t be afraid to ask developers or estate
agents tricky questions and take your time before entering into a service agreement.
This is a big step in your business’s development, and you don’t want to rush into a
bad deal.

Consider a business incubator or accelerator

The vast majority of small businesses in the UK choose to set up a premises or

business location independently. However, there are a wide range of organisations
across the country that offer start-ups and first-time business owners a creative
space to develop their business and start trading.

Incubators

One of these types of organisations is called a business incubator. Incubators are

essentially groups that offer small businesses shared working space. By setting up
shop in a shared space occupied by multiple enterprises, you’ll be able to join a
collaborative work culture that is designed to try and generate new ideas and
innovation.

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Business incubators also generally offer various types of funding support and
business mentoring services – as well as learning opportunities and access courses
for first-time business owners. Some incubators in the UK include built-in support on
marketing and analytics, access to professional accounting services and legal advice.
Several have been set-up in coordination with UK universities, which means business
tenants enjoy discounted courses or access to library resources.

To gain tenancy at a business incubator, you will normally be asked to fill out an
application. This could include submitting a business plan. Just like organising
workspace independently, you should also bear in mind all of your premises
requirements and what was on your wish list before you apply to join an incubator. In
particular, have a think about whether compromises on location or space will directly
impact your trading.

Incubators aren’t the only organisations in the UK that offer support services and
funding opportunities to new UK companies. You could also explore accelerators.

Accelerators

Accelerators are organisations that work by enrolling business owners in a time-

limited programme that offers them mentoring, supply chain resources and various
types of office space.

How is this different from a business incubator? Accelerators normally ask for equity
in your start-up in exchange for offering you access to capital or investment. That
means your business will start off with an all-inclusive workspace, access to financing
and a brilliant start in life – but you may be asked to sign over shares or a stake in
your business as payment for that brilliant start.

Because a lot of business incubators are associated with UK universities, they actually
enjoy various degrees of charitable status. In turn, you won’t normally be expected to
hand over a piece of your business in exchange for workspace and support – but you
won’t get the same level of services at your new premises, either.

It’s worth pointing out that neither incubators nor accelerators are typically
permanent homes for a business. Tenancies at incubators are often limited to a
couple of years, and accelerators sometimes only house your business for a matter of
months.

As with every other aspect of hunting for your permanent business home, you’ve
simply got to do your research. If this sounds like something you’re keen to explore,
the UK Government has conducted all-encompassing research on the country’s
accelerator and incubator scene – including where you can find them.

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The bottom line

The type of premises your business needs to thrive will depend on your own bespoke
requirements. Start by figuring out whether you even need a brick-and-mortar
location, and then proceed by developing a wish list. You’ve also got to do lots of
research and come up with a list of any legal requirements you’ll need to fulfil by
opening up premises.

Finally, if your business is totally new, it could be worth checking out the UK’s
thriving incubator and accelerator scenes. These organisations aren’t for everyone,
but they might be able to offer your business the perfect temporary home – along
with some fantastic services you might not otherwise have access to.

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 PA RT THR EE

The Essentials
Trying to write a business plan and figure out how you should fund your
business can be totally exhausting – but the truth is, that’s just the start
of your business journey.

Part Three of our guide looks into the foundations of your business and
the way it looks to the outside world. We explain how registered office
addresses work, and why you should never use your home address for
these. It also explains the benefits of registering for VAT voluntarily, and
elevating your business with a telephone answering service.
Never use your home address as your registered office
Every UK limited company must have a registered office address in its country of
incorporation (i.e. England and Wales, Wales only, Scotland or Northern Ireland). This
is the official address where notices, letters and reminders from Companies House
and HMRC are sent. Tempting as it is to use your home address for your registered
office, there are many reasons why you shouldn’t do so.

Registered office address

It is perfectly legal to use your home address as your registered office address. Bear
in mind, however, that your registered office address will be published on the public
register at Companies House. This information can never be removed and is easily
searchable via Google, even if you change your registered office details, dissolve your
company, or make a data suppression request to Companies House.

To protect your privacy from unwanted visitors or spam mail, we strongly advise you
do not use your home address as a registered office address at any time.

Your company’s registered office address must be displayed on all company

stationery, including letterheads and website. If you live in a less than salubrious area,
you should consider a professional registered office address service to provide you
with a prestigious location to boost your company’s image. Remember, first
impressions count, and customers and business partners are less likely to use your
services unless they trust you. Size equals trust, and someone trading from their
house can be a big turn off as it shows they are not well established.

Private residential renters should be aware that most tenancy agreements prohibit
the use of their rented accommodation for the purposes of using it as a registered
office address. Therefore, using your home address may lead to you being in breach
of your tenancy agreement.

The best solution is to use a non-residential registered office address. This type of
professional service address is available from a number of third-party providers,
including company formation agents such as 1st Formations, and includes use of a
prestigious registered office address, as well as mail forwarding of official
government mail from the likes of Companies House and HMRC. Some mail
forwarding service providers, such as 1st Formations, will also provide you with an
online client area to be able to access scanned copies of your important
correspondence, so you can read your important mail anywhere, at any time.

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Directors’ service address

It is a legal requirement for each office of a company to provide a correspondence

address to Companies House. This address is listed on Companies House public
register, and is easily searchable via Google.

There is no legal requirement for this address to be located within the same
jurisdiction of your company, and it can be located anywhere in the world. We
strongly recommend, however, that you fully protect your privacy and corporate
image by using a professional directors’ service address.

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Why you should consider registering for VAT
VAT Registration is legally required when taxable turnover (i.e. overall takings, not
‘profit’) for the previous 12 months exceeds £85,000, or it is expected to exceed this
figure in the next 30 days.

Voluntary VAT registration is optional for any small business with a taxable turnover
that is not expected to exceed £85,000. It can be really beneficial to do so. There are
a number of factors to consider before voluntarily registering.

What is VAT?

Value Added Tax (VAT) is charged on the majority of goods and services provided by
VAT-registered businesses in the UK, as well as certain goods and services imported
from non-EU countries, and those imported into the UK from other EU countries.
VAT-registered businesses add VAT to the sale price of goods and services when
they sell to commercial and non-commercial consumers.

They are also usually able to reclaim the VAT they have paid when buying goods or
services. If they are not registered for VAT, they cannot reclaim any of the VAT they
pay. You have to be registered for VAT to charge or reclaim it on anything you sell or
purchase.

The advantages of voluntary VAT registration

The threshold for VAT registration is currently set at £85,000, and this will remain the
case until at least 2022. This may seem like a lot of income, but it is important to
remember that this figure refers to ‘taxable turnover’, which is the overall income
generated from all sales, not simply the profit made from those sales.

For this reason, many small businesses are legally required to register for VAT. The
benefits of VAT registration, whether necessary or voluntary, are many:

• VAT can be applied to the sale cost of almost all goods and services offered.
• VAT can be reclaimed on most goods or services purchased from other
businesses.
• Small businesses can give the appearance of being bigger and more
established, which can be very appealing to clients, lenders, investors and
suppliers, who will assume their turnover is more than £85,000 because they
are VAT registered.
• VAT-registered businesses are given a VAT number. This can be displayed on
invoices, letterheads, websites and other forms of business stationery. Again,
this can be appealing to other firms, many of whom may not be willing to get

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 involved with a business that is not VAT registered and, therefore, considered
to be small.
• Voluntary registration can be backdated by up to four years if sufficient
evidence can be supplied to HMRC, which means a business may be able to
reclaim VAT paid on equipment it is still using.

The disadvantages of voluntary VAT registration

• VAT could hamper the appeal of goods and services to customers who are not
VAT registered, particularly if the final cost of the sale is deemed unreasonable
or overpriced.
• Businesses could end up with a large VAT bill from HMRC if they generate
more VAT from goods and services sold than the VAT paid on goods and
services bought from other businesses.
• Extra paperwork and administration is an unavoidable consequence of VAT
registration. Businesses will require keeping all VAT invoices and receipts,
maintain VAT accounting records, and file VAT returns every quarter.

Reclaiming VAT

VAT can usually be reclaimed on any goods and services that are bought for business
use, even if they are purchased before a business is VAT registered. VAT on anything
that is purchased for both personal and business use can only be reclaimed
proportionately – this may include things like telephone line rental, phone calls and
internet costs, laptops, and utility bills in a private residence that is also used for
business purposes.

It is important to keep records and valid VAT invoices to support these claims. You
will also have to show how you reached the figures for the VAT you are reclaiming.

