22/06/2015

By Jamie Knop, Content Executive at Orega


There are so many things to think about when starting up your own business, but don’t let them overwhelm you. As long as you keep your head up and concentrate on what matters, you should find your feet sure enough. But, before you get started, have you considered the following? This could make or break your business, so pause for a moment and reflect.

Do You Believe In Your Service/Product?

If you can’t get behind your own idea, how do you expect to convince investors and customers that your business really is about to rock the world? Where there is passion, there is hard work and enjoyment. You will strive more forcefully to get your business to succeed, if you truly believe in your service or product. That kind of driving force is what every start-up needs to get off the ground.

Choose The Right People

Even if you are a sole trader and temporarily bringing people on-board to help you with your company, be sure to hire the right people to do jobs you can’t, such as creating your website or doing your accounts. Any good start-up owner has a discerning eye for the right people. Your employees make your company. If they don’t pull their weight, your start-up will sink.

Equip Yourself With The Right Tools

Cutting corners in the beginning stages of your start-up can seem appealing due to low budgets. The issue is by doing this you are risking the reputation of your business and therefore the success of your business. An example of this would be an online service, for example Twitter. When Twitter started out they would have had the choice of having low cost servers which are not reliable or high cost servers which are reliable. If they’d of gone with the lower cost option and their website was causing errors for users constantly it would of seriously hindered the company’s success and might not have been the £11 billion pound company it is today.

Here is another example for an offline business who are looking at creating some banner advertisements. They have the option of using a cheap, reasonable quality banner printer or a premium quality more expensive printer. The latter is going promote the image of your business better which would lead to more business.

Work Out Your Office Space

Depending on your needs, there are quite a few options at your disposal. You can work from home as a sole trader quite easily. However, if you have a reasonable amount of funding, and you’re fast-tracking your growth, you’ll be wanting to consider office space for your employees. There are several options, some more flexible than others, from long term contract renting which is a large financial commitment, to flexible office space which you can grow into and not have any long term financial commitments. Assess what your company needs, and factor in potential growth in the near future.

Study The Competition

Look at the competition in your area — what are they doing wrong and what are they doing right? When you work out their strengths and weaknesses, don’t copy them. Strive to walk a path of your own — be completely unique, otherwise no-one will want to work with you. Just do what you can to learn from the mistakes of others, so you don’t make them too. Here are a few pointers on learning from your competitors.