When it comes to starting a new business, those first few weeks and months are crucial. As much as you’d like to take your time and find your feet, building business slowly and taking the time to learn as you go, unfortunately, this isn’t always an option. Many new businesses close down within the first two years, often, just as things start to improve. This is usually because they’ve taken too long to start making decent money. While we all know that things will be tough in those early days, if you want to build a business that will last, you need to get noticed and start bringing in the cash, as quickly as you can. Here are some tips to help you to get noticed.
Do Your Research
Many businesses make the mistake of skipping the research. Then, when it comes to marketing, pricing products, and even expanding designs, they’ve got no idea who their target market is. This can mean a lot of time and money is wasted. Know your audience before you start, and life will be much easier.
Generate a Buzz Before You Launch
Don’t wait until you officially launch to start building some excitement around your business. By then it’s often too late. In the weeks, and even months before you launch, almost as soon as you have a brand name and a rough launch date, start marketing. Set up profiles on the most popular social media platforms, find influencers in your niche that you could work with, start offering sneak peeks, competitions and special offers and share as much as you possibly can. Build a buzz before you even open your doors (whether they are real doors or your business is online), and you are off to a great start.
Attend Trade Shows and Exhibitions
Trade shows and exhibitions are a great way to get a new business noticed. You can attend shows as a customer before you launch, to get some ideas and get a feel for how they work. Then, as soon as you’ve got a date, start attending as a business. Look at exhibition stands to make sure yours can get noticed in the crowd, and research the best shows for your niche, both in your local area and a little further afield. You might want to take another member of staff, or someone else to help you so that you have time to speak to people about your business, hand out merchandise and get the word out as much as possible. You might even want to give out some freebies.
Talk About it
So many of us start businesses quietly. We start websites and don’t tell people. We open shops, and we’re so worried about failure that we don’t tell anyone. We launch blogs but don’t want our friends and family to read our writing, so we don’t tell them when they’d almost certainly be loyal and supportive viewers and customers.
Your friends and family can be a huge source of support. They’ll help you to get your business sorted, they’ll be your first customers, and they’ll shout about you to their friends, but only if you let them. Don’t open your business quietly. Talk about it as much and as loudly as you can.