It is not possible to reclaim VAT on:

• Anything that is purchased exclusively for private use.

• Business entertainment costs, goods and services used to make VAT exempt
supplies.
• Products purchased from other EU countries, receiving business assets that
are transferred as a going concern.
• Anything purchased under a VAT second-hand margin scheme.

New digital VAT submission requirements

Should you choose to become VAT registered, you must submit your VAT
information to HMRC using a functional compatible software system. A functional
compatible software is a system, software product or application that can record and

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preserve digital records, provide HMRC with information and returns from the data
held in those records using HMRC’s API and receive information from HMRC using
that same API platform.

It’s important to note that your business will not be expected to carry out all these
functions using the same piece of software. For example, you might keep records
using Microsoft Excel, but save those records on an encrypted cloud service and
submit them to HMRC using a secure client portal or professional accounting
software. All that matters, is you are able to comply with each aspect of the
functional compatible software requirement.

You do not need to store all your digital records in one place or on just one
programme. Digital tax records can be kept using a range of compatible digital
formats, as long as they are all accessible and meet HMRC requirements.

Data transfers or exchanges of information between software programmes, apps or

services, must be digital if the information being transferred forms a part of your
business’s digital records. After data has been entered into software as part of your
records, any new transfer or modification of data needs to be done digitally, and
those changes must be linked to demonstrate that information’s digital journey.

Transferring data manually within or between different parts of a set of software

programs or apps is not acceptable. An example of a violation of the new rules would
be if you were to write down details from an invoice in one online ledger, and then
use the same handwritten notes to manually update another piece of software that
forms part of your business’s functional compatible software system.

Once information is made digital, it needs to stay digital. That’s why ‘digital links’ are
going to be such an important record-keeping tool for your business under the new
rules. HMRC defines a digital link as being the transfer or exchange of data
electronically between programmes without the need for manual intervention.

Examples of digital links include:

• Emailing a spreadsheet with digital records to a tax agent so they can import the
data into their own software
• Transferring a data set onto a portable device and physically giving that device to
a tax agent
• An XML or CSV import
• An automated data transfer
• An API transfer
Simply cutting and pasting data does not count as a digital link.

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If the idea of implementing a whole range of new digital solutions and adopting a
new set of digital link processes sounds a little daunting, don’t panic. HMRC has said
it will allow for a ‘soft landing period’ that essentially acts as a grace period in which
your business will be forgiven for not having fully implemented the changes.

The first year of implementation for the Making Tax Digital initiative for VAT periods
starting between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020 won’t be required to have digital
links. During that same period, HMRC will accept the use of ‘cut and paste’ as a
digital link.

Rules on submitting VAT information to HMRC

Your business must always and only submit information to HMRC via an API. Don’t
worry, because chances are your commercial accounting or record-keeping software
already comes VAT-enabled – but if not, HMRC has said it is willing to accept a
couple of alternatives when accepting submissions.

The first alternative is bridging software, which is a digital tool that can be used to
connect accounting software to HMRC systems. It allows the necessary VAT
information to be sent to HMRC digitally.

The second acceptable alternative to API-enabled software is to use API-enabled

spreadsheets – which can either combine with accounting software to submit the
necessary VAT information digitally to HMRC or can be used to keep digital records
and then be submitted directly to HMRC.

What VAT records you need to keep digitally

There are several kinds of records and different data types that you will be expected
to keep digitally. The first type of information you must keep digitally is called
designatory data, which includes:

• Your business name

• Your business address
• Your VAT registration number
• Any VAT accounting schemes your business uses
In addition to designatory data, you will be expected to digitally record the following
information for every single supply you make:

• The time of supply

• The value of supply (which is the net value, not including VAT)
• The rate of VAT you charge

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These record-keeping requirements only apply to the goods or services you supply
that are VAT-liable. If you carry out a supply that is exempt from VAT, you don’t need
to record the above information digitally.

The same reporting requirements apply to supplies received, although instead of

recording the rate of VAT you charged as part of a supply, you are obliged to record
the amount of input tax you are planning to claim.

In cases where more than one supply is included in an invoice, under the new rules
you’ll be allowed to record the totals from the invoice. Likewise, if you don’t know
the actual amount of input tax that you’re going to claim, you should just record the
total amount of VAT adjusted for any irrecoverable VAT.

You’ve also got to record certain data about any third-party agent that arranges to
supply goods to or on behalf of your business. HMRC does include a caveat in the
regulations, pointing out that in some cases this may not be possible or practical to
record digitally on a daily basis – and so it’s okay to record third-party information as
a single digital invoice.

The bottom line

VAT registration is imperative for limited companies if they will be dealing with any
customers or suppliers who may take a dim view of dealing with a business which
they know has a turnover of less than £85,000. Size equals trust in business. The
digitisation of VAT submission to HMRC is daunting but modern software will allow
you to keep track of everything in an easier way than ever before.

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The benefits of a business telephone answering
service
When it comes to running a successful business, communication is absolutely crucial.
As the owner of a business, you’ve got to maintain a flawless line of communication
with your employees, your customers, suppliers, stakeholders and just about
everybody else under the sun. You need to make your business as open and
accessible as possible – one of the best ways to achieve this is to make sure anyone
and everyone can reach your business by telephone. If you’re running a fairly small
business, that can sometimes be a problem.

It can be incredibly draining on your time and energy dealing with a high volume of
routine calls. Answering the exact same questions over and over again is enough to
drive any business owner crazy, and it keeps you from getting things done. That’s
why some business owners tend to dodge calls or try to operate online-only.

Why your business needs a business landline telephone number

Although we’re living in a brave new world of e-commerce and online

communication, telephone numbers still play a crucial role in the forward-facing,
day-to-day activities of UK businesses. If you want your clients, potential customers
and members of the public to contact you, you need to give them every opportunity
to reach you – which typically means displaying a business phone number on your
website, stationery, business vehicles, premises and marketing collateral.

By displaying a mobile telephone number, you are inadvertently sending a loud and
clear message: ‘stay away’. Why would this put customers off? To a consumer, a
business that operates from a mobile number is unestablished. It may be run from a
garage, spare bedroom, or change premises from one week to the next because it is
illegitimate or unsustainable.

Let’s get one thing straight right now: this is not always the case. Many businesses
can be run incredibly successfully by one person out of the spare room in their flat –
but like it or not, image is everything. Customers are more likely to place their trust in
larger, well-established brands. That means, if you want to succeed in the long term
and generate new business, you’ve got to emulate the look and feel of a large and
well-established business – and the long and short of it is, large businesses are easy
to reach using a business-specific landline number.

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Privacy

Not only is it important for your new business’ reputation to obtain a business
landline number – it’s also important for your privacy.

If you own a small business and do some or most of the work yourself, you may
often find yourself in a situation in which you haven’t got any choice but to give your
personal mobile number out to customers. That’s fine in certain scenarios, but if too
many people have your direct line, you’ll see the inevitable erosion of that all-
important barrier dividing your business and personal life.

When you start a business and give it your all, you need to be prepared to make
business your life. But for your own sanity, you’ve got to preserve some form of
private life. That’s why you need to keep your personal mobile as far away from your
business dealings as possible.

Location

One aspect of business phones you may not have considered is that your telephone
number should be directly tied to a geographical location connected to your
business and its trading activity.

Why? Because your customers are smart enough to put two and two together. When
companies use a Luton landline number, while claiming on their website that they’re
based in London, that raises red flags. It makes your business look irreputable, and
even a bit seedy. Even using an 0800 number when your business fails to display a
geographical business landline number beside it, can cast your business in a bad
light.

So, do yourself and your business a favour and do not be cheap. Keep your
smartphone number reserved for your personal life, and invest in a business-only
landline number that is geographically linked to where your business is based.

Other benefits of a business telephone answering service

It is impossible to overemphasise the importance of maintaining an ‘established

business’ image for your new business. And like it or not, answering your business’
main telephone number yourself, does nothing to promote this notion.

Sure, it’s great to look attentive and heavily involved in the day-to-day running of
your business. Yet by answering your own business landline, you are also
inadvertently telling would-be clients that you are running a one-man business.
Again, there’s nothing wrong with running a business by yourself – people do it all
the time. But until you have built trust with a customer, it is probably best you

35
present a picture of being a bigger and more established business – as people trust
big and successful brands and tend to think ‘new starts’ are here today, gone
tomorrow.

