Starting a home business is no small feat. I started my own business with my functional fitness magazine, Snatcher, and intimately understand the unique challenges related to creating an empire from your home-based office.
Launching your own brand can be as difficult as figuring out how to heal your body after a traumatic sports injury. It’s one of those undertakings that can feel foreign, daunting, and even unattainable.
But if you are really feel a strong calling, or are just ready to venture out on your own, building a home-based business can be one of the most fulfilling and rewarding choices you will ever make.
As you plan your big work-life change, remember you need to build a strong foundation and implement the necessary systems for you to succeed. At the minimum, you need to establish something of a routine, create a compelling website, and implement a way of billing new clients.
You don’t need to be a tech wizard to get any of this set up. But it is highly likely you will need some help and advice along the way.
Here are my top three lessons on starting a home business; these are the must-haves that can help make you successful with your next venture.
#1: Brand like a Beast
Because you clearly find value in reading articles about starting a home business, I assume you already have a vision about your product, company name are, target audience is, and your competitors. If you haven’t gotten that far, take a step back and decipher those essentials first. Climb a mountain and meditate if you must – don’t come back until you’ve figured this out! What we’re talking about here are the tangible, most essential steps to launching your business. Hope you’re all giddy and fired up by this point!
The next step would be to get a base level website and branding for your company. You can work with a skilled designer, or create one yourself with one of the many website building options. WordPress is my own personal favorite, but some might feel more in tune with Wix’s easy-to-use interface. There’s also the third option of getting a coder to work up a tailormade website – but this is the priciest and will cause you to rely on the said coder for any change you’d want to make – so I would not recommend it unless you have a staunch financial back to carry you over.
The next step in developing your brand is creating a distinctive look and feel. This is going to incorporate several elements:
- Brand Perception – What is the overall theme of your brand? What messages are you trying to convey? Is your brand strong and bold? Is it cool and slick? Figure this out now because it is going to inform the rest of your branding components.
- Logo – This should be representative of what your business does, its niche, and the vibe you want to put out. You can find tons of inexpensive and talented designers to help you on hub sites such as Fiverr and others.
- Tagline – Using the same defining features you used to create your logo, do the same to craft a memorable tagline. Keep this short and sweet (about 3-5 words) and make sure that in evokes the kind of mental images and feelings that you aim to generate.
- Graphics – Your website should feature plenty of visually interesting and compelling images. Choose ones that fit the theme you are developing with your logo and tagline and ensure that they support your overall image with their colors, styles, and font.
- Content – Lots and lots of content. To help bring value to your site, promote lead generation, and show off your expertise, you need to create high volumes of content to publish on your website and social media. Be sure the verbiage you use reflects the sentiment of your brand.
Another great way to brand yourself is through every email you send. Think about it: How many emails are you sending out every day? Why not use each one as a chance to promote your brand? Wisestamp for example, is a great tool that includes your personal and business information by creating engaging email signatures. These are much more wow-worthy than a typical email signature, and they legitimately get you new leads and attention.
#2: Collect Your Cash
Since you are getting into business for yourself, you need to have a method of billing clients; that’s where a stellar invoicing service is crucial.
Good invoicing is imperative for keeping track of your finances, making sure you are collecting payments on time, and keeping organized records for your taxes. This will also save you a lot of frantic nights worrying about IRS finding out the mess you’ve made in your accounting books. Whoops.
Back to the technicalities – invoices most often include a ton of pertinent information like:
- Name and address of the buyer and seller
- The date the bill was created
- Document numbers
- Applicable discounts/deposits
- Contact details
- Description of the product/service that was bought or sold
- Terms of payment
Keeping up with all of this information and filing it away neatly can be a huge challenge. There are various small-business invoicing tools that can help you accomplish this. There’s also the option of getting a dedicated accountant, but this might not be very cost-effective if you’re just starting out – I would recommend to manage your finances yourself, until the moment that transactions start to shoot up and take over your time.
#3: Set a Routine
Just like getting started with a workout routine, you need to develop a work groove so that you’re not just in a reactionary space each day you plot your next steps.
Running a business (especially in the beginning stages) is a lot like spinning more plates than you can manage; hence why you need a strong routine. It can’t be too ridged because you need to be flexible, but it also can’t be non-existent.
Now that you have your website and invoicing in place, begin to set up your daily cycle and organizational systems.
When figuring all of this out, stop and ask yourself:
- Am I a morning or a night person?
- When am I most productive?
- When am I most creative?
- What other obligations do I need to meet (family, day job, etc.) and how does that impact my schedule?
- What interrupts or distracts me most?
Getting your small home-based business off the ground is a lot of sacrifice, hard work, long nights, and consecutive failures. But no one ever truly succeeds without failing; it’s just part of the game. Your mindset should be geared towards playing the long game and not asking “when?” – keep your head down and do the work.
If you want to be your own business owner you have to be ready to take your risks, and then take a few more. This path is not for the weak of heart. But if you genuinely understand the demands and rewards, and are still willing to take the leap, your chances of succeeding are significantly stronger.
If there is one thing that you cling to on your journey, let it be this: Persistence is the key to achieving your goals. You want this. You deserve this.
Now, ready to get to work?
Photo/Pixabay
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