Being organised can make all the difference to the success of your new venture. It doesn’t matter how fast your market is growing or how accomplished your talents are.
If you don’t organise yourself, then it becomes easy to get overwhelmed, miss deadlines, and lose clients.
Here, then, are 7 ways to get organised for start-up success.
- Think ahead about who your ideal client is. Initially you may choose to make compromises in order to get your business started, but it’s a good idea to know the kinds of clients you eventually want to work with. They’re likely to be at the intersection of clients who:
- Value what you do
- Pay what you want to earn
- Provide work and relationships you enjoy.
- Manage your professional image. Don’t let a poor impression undermine your business opportunities. Instead, invest in quality business cards, get a decent head shot for your online profiles, and practise explaining what you do in an interesting way.
- Decide on a social media strategy. Depending on where your potential clients congregate online, you may want to focus on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or other social networks. Depending on your budget, you may want to create a DIY social media schedule or engage a digital agency to manage your brand’s social presence. Regardless, you need to consider how you want to use social media to grow your business and enhance your customer experience.
- Make your website engaging. Get friends to road-test that your site is easy to navigate. Include information about you and your business that helps visitors understand why you do what you do. Write quality content or engage a professional writer to help you. And if you have an email newsletter, then take extra care to create a sign-up that’s both appealing and super-simple.
- Have a business plan. Take the time to plan your marketing strategies. Even a one-page, bullet-pointed summary of your mission, key marketing strategies, main financial objectives, and plans for staffing, funding, premises, etc, will guide you. Having an outline of where you’re headed will help you avoid unnecessary distractions and detours and keep your eye on the big business picture.
- Maximise your productivity. Especially in the early stages of your new business, your time management skills will be a key factor in your success. Streamline your business tasks so you’re working effectively and efficiently. Allow yourself quality downtime. Design yourself a little productivity ritual.
- Organise your office. An organised workspace can fire up both your motivation to sit down and get started each day, and your productivity once you do. There’s no reason to stay stuck in chaos – you can organise a home office in 7 days or do an express office tidy in 30 minutes. And if you need to get into different mindsets for different parts of your business – such as admin versus creative work – then it’s a good idea to create zones.
When you’re starting a new business, there are countless things to do and organise.
These 7 ideas will help you make a good start.