That’s the top reason micro-businesses should buy a telephone answering service
that can offer assistance in handling calls, and help your business appear to be larger
and more established than it actually is.

It’s also worth emphasising just how much time and money a telephone answering
service can save you. If your business handles a high volume of calls – why waste
your own time handling painfully simple calls, or waste money hiring a costly full-
time receptionist to handle them?

In a nutshell, a telephone answering service saves time and money, and also
promotes a fabulous corporate image. You’ll also benefit from call screening, and
won’t need to be bothered by cold callers or unsolicited calls – handing you the
priceless gift of time, to do what it is you’d actually like to be doing.

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 PA RT FOUR

Spreading the word

You now know your essential requirements as a newly formed limited
company, so it’s time to get back to what’s important to you – and that’s
starting your business.

Part Four of our guide explores some of the basic steps you need to take
when you feel confident enough to start trading. We break down how
you can create a website for your new business, why you should try to
develop a distinct brand for your business and how you should go about
developing powerful marketing and advertising strategies.
How to create a website for your business
Like it or not, we’re living in a brave new world that’s driven by technology – and
businesses either succeed or fail based on their ability to leverage that technology.
For new businesses, it’s all about finding ways to use the internet to better serve
customers.

According to cumulative data from Statista, there’s going to be a 246% increase in

worldwide e-commerce sales by 2021. That equates to almost a threefold increase in
the amount of goods people are buying and selling online on an annual basis.
Bearing in mind the UK is the third largest e-commerce market in the world, that
means there’s a lot of room for businesses to grow online – and that growth all starts
with developing a crisp, functional business website.

Why a website is important for your business

According to the Welsh Government, 93% of all business purchase decisions start
with an online search engine. What does that mean? It means the internet is your
business’s window to the world.

Creating a website will make your business look more credible and more
professional. If your business is offline, a huge slice of consumers won’t be able to
find out more about who you are and what you do. Because most purchase decisions
start online, that means you’ll lose out to your competitors long before customers
start reaching for a bank card.

By developing a website, you’ll be able to dramatically expand your reach and offer
potential sales leads an honest and realistic explanation of your business and what it
has to offer. This will give users some peace-of-mind that your business is legitimate
and reputable, and it will offer them some ballpark expectations in relation to your
products or services.

Your business should also explore creating its own website because it’s such a cost-
effective way in which to market to your customers. By using a free web design tool,
even the world’s worst technophobic business owner can create a slick business
website in a matter of minutes – absolutely free of charge. That website can reach
more customers and generate more sales leads quicker and cheaper than a
traditional magazine advertorial or radio advertisement.

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What you should include on your website

Just like no two businesses are alike, you’d be hard-pressed to find two business
websites that are the same. That being said, every start-up should begin creating
their website with a few essential pieces of information about their business.

First, you should include a clear description of what your business is and what it
does. Web users are incredibly fickle in terms of their attention spans, and so you
should be concise and direct in your explanation. This means you should start with a
website homepage that clearly states your business’ name and your key products or
services.

Domain name

When creating your website, you should also make a point of registering a simple
and memorable web address. As soon as you decide to create a website, you’ll need
to select a domain name as your web address. This is the name that users will enter
into their browser to visit your site. Domain names normally end with a “.com” or a
“.[Link]” in the UK, but there are loads of options that you can reserve as part of your
web address, by using domain registration sites like [Link].

When in doubt, most businesses opt for their business’ name or something similar.
You cannot register a domain name that somebody else is currently using, so you’ll
need to search online before registering, to make sure nobody else is using your
desired web address.

Sitemap

Another important thing to bear in mind when planning out your business website is
a sitemap that’s easy to navigate. A sitemap is essentially just a list of all of the pages
on your website that illustrates the way in which each page is linked and presented
on the site. After landing on your home page, where do you want potential
customers to go?

Have a think about all of the information you need on your website, and how you
can group it together. Then, consider how you’d like that information presented to
you as a web user. That’s how your sitemap will develop – and you should do your
best to keep it short and simple.

Call to action

Potentially the most crucial item you’ve got to include on your website is a clear ‘call
to action’. In case this term is new to you, it’s essentially just marketing jargon used
to describe the action that you want customers to take when they visit your website.

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For example, do you want users to go to your online store and purchase something?
Do you want them to email you requesting an estimate, or call you to make an
appointment?

Whatever your call to action, make it prominent on your home page and sprinkle it
consistently throughout your website.

Terms and Conditions

You should also be sure to include all-encompassing terms and conditions on your
website that outlines what users can expect from using your website. These set out
the legal rights and obligations between you and everyone who uses your website
and must cover how you plan to use data or cookies, any rules you have or observe
in terms of user registration and security, and acceptable and unacceptable ways to
use your website and its content. You’ll also probably want to include liability
disclaimers to protect your business from customer mistakes.

If you need help getting started on your own business’ website terms and conditions,
Invest Northern Ireland has created a concise template designed to help you protect
your website and its users.

Contact information

One of the biggest mistakes new business owners make when creating their first
business website is to inadvertently hide contact information from their users. When
creating your sitemap, you might want to devote an entire page to business contact
information.

That being said, you don’t want to lose sales leads just because fickle users cannot
find your contact page. If your call to action is pushing users to telephone, you might
want to include your phone number at the top of your homepage. Don’t make
people work harder than they have to, and you’ll be rewarded for it.

Customer reviews

Another absolute must you should include on your website is a collection of solid
and honest customer testimonials. As a new business, one of the biggest hurdles you
must overcome will be to get your business’ name out there – and the best way to
get your name out there is word-of-mouth.

According to BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey 2017, 85% of consumers

trust online reviews just as much as they trust personal recommendations. That
means if you’re starting your business with several existing happy customers, you
should encourage them to write a short testimonial or case study indicating what

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they love about your business. After you’ve created your website and bolstered your
business, you may want to register on an external review site like Trustpilot that
carries a bit more weight in terms of impartiality.

Above all else, it’s important to make sure that your website has got loads of fresh
and quality content. Remember: your business’ website is its window to the world. If
you want to make a great first impression, you need to ensure that users will find
interesting and engaging content on your site that will keep them coming back for
more.

Legal requirements you must fulfil

If you plan on selling items on your website, the UK Government also has some
simple rules you’ll need to comply with. These rules are designed to protect the
rights of your consumers, but also the rights of you and your business – and they’re
fairly straightforward to follow.

For example, when an order for a product or service is placed through your website,
you must:

• Make it clear to people they need to pay when they place an order.
• Clearly display how customers can pay for your goods or services, and also
include information about delivery costs and options.
• List all of the steps involved in a customer placing an order on your website.
• Take reasonable steps in order to let your customers correct errors they have
made as part of their orders.
• Make sure customers know what languages are available to them on your
website.
• Ensure your customers can store and reproduce your online terms and
conditions.
• Provide your contact details and VAT number (if you have one).
• Outline any conditions for entering and ending contracts with your business.
• That’s not all, either. If you plan on using your website to sell digital services
that customers can download or stream online (such as computer games,
phone apps or films), you are also legally obliged to fulfil several
requirements. If you’d like more information, the UK Government has
compiled a comprehensive guide spelling out what you must do when selling
goods and services on your new website.

How to build a website

One of the top reasons new business owners find the prospect of creating a business
website daunting is because they wrongly presume it’s a difficult process. But the
truth is, thanks to a wide range of website hosting platforms, even the biggest

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technophobic business owners can create a slick business website in a matter of
minutes.

One of the most popular web building platforms is Wix. This service offers users an
easy-to-use interface that offers you hundreds of free design templates with which to
create the pages for your website. Many of these free designs are industry-specific,
and the platform’s drag-and-drop feature means that personalising your new
website is quick and simple.

If your business operates in one of the creative industries, you might want to explore
Squarespace. Squarespace is a platform that includes plenty of slick templates for
photographers, writers, designers and artists. Their templates are incredibly visual, so
if you’ve got striking product images, Squarespace might be the right place to create
your website.

If you’re looking for a simple way to host your website, WordPress is still one of the
quickest and easiest hosting platforms. It’s perfect for beginners, offers a range of
free design templates and comes with free analytics and SEO tools that will give you
great insights into how much traffic your new website is getting.

Big names in e-commerce, such as Shopify, also support easy-to-use WordPress

plugins that you can download to transform your ordinary website into a dynamic
online store.

These aren’t the only great web building platforms worth checking out, but they’re a
great place to start. As with any service, you should always shop around. Each service
comes with various unique selling points that could specifically cater to your
business.

