Setting up your own business - tips
Setting up your own business can be an exciting, nerve wracking and very daunting task. It comes with so much flexibility, the realisation that you will get paid to do what you love and work around your own schedule. But with that comes a lot of juggling, money stresses and trying to be the CEO, Marketing Director, HR, PR, Social Media Guru and Sales Person. It. Can. Be. A lot. And you can sometimes end up working extremely long days. Both Alex & I (Alanna) have set up our own businesses in our early 20’s and they’ve turned out to be quite successful within the first couple of years which is very exciting. A lot of people have also decided to turn to going self-employed or setting up a business during COVID-19 after the realisation of how much they really really don’t want to go back to work. So, we’ve come up with a few lessons we learnt along the way to keep you going and help you.
Tips & Tricks
Do your research. Figure out exactly what you want to do, the types of services you want to offer or the type of brand you want to create, your target audience, the aesthetic you want all your design aspects to have.
Write it all down. Write those dream goals, financial goals, client goals and everything you want to achieve through your new venture so that when the going gets tough, or you have days where you feel overwhelmed and stressed with the incredibly long to- do list, you can read it and remember your ‘why’ and your dream.
Check out the gov.uk website, it gives you SO much essential, legal advice on the must do’s when setting up a business.
Get an accountant. If I could give any advice I would say make sure you save up enough money to hire an accountant, it will save you SO much time and be take SO much stress off your shoulders.
Promote your business. Tell all your friends and family, make a Facebook Business Page and an Instagram, promote your website on LinkedIn, Pinterest etc, any Social Media sites and don’t be afraid of coming across annoying - you have a dream you want to live so who cares if someone thinks you’re pushing it too hard.
Save at least 10% of every pay cheque for tax. So that when your tax bill comes around you won’t be put in a position where you have to scrape money together in order to pay the bill. It’s safe and clever to put some aside every time you get paid.
Research your competitors. Research how much they charge and what they offer etc so that you can slowly start building a list of clients and getting your name out there. Once you have a few clients under your belt you can start charging more and developing your skills.
Create a contract. There really is nothing worse then making an agreement with a company to do work ,working your butt off and creating something that you’re super proud off, handing the work over and then them ignoring you and not paying you. It’s crazy that people still do this, but the sad matter is that people, companies and brands, do, and they will. So create a contract with all your Terms & Conditions to keep yourself covered and for peach of mind.
Register your business. When setting up, research things from registering your business to whether you need to be VAT registered etc, there’s different avenues you can go down but looking into things to see what works best with your vision and your business ideas. It’s different for everybody.
Open a separate bank account for all anything business related to go in and out too. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a business account, but a separate bank account where payments, the tax savings and any outgoings for your business can go into is good in order to keep things organised and separate.
Need any other help or tips? Leave a comment below or email us at hello@alannageorgette.com or info@numberninecommunications.co.uk for any help or advice on your exciting new venture xx