Reflecting on a year in business: Our best tips and lessons for entrepreneurs
Starting a new business is an exhilarating, yet often intimidating task. Your business idea is like a seed, and if it’s not planted in the right soil, or not given enough sunlight or water, even the best of ideas can struggle to grow.
But that’s not your business. Just by reading this article you’re already setting yourself apart as a business owner ready to transform your mindset and learn some valuable lessons to create the business you've been dreaming of.
After being in operation for 18 months, Excelerate Marketing founder, Emma Reeves, has seen her business grow from strength to strength, surpassing the financial targets set and achieving growth of 170% after the first year. Emma Reeves has narrowed down three key areas that helped her to find success in the early days of business:
Process
People
Network
If you prioritise these areas, they will become the pillars that hold up your business.
Step one: Process
Starting out your business will feel like a whirlwind as you fight to get your name out there and grow your customer base. But without the right infrastructure supporting you, tasks, invoices and even products can begin to fall through the cracks.
One of the very best gifts entrepreneurs can give themselves and their business is investing in a diverse framework. Think of your processes as building a house; without a solid foundation, the right beams, good insulation and more, your business won’t stand on its own. It needs all of its components working seamlessly together and complementing one another.
This means choosing the right software and programs, and setting up your processes professionally so you can hit the ground running.
Whether you’re building an E-commerce website or offering your services to customers, you will want to invest in the best software. For example, if you’re hiring employees, starting on day one with everyone working from a task management program, such as Asana or Mondays, will allow you to track work progression and ensure deadlines are being met.
And if setting up these kinds of programs or software is not your forte, consider hiring a professional to set up this infrastructure for you from the beginning. If you’re investing in a CRM for your business, for example, representatives from your chosen platform should be more than happy to provide tutorials and help get the software up and running.
Step two: People
After you’ve established your key business processes, your next area of focus should be around the people you bring in to work for your business.
High value hires
First and foremost, make sure that all of your first hires are high value hires. As you’re in the early stages of your business, keeping expenses down will be a priority. But try not to confuse an employee on a low salary with value savings to your business. The budget you have to put towards bringing in new hires must be focused around high status employees.
For example, if you’re unfamiliar with the marketing and advertising side of business operations, don’t hire a Marketing Coordinator. Instead, look to bring on a Marketing Manager. As a Marketing Coordinator sits on the ‘entry-level’ side of the industry, their salary may be more affordable. But, you may not get the greatest value from your dollar compared to bringing on a Marketing Manager, which can do all that a marketing coordinator can, but is also responsible for managing accounts and clients, and increasing customer satisfaction, building relationships and monitoring ROI of marketing campaigns.
Further, if you have contacts within an industry you’re hoping to hire from, consider hiring people whose work you know, or their contacts they may vouch for. This can help to reduce the time and cost associated with hiring cold, and offers the added benefit of aligning your business with employees or freelancers you may have trust in.
If you can hire people you know/people. If you’re hiring cold, make sure the job description is thorough and develop a series of exams and real life scenarios they might need to face - this is especially beneficial with offshore staff.
Outsourcing when needed
In the early years of your business, you’ll probably start to build a small team of employees to keep costs low. And a great way to fill in for specialists experts is to consider outsourcing this work to freelancers, consultants or offshore teams.
We’ve previously discussed how outsourcing is no longer a dirty word in the world of business, but it’s worth reiterating just how invaluable this option may be. If you’re outsourcing some of the administrative tasks in your business, for example, this re-prioritises you and your team’s time towards major projects and the big ticket items.
Further, outsourcing can understandably help you to reduce overheads so your revenue is better spent on helping the business grow. As one of the biggest ongoing expenses for any business are salaries, finding ways to reduce these costs is ideal in the early days.
Keep in mind that if you’re hiring cold, particularly when outsourcing offshore, remember to put new hires through exam processes, just as you would with any new hire.
Step three: Networking
They say it’s not what you know, but who you know. The importance of networking to help a business to grow and succeed cannot be understated. Set aside time every single day to ensure you’re aligning yourself with likeminded people who will root for your success.
The power of ‘yes’
In the early years of your business putting yourself out there can feel like taking a leap of faith every single time. But one of the best ways to build your networking skills and grow lifelong connections is to say yes to new opportunities when your comfort-zone desperately wants you to say no.
Learning to say yes opens the door to new opportunities. Perhaps you are not that comfortable speaking at a conference or the idea of a podcast interview makes you queasy. Instead of focusing on all the reasons why not to take up a new opportunity, consider all the potential benefits, such as meeting new investors and clients or increasing your brand reach.
After all, you can never expect to grow your network if you’re always saying no to opportunities to do so.
Authenticity is a superpower
How many people within your industry or outside of it do you know that will bring up your business name in a room full of opportunities? Connecting with the kinds of people who will show up for you is a pillar of any successful business, but it doesn’t always come easy.
To help you align yourself with people within your industry that speak your language, you need to make authenticity your business superpower.
A recent Entrepreneur article spoke on this phenomenon, noting that: “When you genuinely love what you do — even if that's a passion for marketing or business processes — you will create sustainable connections with investors, suppliers, and (most importantly) customers.”
So, if you’re showing up to networking events and finding it difficult to form connections, it may be worth exploring how authentically you’re representing yourself and the business.
When you bring your unique self into these events, whether that means being honest about your weaknesses or ensuring you truly are passionate about your products and services, you’ll find that people will root for your success and want to show up to support you.
Your next steps…
Right now is the best time to set your goals and make a plan to get your business on the path to success in 2022. By aligning your priorities with tangible actions, you can give yourself the tools you need for greater profits, more clients and increased sales.
We’ve mentioned how challenging it can be for business owners to say yes, and for many that can also mean saying yes to help.
One of the most significant ways you can improve your processors, hire the right people and grow your network is by looking externally for your marketing strategy. Our team of experts at Excelerate Marketing can assist you by increasing your efficiency, offering a third-party perspective across your business and providing a diverse set of skills.
Whether you need support with your strategy, social media management, content writing, website development, partnerships, lead generation and more, Excelerate Marketing is here to help you transform your business in 2022.
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If you’re looking for more information on how to grow your business with the support of our team of experts in 2022, please reach out to our Excelerate Marketing team for a free consultation today.