The bottom line

At the end of the day, your business can’t really afford to stay offline. Statistically
speaking, creating a business website will expose you to more people and create
more sales potential than any other type of marketing – and the best part is, creating
a business website is often extremely easy and low cost.

But if you plan on creating your own website, just be sure to bear in mind any legal
requirements you must fulfil. You’ll also need to explore the web, find best practice
and do your best to stand out and offer potential customers a fantastic online
experience. The process of creating a new business website can be totally
invigorating and exciting – so just try to enjoy the creative process.

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Branding - and why it is important for your business
It doesn’t matter what your business does or what sort of industry you’re operating
in: chances are, you’ll be facing lots of competition. To survive, you’ll need to make
sure your business stands out – and the easiest way to do that is by implementing a
firm brand strategy.

If you’re new to business or don’t have a lot of experience in marketing, developing

and implementing a brand strategy might sound a little bit intimidating. But the truth
is, the process can be incredibly intuitive and straightforward.

To help you wrap your head around all the basics, we’ve come up with this handy
guide that will walk you through how to create a unique brand of your very own.

What is a brand?

A brand is any feature that identifies one seller’s products or services as being
distinct from the goods or services of other sellers. This distinction can take one of
many forms.

Your identifiable brand feature could be a unique name, design, symbol, term or all
of the above. If you’re having trouble visualising the basic elements of branding,
think of Coca-Cola, the Pepsi logo, the Apple symbol or the Golden Arches of
McDonald’s. This symbolism is instantly recognisable, and requires zero context or
explanation. That’s fantastic branding at work.

A brand is essentially the creation of an identity that your consumers can latch on to.
By associating your business with an emotive symbol or symbol, you’re able to brew
a blend of physical and emotional cues that trigger instant recognition in would-be
consumers – and ideally, a call to action.

Marketers refer to this emotive trigger as a decision-making shortcut, and it’s

invaluable to your business in terms of establishing brand loyalty.

How to create a brand strategy

Once you’ve decided your business would benefit from establishing its own brand,
it’s time to develop a strategy.

To come up with a brand strategy, you’ll first need to have a think about your overall
business strategy and identify the ways in which brand development would
complement your existing goals and targets.

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Next, you will need to identify your target clients and learn more about who they are
and what they’re all about. You should already know a lot about your would-be
customers as part of the market research you conducted for your business plan – but
it’s a crucial aspect of brand development, and so you might need to delve into your
customer personalities even deeper. Find out what motivates their purchase
decisions, the sort of ethics or beliefs they observe and how those ethics guide key
aspects of their day-to-day lives.

Brand positioning

The next key aspect of developing your brand strategy will be to come up with your
brand positioning. This is essentially a key message that clearly and concisely outlines
who your business is, what makes it different and why customers should choose to
do business with you.

Think of your brand positioning statement as the core of your brand. It should be
something you can return to over and over again whenever you need inspiration.
Brand positioning statements are normally three-to-five sentences, and shouldn’t be
written out like a business strapline. Positioning statements are often internal tools
that will enable you to develop the external aspects of your strategy.

So, how do you come up with your core message? No two businesses are alike, and
so your brand positioning statement won’t be the same as that of any other
companies, either. But no matter what, your core brand message should ordinarily
fulfil the following criteria:

• Your core message must offer something different from your competitors.
• Your message must be compelling, simple and easy-to-understand.
• Your message needs to reflect reality.
• Your message must resonate with your target audience.

Business name, logo and tagline

After developing a message, it’s time to think about your name, logo and tagline.
When starting your business, you probably put a whole lot of thought into what your
business would be called – and so your brand strategy will simply complement that
name, rather than alter it.

But combined, your logo and tagline work alongside your name to symbolise your
brand. Like the Golden Arches or Coca-Cola’s signature font, your logo should be
instantly identifiable – while your strapline should offer customers a short, snappy
way to remember your business. Your strapline is normally a more concise version of
your brand position statement, although it doesn’t have to be.

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It doesn’t have to stop there. You can apply your brand positioning and identifiable
features into virtually every aspect of your business – from collateral and product
packaging, to your business stationery and marketing emails. In fact, you should. One
of the most crucial aspects of any brand is consistency throughout.

But these are definitely the bare bones required to get your strategy started. After
that, it can be further enhanced and fleshed out through market research.

Market research to enhance your brand

You’ll already be familiar with market research – having conducted some degree of
research as part of your business plan. However, market research conducted as part
of your branding strategy is slightly different.

Also referred to as ‘brand research’, this form of market research is designed

specifically to assist with the creation, development and ongoing management of
your brand. This analysis should be carried out to understand and pick apart your
industry’s landscape, and can be repeated periodically to track customer experiences
and hone in on what it is your business could improve upon.

One of the best ways to learn more about how to develop your brand is to conduct
surveys. Although creating surveys can be somewhat time-consuming, the answers
you’ll receive provide a crucial foundation for all the decisions you take surrounding
your brand.

You should start by distributing to people you know or trust – but if you have an
email marketing list for your business, or know where to find potential customers,
you should approach people to take your interview that you’d ultimately like to sell
to.

You can do this in-person, via email, over the phone or online. If you need a hand,
there are loads of free survey generators around the web.

Conducting workshops or focus groups is also a great method of research with which
to test the decisions you’ve already made as part of your brand strategy. Gather up a
few participants of varying backgrounds, and ask open-ended questions about your
name, tagline, logo, brand values or anything in-between. This is a great way to
receive unsolicited feedback on the building blocks of your brand strategy.

You should also conduct a competitor analysis whenever launching a new brand. As
a start-up, you’re effectively entering the market as a new, “challenger” brand.
Bearing that in mind, a crucial part of your brand strategy and research must be to
uncover the strengths and weaknesses of your competition, wrap your head around

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their unique selling points and get an overview of how they have developed and
manage their own brand.

How to protect your brand

One of the biggest worries business owners have after putting all of this hard work
into developing and implementing a brand strategy is how they can protect that
brand from duplication. We’re all familiar with dubious copycat brands and the ways
in which they capitalise upon the strengths of well-known brands to try and push
their own wares – and it can totally marginalise your efforts.

Fortunately, you are owed a degree of legal protection in the UK. That’s because the
UK Government observes fairly watertight rules on intellectual property.

Intellectual property is anything unique that you have physically created. It’s worth
clarifying that an idea alone is not intellectual property – which is to say, having an
idea to write a book doesn’t equate to the words you’ve actually written on paper.

But if you can prove that you created something, you are its legal owner. This is
crucial in preventing people from stealing or copying the names of your products or
brand, your designs or any content you’ve written or produced. Some intellectual
property protections you must apply for, but others are automatically applied.

For example, all of your written works, art, photos, films, music, web content or sound
recordings enjoy automatic copyright protection. Design right protections are
applied automatically to the shapes of objects, too.

Additional protections you can apply for include trademarking your product names,
logos or jingles. When you apply for a trademark, you’ll be able to take legal action
against anyone who uses your brand without permission, and you can add the ®
symbol next to your brand to warn others it is protected. Registration ordinarily takes
around four months if no one objects, and registered trademarks last for ten years.

You can also apply for a registered design, which protects the appearance of a
product. This protection extends to its shape, packaging, patterns, colours or
decoration. It takes about a month to register a design, and you must renew your
registered design every five years. You can continue to re-register for up to 25 years.

Finally, if you’re developing innovative products that you think nobody has ever
created before, you may be able to apply for a patent. Patents are granted for the
invention of objects that can be made or used, are new and are inventive. Patents are
not granted to businesses that make simple modifications to existing products.

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The bottom line

In a never-ending sea of competition, you should think of branding as your business’

lifeboat. Establishing a unique brand will set you apart from other businesses, and it
will help you to establish a relationship between you, your customers and your
employees that will ensure your business prospers.

Just remember: it all starts with a core brand message and a solid brand strategy.
Know your business and what it stands for, and apply that everywhere you possibly
can. More important still, you’ve got to pair that with the knowledge you have about
your customers and the market in which you’re operating. The way in which you
develop and portray your brand must reflect the wants and needs of consumers, and
its deployment must be consistent.

And whatever you do, don’t forget: there’s no point developing a brand strategy,
conducting all this market research and applying for legal protections for your brand
if you don’t plan on shepherding its continued development. Nothing in business can
remain static forever, and so you should always be on the lookout for ways in which
you can further enhance or alter your brand.

