Top Tips for Entrepreneurs Start Ups

by Caroline

As a self-employed person the most important thing about working for yourself is to maintain a professional approach. I'm constantly surprised by the amount of business I get from competitors or potential leads simply by answering the phone or replying to emails promptly – remember first impressions count! So your web site has to look great, your phone must be answered in a polite way, and most importantly you must do what you say you will. Those are pretty basic things to get right, but so many people just forget them – your common sense will guide you most of all.

My best recommendation for anyone starting a business is to read Michael Gerber"s "The E Myth" which sets out some interesting ideas about how to structure your business. Even if you are only one person, if you are serious about succeeding you need that business to be scaleable and repeatable in a cookie cutter fashion.

One last piece of advice on running a business – all marketing should be traceable and paid for on a results basis. Therefore if you put an advert in the paper you should have some tracking process (e.g. asking people where they heard about you or giving them a coupon code). Then you can monitor exactly how effective each $1 you spent was in increasing your revenue. As a general guide, in my industry I don't advertise at all, as referrals and word of mouth bring in better clients, but we do spend money on search engine optimisation and pay per click advertising.