If you want your new venture to achieve a profitable outcome, you need to get a lot of things right. The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that 20% of businesses fail within a year, and 50% fold within five years. Fortunately, with these tips from Ablaze Media, you can avoid the most common pitfalls and ensure your small business success.
Create a Strong Business Plan
It is very valuable to create an effective business plan. If you want to raise capital, presenting a well-crafted proposal is almost essential. It can also help attract potential partners.
Even if you have no intention of working with external stakeholders, a detailed business plan serves as a guide and control for your operations and keeps your enterprise on track. It also provides a great exercise for researching, testing, and finalizing all the assumptions you have made about how your business will run and grow.
Select the Optimal Entity Type
One of the most important early decisions you make is the type of entity you want to form. This determination can have substantial tax and liability implications. While you can reorganize your business later, this is often easier said than done.
For many small businesses, the optimal entity is a limited liability company. This can help protect your personal assets while also offering tax benefits. You can typically file the paperwork yourself or use an online service to register your LLC.
Hire the Right Team
Having the right people beside you is one of the surest ways to guarantee success for your small business. Hiring is not a simple process, but it is essential for most companies. If you want to grow beyond your solopreneur role, you need help.
Of course, you don’t need to hire full-time team members right away. Alternatively, you could find part-time help or even freelancers. In some cases, the best option is to acquire a co-founder who can complement your abilities.
Join Your Local Chamber of Commerce
Consider joining your local chamber of commerce. This valuable resource provides numerous professional networking opportunities. The relationships established as a chamber of commerce member can lead to partnerships, sales, and new vendor possibilities. Many chambers of commerce also offer exclusive access to resources, discounts, and other membership benefits.
Furthermore, a chamber of commerce provides a way for a local business community to organize. Thus, if there are any goals or policies that would benefit the group, all the members can work together to achieve them.
We love the Prescott Valley Chamber of Commerce, and we’d highly recommend them if you do business in Prescott Valley, Arizona.
Get Active About Marketing
There are many aspects of marketing. Not everything is as grand as Super Bowl ads or global transmedia campaigns. For example, word of mouth is a form of marketing. Your strategy may emphasize asking for referrals. Your branding and the way that you present your business are both forms of marketing too.
One low-cost marketing option is creating a YouTube channel that showcases your products or services. Keep your videos on brand with a customized banner—you can start with YouTube banner templates which can be edited to include your own font, text, colors, and design elements.
Also, depending on your field, integrating API credit loan software into your website is a great way to allow customers to review details for each of their account types, from balances to payments. That will improve customer satisfaction and cut back on missed payments.
Start Applying These Strategies Today
Discovering new approaches to running a successful small business keeps you motivated. These tips and techniques can help your plans take off so you can achieve your goals.
Ablaze Media is Here to Help!
Ablaze Media is a Graphic Design, Web Design, and Advertising Consulting Agency in Prescott, Arizona that Provides Creative Solutions for Small Business Media Projects! Schedule a Free Consultation today!