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How to market and advertise your business
According to researchers at Constant Contact, 66% of small business owners say that
finding new customers is their top concern. After all, there’s a huge sea of
competition out there, and it can be incredibly difficult for new companies to stand
out and find success. That’s where advertising comes in.

How to write a marketing plan

Before you get to work advertising your business, you need to create a marketing
plan. A marketing plan is a detailed document that outlines everything there is to
know about the marketing strategy you’d like to use for your business and what you
want that strategy to achieve. Marketing plans are often timestamped strategies that
focus on a specific period of time. For example, marketing plans for new start-ups
generally cover a 12-month period.

Just like your business plan, it’s worth pointing out that a business’ marketing plan is
not designed to be a static document. Your marketing plan needs to evolve as your
business grows and new marketing trends develop. For example, the primary
marketing tactics you envision deploying before starting your business might give
way to more effective methods.

No two businesses are alike, and so you’d be hard-pressed to find a pair of

marketing plans that are identical. However, there are a few crucial details that each
and every marketing plan should include.

First, your marketing plan needs to include details about your business and its
current situation. You may have already compiled this as part of your business plan –
which means you might be able to copy and paste some of that information into
your marketing plan. But your plan needs to address what your business is, and
should include a list of all your key products or services.

Next, your marketing plan needs to spell out a clear definition of your target market.
Just like your business plan, your marketing plan must include a breakdown of who
your business needs to reach to generate sales. What sort of people are going to be
the most likely buyers of your goods or services?

Next, you must include a detailed list of the marketing tactics you plan to use. A lot
of this will be dictated by who your target market is. For example, the social media
platforms you choose to use in a business capacity should depend upon the age
group you’re trying to sell to.

Finally, one of the most crucial aspects of any marketing plan is the inclusion of
measurable goals. After defining your target market and coming up with a list of

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tactics you’ll be using to reach them, you need to be able to clearly state what it is
you expect to happen. How many new products do you hope to sell by sending out a
weekly email newsletter? How many sales leads will you need to generate to make a
magazine advert good value for money?

By creating specific goals, you’ll be able to stay focused and figure out which aspects
of your marketing plan are and aren’t working. A common mnemonic device
business owners use to ensure they’re coming up with useful goals is the acronym
“SMART” – which reminds you to create goals that are Specific, Measurable,
Attainable, Realistic and Timely.

The importance of advertising

Advertising is the process of working to influence the purchasing behaviours of

would-be consumers or clients. This is normally done by creating and actively
promoting a persuasive selling message that paints a positive portrait of your
business and its products or services.

By defining your target audience and reaching out to those individuals through a
strategic campaign of advertising activity, the end goal in advertising is to generate
new sales leads – and ultimately, convert those leads into paying customers.

As a new business owner, landing sales and securing new clients needs to be a top
priority. Developing a coherent marketing campaign and advertising strategy as part
of your wider marketing plan will be crucial to making sure you’re generating
enough business to keep your business afloat.

Print advertising

In this day and age, plenty of business owners start trading under the assumption
that print is dead. According to the Content Marketing Institute, two out of three
marketing professionals now ignore print media as part of their business strategy.
But the truth is, there’s a whole lot of evidence suggesting print media is actually one
of the best and most cost-effective ways for a small business to launch an advertising
campaign.

In 2015, a study conducted by Temple University’s Center for Neural Decision Making
found that print advertising leaves a more positive impression in people’s minds than
digital advertising – and that impression lasts longer. This is because print media is
viewed for longer periods of time, and it’s because researchers find that consumers
enjoy tangibility. They like to see, touch and interact with a print advertisement.

Print advertisements also continue to offer small businesses more credibility and
legitimacy than digital ads. Although most of your consumers will spend huge

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chunks of time online, they will also have been trained to inherently distrust a lot of
things they see on the web. By associating safe print adverts with your brand, you’ll
be able to establish a trusting relationship with your target market that can translate
over to your business’s online presence.

How to start a print advertising campaign

First, you need to think about who your target audience is, and where you’ll be able
to reach them. Do they tend to read the local paper? Are they constantly waiting in
hair salons or takeaway restaurants? Do they purchase glossy magazines on a regular
basis?

You should already know a lot of this information based on the market research you
conducted for your business plan and your marketing plan.

After you’ve figured out where you’re likely to reach consumers, you need to craft a
message. What exactly do you want to advertise? You could promote your headline
product, a wider range, special offer or even your business more generally. But
you’ve got to have a clear, concise advertising message with a sensible call to action.

From there, get in touch with your print platform of choice to negotiate a reasonable
rate for a reasonable service. If you’re considering your local paper or printing fliers,
you’ll most likely encounter a list of set rates; however, you may run into some
wiggle room with certain publications or poster opportunities.

Email and mobile advertising

Once you’ve got a list of potential clients or existing customers, one of the best ways
to reach those individuals to increase business is to develop a targeted email
marketing campaign.

According to research compiled by Hubspot, 86% of customers want to receive

promotional emails from companies they do business with on a regular basis. What’s
more, 15% of consumers would like to get daily messages from brands they shop
from. Bearing that in mind, your business will be doing itself a disservice by failing to
capitalise on that sales potential.

To craft a promotional email advertisement campaign, you’ll first need the contact
details of potential or existing clients. More important still, you’ll need consent from
those individuals indicating you’re allowed to use those contact details to approach
them with marketing messages. For more information on data protection rules and
guidance on how you can and cannot use customer data, you should consult the
Information Commissioner’s Office website.

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If you’re confident the details you’ve collected were secured appropriately and can
be used for advertisement purposes, there are a multitude of fantastic email
marketing services you can use for free to reach those individuals. One of the most
popular ‘freemium’ services is MailChimp, which includes a range of analytics that will
help you hone in on the sort of emails your customers do and don’t like to see.

In terms of messaging, you’ll normally want to email leads with a clear call to action.
You could share an upcoming event, new sale, details on a new product or a
competition your business is hosting. Because two-thirds of all emails are read on
either smartphones or tablets, it’s also worth thinking about developing a wider
mobile advertising strategy for your business.

Widely used mobile apps like Facebook Messenger now support a range of
affordable advertisement opportunities for small businesses that will enable you to
reach a tightly defined target audience. These are normally display ads with a large
photo, and a line or two of text that links directly to your business’ website.

There are also a range of platforms in which you can design one advert that will be
syndicated across a huge number of various smaller apps – however, you might not
get great analytics or feedback on how your campaigns perform.

Mobile advertising isn’t often the cheapest advertising option, but it’s incredibly
effective. Bearing that in mind, and depending upon the type of business you’ve
started, establishing a mobile campaign may need to be a second-tier marketing
activity. It all depends on what you’re looking for in terms of ads and how much
you’re willing to spend to reach your customers.

Internet advertising

Assuming you’ve got a website to direct traffic towards, your business will have a
dizzying number of online advertising opportunities to choose from. A huge number
of businesses are now choosing to start on mainstream social media. According to
researchers at the Social Media Examiner, 96% of all marketing professionals have
integrated social media into their overall marketing strategy. That’s because social
media advertising can be cheap, is easy to use and offers great analytics to tell you
how your target market is or isn’t engaging with your ad.

Big names in social media like Facebook and Twitter offer a range of affordable plans
in which you can specify precisely who you’re trying to reach with your business’ ad –
right down to the area of town they live in or what they do for a living. In turn, you
can rest assured that your chances of generating a return on investment for your ad
are far higher.

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What’s more, the vast majority of social media platforms charge advertisers using a
Pay-Per-Click model, which means that you won’t be charged for your ad unless
somebody clicks on it.

As always, you need to do your research before investing in an ad campaign.

Communicating with users on social media can be a case of trial and error, because
these platforms are often dominated by varying levels of colloquial language and
modes of communication.

Beyond social media, the single most popular method of web advertising for small
businesses has become Google AdWords.

Even if you haven’t heard of Google AdWords, you’ll already be familiar with the
programme. On most Google searches, you’ll notice the first few results have a small
‘Ad’ icon displayed next to its URL. That means a business has paid Google to bring
its listing ahead of all organic results for a select keyword – and like many social
media ads, that company will pay Google a small amount of money each time
somebody clicks on that ad.

Beyond search ads, AdWords also has a popular display ads programme that will
syndicate an advertisement your business has created to more than two million
websites – effectively reaching 90% of all people on the internet.

