7 Things To Consider: For New Business
Deciding to start a business is exciting, but also can be very overwhelming. There are so many things to consider, so where to start?
Before diving into this post, you’ll want to understand your why, who, and what that you’re really passionate about. This will help you discover why you’re wanting to pursue this passion and live a life you love, who is this going to serve, and what are the steps to take to make it happen.
Working with small businesses, I wanted to share the steps I took as an entrepreneur and getting started as a new business owner. Here are the 7 things to consider before creating the business of your dreams.
Selecting a Name
You may have already thought about this - and that’s great! If not, you’ll want to choose a name for your brand and business. There’s no right or wrong way to start, but I started by writing down a variety of words and adjectives that describe me as a person and as a designer.
Some words that were written down during this process were style, creativity, finesse, talent, aptitude, and a few others. From there, I decided I wanted to find one word that would encompass them all. In order to find the perfect word that would describe my brand, I simply used synonyms that brought me to the noun, Flair.
Flair means a special or instinctive aptitude or ability for doing something well; stylishness and originality. I knew this word would resonate well with my brand, audience and overall lifestyle. The ‘by KD’ part is just simply my initials adding at the end.
Whether you decide to use your name or another word to describe your business, just make sure that it works for years to come.
Checking Domain + Social Handle Availability
The next factor to consider when you’ve figured out your name, you’ll want to secure your domain name. The worst feeling is crafting the perfect name for your brand and come to find out that your domain is taken. I feel ya sis! No need to worry if this happens! You can always alter the domain name to work for your business.
For example, you can add a word that describes your business name like: flairbykdstudio or flairbykdcreative. To check the availability of a domain, you can use whois.com. There are many outlets to select for your domain and hosting - but I’ll get into that for another post.
Moving on to your social media handles! You can simply search on Instagram to see if someone has taken your name yet. If your name has been taken, try examples like above and add your area or industry of expertise to the end of it. I’ve also seen business owners use their full name as the handle, and then they call out their business name in the Name section of their profile. See below for how my Name is set up.
Tip: this section is what’s searched on Instagram by other users. Think in SEO terms of what you’d search if you were looking for someone that offered your services or products. Add your name + your area of expertise so that users can know you and your business on a more personal level.
Register Your Business
OK y’all, registering your business is the most important step for you and your business for a few reasons. It will provide your business with legal entity, liability protection, and tax benefits. There are few different business structures to choose from, and the one for most small businesses is an LLC (limited liability company).
Once you’ve registered your name, you’ll want to register your business with the IRS to receive your Employer Identification number (EIN). This number is treated like your social security number for your business, and is necessary when filing taxes. Depending on your industry of service, you will want to have the proper licenses and permits in place.
Business Credit Card
This is one mistake I made when I started out nearly two years ago. You don’t necessarily need a business credit card, you just need to designate one of your credit cards as your business credit card. Having all expenses run through one card will make your life and accounting much easier to keep track of come tax season. Most small businesses aren’t even approved for “business credit cards” right away - but here’s a great place to start looking if you’re wanting to compare credit cards.
Income + Expenses Tracking
One of the most dreaded tasks as a business owner is tracking your income and expenses. There are so many tools out there to help track this, but it can be overwhelming especially when you’re wanting something simple.
With my business, I started out with a simple spreadsheet that my amazing husband created for me. A column for clients, columns by date, and an expense column with a few different categories to track. During year 1 that spreadsheet was the holy grail to Flair by KD for all income and expenses ~ but since we’ve grown I’ve upgraded to Bonsai. (Get a free 30 days to try out Bonsai today.) Not only does Bonsai track these two things, it allows me to send proposals, contracts, and invoicing while keeping all projects up to date.
No matter what system you have in place, just make sure you have one that works for you and your business.
*Bonsai is an affiliated link.
Setting Goals
If there was one thing I could re-do in my early days of my business, this would be the one! Did I have a full blown business plan - no. Did I create goals for myself and for the business? Honestly, not really. This is where I dropped the ball. Setting goals for your business and brand can easily be written down if you carve out time in your schedule to do so.
Over the past couple of months I’ve been setting goals for 2021. I’ve broken these up into daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. The categories I’ve broken these into are known by a little acronym: SMART. Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time based. Here are a few goals that I’m setting for myself for the new year.
Daily: Showing up on Instagram stories + providing content that my audience resonates well with
Biweekly or Monthly: 1 blog post
Monthly: Booking 3-4 clients per month; 1 being a dream client
Yearly: Make $XXX,XXX in 2021
Whatever your goals may be for your business, just remember to make them SMART.
Investing in Your Business
After you’ve chosen your name, secured all your social handles and domain(s), and written down goals or a business plan, you’ll want to consider investing in branding and a website. Rather than slapping together a logo for $25, starting out with thoughtful and strategic branding will allow you to build brand recognition, an audience, and will separate you from your competitors. There is so much more that goes into branding your business - so I’ll save that for another time.
These steps might look different depending on the type of business you’re starting, and that’s okay. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to have everything perfect. All you have to do to start your business is just to start.