How is that possible? Google pays website publishers to join its advertisement
network and choose from a range of ad shapes and sizes those publishers are willing
to display on their own websites. That means your small business ad can reach a
huge number of people without you needing to input a lot of effort.

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The bottom line

At the end of the day, there’s no right or wrong way to advertise your business. No
two companies are alike, and so you shouldn’t always expect to find success by
promoting your business on one website or magazine just because another business
did well. You need to do your homework, learn about your audience and research
what will be the most cost-effective way to reach the largest number of sales leads.

All that matters is that your business is advertising somewhere. As a new business,
one of your top priorities needs to be to get your business name out there.

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 PA RT FI V E

You're off and running

So, this is it: you’ve done your homework, set up a marketing machine
and have started landing sales. But what happens next?

Part Five of our guide explains some of the ways in which you can try
to advance your new business by exploring innovative e-commerce
solutions, but it also offers advice on the ways in which you should be
trying to develop your leadership skills and where you can find support to
help you manage the ups and downs of life running your new business.
How to sell your business’ products online
Depending on the type of industry you’re operating in, it might feel a bit odd trying
to sell your goods or services on the web. Online selling does work better for some
businesses than others. Ideally, a successful online seller will have well-defined
products that can be sold without much human involvement, and those products will
have fixed prices and they can be delivered reliably within a particular lead time.

However, online selling can be utilised in a number of ways that benefit any type of
business – and the benefits are difficult to ignore.

First and foremost, selling online will enable your business to cut its operational
overheads and setup costs. By setting up an online shop, you don’t need to spend as
much money renting premium brick-and-mortar retail space – and you can probably
save a lot of money on staffing.

You’ll also be able to slash your processing costs, because any basic e-commerce
store will be able to automatically produce and catalogue customer orders.

Selling your products online will also help you to drastically expand your business’s
global reach and boost sales, because consumers from any time zone will be able to
explore your products and make a purchase 24 hours a day.

On top of all that, it’s worth noting that setting up an online shop or utilising an
existing external partner to sell your wares can be incredibly affordable.

How to integrate e-commerce services into your existing website

If you’d like to explore the benefits of trading online, setting up an online shop for
your business is incredibly simple – and adding shop functionality to your existing
website is even easier.

Software platforms like Shopify offer affordable e-commerce packages from just $9
per month, and give you the opportunity to create a basic online shop that’s very
easy to customise. With over 100 free store themes and templates, Shopify offers an
accessible drag-and-drop way to create a slick online shop without needing to know
much about the web.

All you need to do is register your business details, select your theme and start
uploading product details. It’s really that simple.

Shopify isn’t the only dynamic online selling platform worth exploring. Alternative
services like ShopWired, BIGCOMMERCE and Weebly are all worth exploring, because
each platform has its own unique selling point. No matter what type of online selling

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platform you choose to set up your store, there are a few must-haves you should be
looking for.

These include:

• Catalogue management
• Order processing capabilities
• Payment security

Ideally, you should try and shop around before you commit to launching an online
store with a particular platform. However, switching from one of these platforms to
another is a fairly straight-forward process.

If you’ve already got an existing website you’d like to integrate with a new online
store, the process of integration is easy. There’s a wide range of advanced services
that offer plugins for WordPress, which is one of the largest and most user-friendly
hosting services online.

WordPress is an ideal platform for those without a lot of IT experience, and it’s also
perfect if you plan on allowing multiple users to access and maintain your business’
website. If you’re already on WordPress and would like to start selling products on
your existing site, you can download a plugin like WooCommerce to give your
website a whole lot of new functions.

WooCommerce is one of the most popular e-commerce plugins on WordPress,

because it enables businesses to sell both physical and digital products. It is also
designed to support the addition of affiliate products – which means you can
leverage any existing relationships you may have with other businesses.

If you’d only like to set up an online shop to sell digital products – like photographs,
video files or e-books – it’s worth looking into Easy Digital Downloads. This plugin
seamlessly integrates into almost all WordPress site templates, and offers an intuitive
way in which to display and organise digital products.

If your business offer subscription-based services, MemberPress could be the e-

commerce plugin for you. It enables you to sell and manage subscriptions for digital
products and services – for example, pay-per-view content or pay-as-you-go advice.
MemberPress is particularly impressive because it offers such strong access rules that
enable you to restrict some pieces of content and prevent others from accessing
your services without properly compensating your business.

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How to set up an online store for your business on another website

When you’re first starting up, it can be fairly difficult to get your online store the
proper exposure it needs to reach your target market. That’s why a huge number of
small businesses are now turning to global companies like Amazon to help sell their
products.

Selling on Amazon

When it comes to online selling, Amazon is king. According to researchers at Slice

Intelligence, 43% of all online sales now originate on Amazon. Fortunately, the web
giant has made it fast and simple for businesses to take advantage of that huge
global audience by allowing them to create their own virtual stores on Amazon.

To start selling your business’ wares on Amazon, all you need to do is register as a
seller. To register, you’ll need to provide the site with your:

• Location of business (or your country of residence if you don’t have a business)
• Type of business
• Sole proprietor (sole trader)
• Your full name
• Business address
• Business phone number
• Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) number
• Full name of primary contact for the seller account
• Personal information for primary contact person
• Country of citizenship
• Country of birth
• Date of birth
• ID (passport, UK driving licence, or National ID)
• Residential address
• Telephone number
• Verify your telephone number by entering a one-time pin that is provided to you
by text message or voice call
• Payment method (to pay your seller fees and to receive proceeds from sales)
• Store name for listing your products on Amazon Marketplace

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Once you’ve registered to sell online with Amazon, you can start uploading product
listings almost immediately. You can also opt to enrol in Fulfilment by Amazon, which
is a service that sees Amazon pick, pack and ship your products as and when orders
come in.

Every time someone places an order through the site, Amazon will notify you via
email and your Seller Central Dashboard. If you’ve opted to enrol in Fulfilment by
Amazon, you don’t need to do a thing. But if you’re handling your business’s own
fulfilment processes, that notification means it’s time for you to select, pack and ship
the order out to your Amazon customer.

Payment for the balance of those orders (minus the Amazon Seller fees you must pay
to use the site) will then be directly deposited into your bank account.

Amazon is definitely the biggest and most convenient way to land online sales, but
you can also find immense success by setting up online stores on external websites
like eBay.

Selling on eBay

eBay is great for small businesses because it offers a range of flashy and
professional-looking shop-front designs, as well as unique URLs that are easy to
promote and market. The platform also has built-in functionality that allows you to
send marketing emails out to your subscribers.

To set up an eBay shop for your business, you’ll first need to register as a business
seller on the site. To do that, you must provide eBay with a valid UK postal address or
landline telephone number, as well as details of a bank account that will accept
Direct Debit instructions. You will also need to be PayPal verified. If you are
registered for VAT, providing eBay with your VAT identification number will also
enable you to receive net invoices on all your seller fees.

Depending upon what it is your business sells, you could even look into setting up an
online store on niche sites like Etsy or Not on the High Street. These platforms are
generally geared to businesses producing artisan-style products – but they’re always
taking on innovative new ideas.

Relevant laws when selling online

Just like customers who purchase items in your brick-and-mortar shop, the UK
Government offers some protection to individuals that purchase goods and services
from you online. The vast majority of these measures are common sense – but you
need to be very careful to ensure you’re complying with each rule when selecting a
website template or hosting service.

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Before any order is placed on your online store, the UK Government stipulates you
must make it clear to customers they have to pay when an order is placed, you must
clearly display how customers can pay and you need to include delivery options and
costs.

Furthermore, as an online seller, you’re also expected to list all the steps involved in a
customer placing an order, and you must take all reasonable steps to allow
customers to correct errors in their order after submission.

Your business’ online shop will also need to include a valid terms and conditions
page that customers can access. You must include your email address, your VAT
number if you’re VAT registered, display the cost of using phone lines used to
communicate with your business and promote a description of goods or services on
your site.

Finally, regulations dictate you must clearly display a total price, the total delivery
cost and offer any conditions for ending rolling contracts or contracts with no clear
end date.

Like it or not, customers also have the legal right to cancel their purchase at any time
within 14 days. You are legally obliged to inform your customers they can cancel
their orders up to 14 days after their order is delivered – and they do not need to
give you a reason for cancelling.

If you fail to tell your customers about their right to cancel, they can then cancel at
any time in the 12 months that follow. If you tell them about the right to cancel
during these 12 months, they have 14 days to cancel from when you tell them.

After an order is placed online, your business must then:

• Provide a receipt or invoice no later than when the goods are delivered.
• Deliver the goods within 30 days unless otherwise agreed.

If a dispute with a customer does arise over your business’s compliance with these
online selling rules, it’s worth pointing out the UK Government does recognise
multiple exceptions to these rules. You can access a full list of regulations and their
exceptions on the UK Government website.

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The bottom line

Although you will be expected to observe a wide range of regulations, selling online
is an incredibly effective way to expand your business. Best of all, you don’t need to
be tech-savvy to get started.

Hosting platforms and e-commerce plugins now enable you to create dynamic
online stores from scratch in a matter of minutes – often at a little-to-no cost. What’s
more, you can even utilise existing web platforms with huge followings to create your
own online stores on their websites. It’s fast, it’s simple and it works.

As always, just remember to take your time and do your homework. There are a
dizzying number of options out there, and you owe it to your business to choose the
methods and platforms that will work best for you.

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The skills you need to make your business a success
All successful businesses start with a brilliant idea. Unfortunately, it takes a whole lot
more than a brilliant idea to ensure a business prospers – and as the owner of your
business, the lion’s share of responsibility for your business’ success rests on your
shoulders. That’s why you’ve got to harness all the skills at your disposal to
effectively steer your new enterprise. More often than not, you must also wear
multiple hats.

According to small business guru and author Michael Gerber, all the skills you will
need to help your business succeed inherently fall under three key roles:

• The technician
• The entrepreneur
• The manager

In Gerber’s 2009 book The E-Myth Revisited, he muses that these unique business
roles aren’t separate people – but are actually distinct elements within your
personality. As a business owner, you have to fill all three roles in unison to steer
your business towards success. It’s crucial you find a happy medium between each
role, or your business may fail.

What is a technician?

A technician is ‘someone who does’. Like a skilled mechanic, designer, programmer

or accountant, a technician is an individual who is an expert in their craft. Technicians
are great at what they do, and they know it – which is why so many technicians
inherently assume they can turn their skills into a successful enterprise.
Unfortunately, it’s not always that simple.

Because technicians are doers, they tend to focus on just one thing at a time. They
generally don’t multitask – instead preferring to do one job exceptionally well and
finish that task before moving onto the next. These are all fantastic skills for any
business owner to exhibit. However, when left in isolation those same skills can
ultimately spell ruin for a new start-up.

Why? First and foremost, the technician is generally so focused on carrying out each
task, that he or she is unable to grab hold of any sort of big picture. According to
Gerber, technicians subconsciously believe that thinking is unproductive – “unless it’s
thinking about the work that needs to be done”.

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Thinking about tomorrow, next week or ten years from now gets in the way of the
tasks that need to be completed in the here and now. That’s why the technician isn’t
interested in ‘why’ – they’re only worried about ‘how’.

Bearing all that in mind, it’s these ideas that keep a business running on a day-to-day
basis, but cause a business to fail in any forward planning or innovation. These
elements are where the entrepreneurial and the managerial roles step into play.

What is an entrepreneur?

If the technician is a doer, Gerber claims that the entrepreneur is a dreamer. The
entrepreneur is someone who reaches for the stars and is constantly attempting to
innovate. Entrepreneurs are always living in the future, and thinking five steps ahead
of the competition to try and come up with the next big thing.

Entrepreneurs love to develop a grand strategy, want to penetrate new markets and
are oozing with creativity. Entrepreneurs are always at their best when dealing with
the unknown and working to engineer chaos into harmony.

Again, all successful business owners need to exhibit the skills of an entrepreneur –
but you can’t afford to let this element of your personality override your other key
roles.

Because the entrepreneur lives in the future, he or she is rarely found lurking in the
past, let alone the present. That’s a huge problem for any small business because it’s
those processes taking place in the present that keep a business running smoothly.

And because entrepreneurs are so passionate about their dreams and their grand
vision for the future, Gerber says they often exhibit “an extraordinary need for
control”. The entrepreneur requires control over everyone and everything around
them to ensure they can concentrate on realising a grand vision. Simply put,
entrepreneurs are micromanagers.

It’s through that micromanagement that the entrepreneur creates havoc in any
working environment, which isn’t terribly attractive for talented workers attempting
to help that individual and their business succeed. Unfortunately, the entrepreneur
generally views people as obstacles who are standing in the way of his or her dreams.

Every successful business owner needs to demonstrate the abilities and resolve of an
entrepreneur. You’ve got to be creative, forward-thinking and be willing to get stuck
in wherever possible to understand all aspects of your business and ensure it thrives.
But nobody wants a micromanager, and no business owner can afford to ignore
what’s happening in the past or present to guide future business decisions.

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That guidance stems from the manager role all successful business owners must play.

What is a manager?

According to Gerber, the manager is the third and final role all business owners must
juggle to find success. Where the entrepreneur lives in the future, and the technician
lives in the present, the manager lives in the past. He or she craves order and
“compulsively clings to the status quo”.

At first glance, the manager sounds like more of a hindrance than anything else. But
if you dig a little deeper, it’s not hard to see why the skillset involved in your role as
business manager is essential to your start-up’s success.

Why? First and foremost, the manager is detail-oriented. A manager is pragmatic,

and he or she is responsible for bringing planning, order and predictability to the
table. Managers want to see the big picture, but they do not like surprises. They want
everything in a business to be well-organised, and they want each job to work in
harmony with every other as part of a well-oiled machine.

Where entrepreneurs see opportunity, managers see trouble. That’s why Gerber is
keen to point out “The Manager is the one who runs after The Entrepreneur to clean
up the mess”. Managers are constantly attempting to keep entrepreneurs in check,
force them to stay grounded and focus on reality.

Businesses rarely thrive without taking risks – and that’s precisely why no business
owner can afford to act as a manager alone. If you become too comfortable with the
status quo, your business will inherently fail. You’ll be setting yourself up to fall hard
when emerging competition encroaches on your business, and you won’t be testing
out new products and new ways of thinking.

As with the technician and the entrepreneur, the manager is destined for failure if he
or she acts alone. But Gerber’s book argues that it “is the tension between The
Entrepreneur’s vision and The Manager’s pragmatism that creates the synthesis from
which all great works are born”.

That’s why you must be able to strike a healthy balance between all three roles to
give your business the best possible chance for success.

How to combine the skills of the technician, entrepreneur and manager

Delving into the psychology of a standard technician, entrepreneur and manager

might not be comfortable for all business owners. Reading through Gerber’s
definitions, you may have already noticed a few unwanted traits emerging across the

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ways in which you run your own business. All business owners have been found
guilty of being a workaholic, micromanager or wet blanket at some point or another.

But the good news is, you’ve got all three dynamic roles buried deep within you – it’s
simply a matter of drawing from the right skills at the right time.

According to Gerber, “the typical small business owner is only 10 percent

Entrepreneur, 20 percent Manager, and 70 percent Technician”. Because of that
uneven split, the vast majority of businesses are operated according to what needs to
be done today. That’s a recipe for failure – so you’ve got to take a step back to think
about when and where the entrepreneur and the manager can and should be playing
a bigger role.

Unfortunately, that’s going to be a matter of trial and error – because the ideal split
between each role will vary from person to person. But if you’re struggling to identify
where you can create a more even split between your three roles, it’s best to start by
assessing the bare bones of your business.

Go back to your business plan, and look at the ways in which you viewed your
business running when you were being guided by your entrepreneurial spirit. Remind
yourself how and where your fantastic ideas originated from, and try to get those
creative juices flowing to spice up your existing processes and product lines.

Likewise, you should be taking a serious look at quality management and review the
ins and outs of how your business was designed to operate. Are your processes as
efficient as you had planned? Are you achieving what you set out to achieve? These
are the sort of questions you should ask yourself as a manager, and if you don’t like
the answers you’re coming up with, you should have several key gaps in which to
apply your managerial skills.

Wherever possible, you owe it to yourself to sit down and make a list of the things
you’re doing well as a technician, as an entrepreneur and as a manager. Likewise, you
should be coming up with ways in which you’re lacking in one of these roles, or have
let a crucial skill set within a role be overburdened by that of another.

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The bottom line

At the end of the day, you already possess all the skills that every successful
technician, entrepreneur and manager should have. You know how to do everything
you need to be able to do to make your business succeed – you’ve just got to
exercise the right skills at the right time.

You need to stay balanced, and above all else, you need to remain level-headed. As
Gerber points out in The E-Myth Revisited, you need to recognise that “your business
is not your life”. You shouldn’t just be concerned with how to better serve your
business, but also how your business can better serve your life.

In doing so, you’ll be able to work on your business, rather than in it – and that’s how
you’ll be able to generate success as a technician, entrepreneur and manager rolled
all into one.

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How to cope with the stress of running your business
When the success of a business is resting upon your shoulders, it often feels like the
weight of the world – which is why an increasing number of small business owners
find themselves struggling to cope with the pressures that come hand-in-hand with
running a business.

According to researchers at the University of California, almost three out of four

entrepreneurs report concerns over their own mental health – with 27% of those
surveyed expressing concerns over anxiety, in particular. If you think you’re in need
of mental health support, don’t hesitate to seek support out immediately.

If you’re experiencing early signs of stress or anxiety running your business, there are
plenty of coping and mitigation strategies you can adopt to reduce that stress and
regain your centre.

How to spot if you are experiencing stress at work

Stress and anxiety do different things to different people, and so you may be
experiencing stress at work without exhibiting any obvious signs.

But a huge number of stressed out business owners will experience clues such as:

• Reduced pleasure at work and at home

• Feeling uninterested or unmotivated
• Being unable to switch off at home
• Reduced productivity
• Increased irritability or aggressiveness with clients or staff
• Problems concentrating
• Increased procrastination
• Exhaustion or lack of energy
• Fantasising about picking up and leaving your business behind

Those are only a few of the signs you may be experiencing stress at work. For a more
detailed list, you should consult the NHS website.

How to reduce stress at work

Just like the ways in which you may be experiencing stress at your business, the ways
in which you’re able to mitigate and remove those signs of stress will vary wildly from
person-to-person. What works for you may not work for everybody else.

However, there are plenty of strategies you may want to experiment with to find out
how best to get rid of the stress in your work life. To help you get started, here are

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some of the most common ways business owners are able to reduce their risk of
stress:

Get to know your ‘stop signals’

We all like to think that we know when enough is enough, but the truth is that most
of us don’t. That’s one of the top reasons business owners often experience physical
fatigue or a lack of concentration. They simply do not know when to quit.

Don’t let this be you. Try to keep a diary or take note the next time you start to feel
tired, bored or worried – because these are your stop signals. Then, take a step back
and look for patterns of behaviour. What is it you’re doing before you start to exhibit
these signs? Knowing what triggers these signals and reorganising your workload
accordingly could massively reduce your stress.

Learn how to delegate

As an entrepreneur, you’re going to be very passionate about your business and

what it does. That’s totally normal, and it is going to be one of the key ingredients in
your long-term success. But you cannot allow that passion to override your schedule.

Like it or not, you can’t do everything yourself. There’s not enough time in the day,
and trying to bend over backwards to get more done will only increase the amount
of pressure that’s already resting on your shoulders. If you have staff members, you
need to delegate. Distribute your workload to alleviate the burden on you, and also
to enable your employees to develop new skills and prove their worth.

Stop trying to be perfect

When you’ve got a grand vision for your business, it’s difficult to settle for anything
less. You want the best for your business, and so you’ll probably want to do
everything you can to ensure corners aren’t being cut. But refusing to bend and
demonstrate a bit of flexibility will cause you and your team a whole lot of unwanted
tension and anxiety.

You need to understand that sometimes it’s okay to settle for less than perfect. There
will be times when you need a product or a meeting to go without a hitch, sure – but
there are also going to be a whole lot of things where ‘just fine’ and ‘okay’ will be
enough to keep moving forward. Settling for ‘okay’ will keep everybody on-task,
reduce tension and boost morale across the board.

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List everything that’s going well

When you’re feeling worried or stressed about something at work, it’s only natural
for you to start thinking about other things that aren’t going well. Head down that
road, and before you know it you’ll be crushed by a list of 500 trivial things that you
and your employees are doing wrong. When you’re struggling with that weight, it’s
easy to forget there are 10,000 things that are going right.

So, when you’re feeling stressed about something that’s gone wrong, sit down and
make a list of everything that’s going right. It could be something big like landing a
big sale, or something little like everyone on the team making it in on time today.
Just remember that all the little things add up – and no matter how horrible you
think things may be, they could always be worse.

Create a clear to-do list

Starting the day with a monstrously big to-do list is enough to send even the most
hardened business owner into a panic. That’s why you need to regain control of your
daily to-do list by implementing some regimental organisation and clarity.

If you’re stressed about how much you need to do today, drill down and think about
precisely how long each task takes, and which tasks need to be done today. If a task
doesn’t need to be done today, cross it out and stick it on tomorrow’s list. Then,
circle the tasks that are most important to do today.

By stripping out the non-essential items and getting your list down on paper, you
add a whole lot of clarity to your day. Suddenly, it doesn’t seem like you’ve got as
much to do – which has a supremely calming effect.

Start tidying up

One stereotype entrepreneurs are constantly battling with is the accusation that
dedicated business owners aren’t tidy. Their workspaces are filled with scattered
books and crumpled documents. Their desktops are filled with a file after file of non-
essential documents, and their desks are usually overflowing. Take a look around
you: does this stereotype apply to you?

If it does, then it’s time for a spring clean. According to researchers at the University
of Minnesota, organisation is essential to finding your own personal balance. Even
something so simple as decluttering your desk can double your ability to make
healthy and rational choices. In the long run, that will help you to better serve your
business, your customers and your employees.

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Stop thinking about yourself

Another effective technique entrepreneurs often use to reduce their own stress is to
stop thinking about themselves. It’s easy to feel like you’re drowning when you’re
sitting in your office stewing in your own problems. One way to prevent that from
happening is by opening up your door and asking those who are close to you how
you could help them instead.

Open up to loved ones, friends, staff or even customers about the hurdles you’re
trying to overcome, and then ask them about their own hurdles. More important still,
ask them how you could assist them. Helping others goes a long way towards
improving your own mental health – and simply opening up to people is one of the
most effective coping mechanisms to manage and reduce stress.

Stop being cheap

When launching a new business, it’s difficult to resist cutting a few corners and
pinching pennies – but sometimes, paying more in the short term will vastly improve
your mental health in the long term.

Going for the cheap option today could mean running into a flurry of customer
complaints or a logistical nightmare tomorrow. Not only could that cause you
unwanted stress, but it could even put you in the horrible position of needing to shut
down your business.

Bearing that in mind, you should always think long and hard before making a big
purchase or entering into a major service agreement. Think about how this
partnership or deal could affect your business in the long term, and always choose
the option that you think will make life better for you and your business.

Ask people what they think

One of the top reasons you may have decided to start a business was because you
like the idea of becoming your own boss. It’s great to call the shots, leave when you
want and be free to express your creativity in any way you see fit. However, it’s easy
to let that power go to your head – which can then lead to the making of poor
decisions that negatively impact your business.

Don’t pretend to be an expert on something you’re not. If you need to make a

decision, and you’re not sure you know enough to make that decision, ask for help.
Talk to your employees or people you trust to gather a collective or shared
consensus. After all, just because you’re the boss doesn’t mean you’re alone.

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Get away from your desk

As a business owner, you need to put in the hours to ensure your business’ success.
But it can be stressful spending too much time cooped up in a tiny office or dark
workshop. For your own mental health – and subsequently, for the health of your
business – shut off your computer, lock your mobile in a drawer and get outside. Talk
to people. Get some fresh air. Explore your passions.

Without stepping away from your business, you risk losing your personal identity.
And if things don’t work out with your new business, you’ll be left with nothing. You
need to strike a balance between work and leisure, and never lose sight of that
balance.

The bottom line

At the end of the day, this list is just a starting point. Each and every one of us
experiences stress in different ways, and so we’ll all exhibit different signs.
Consequently, we all need to find our own ways of reducing that stress, too. But as a
business owner, there are always plenty of strategies you can try to find out what
works best for you.

Just remember: we all feel stressed at work at times, and that’s totally normal. But if
you are finding yourself unable to cope stress at your workplace, and you think it is
negatively impacting your mental health, seek support immediately. You aren’t alone,
and there’s always someone out there who is happy to lend you a helping hand.

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About the author

Graeme Donnelly is an entrepreneur and the CEO and founder of 1st Formations. He
has over 20 years’ experience of running market-leading company formation and
virtual office service companies in the UK. His blogs, providing business advice to the
new start business sector, have been read by over 5 million people.

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