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London Calling Podcast Yana Bolder
Starting a business can seem intimidating, especially for young entrepreneurs. But with the right attitude, support and information, it is entirely possible to turn your dream of owning a business into a reality. The youth of today have more opportunities than ever before to start businesses of their own, and many are taking advantage of those opportunities.
To help YOU get started on YOUR business, we’ll be discussing how to identify a business idea, writing a business plan, the accounting side of running a business, getting your business running and how to grow your audience.
Whether you want to introduce a life-altering creation or build up a small side-gig to generate some pocket money, your business idea should obviously be something that you’re interested in and passionate about. Businesses take a lot of time and effort- but if you are truly in love with your business idea it will be much easier to fully invest yourself.
Perhaps think about the things in your life that you already love dearly and spend a lot of time on. On the other hand, you may also benefit from considering which of your hobbies you want to leave be! I’m sure we’ve all had at least one interest throughout our lifetimes that we don’t love so much anymore after trying to monetise it.
Stuck for ideas? Don’t worry, in the following section we list some general ideas that may help to kick-start your inspiration. Once you have an idea (or several!) you’ll need to do a little bit of research into it. Are there any gaps in the market that you could fill? Who are your competition/ people you could potentially befriend and network with? Who is your audience? Finding out the detailed answers to these questions will equip you with very valuable information that you can use to boost your business.
Coming up with an idea for your business can be one of the most challenging parts. With so many hypothetical boxes to tick, it can almost seem like an impossible task to find the perfect business idea. However, the list of potential business opportunities are endless! So, here are just a few ideas for what could be right for you.
Just note that with any business idea that you decide to pursue, it is paramount that you research all of the legal obligations in your field to ensure they are being followed.
If you have an eye for creativity, art and/or design, getting yourself onto one of the many websites that allow you to print your designs onto T-shirts seems like a solid starting-point for your business! There are other similar services that you can use if T-shirts aren’t quite your cup-of-tea, for example designing journals and notepads.
What’s more, you won’t need to physically create, hold and ship out your own stock. This is all done by the company that you sign up with. All you need to do is create the designs, advertise your products and work on the customer services side of it. If you’re going down this route, it’s always a good idea to order a sample of stock from the company beforehand to ensure the quality of their products.
Perhaps you don’t want to make a physical product, but still have that passion for creativity. How about starting a podcast, making videos online, creating music or taking stock photos? The opportunities here are almost endless!
Think of the stereotypical pocket-money earners that young people can get started on before moving on to a full-time job. Well, with the right attitude and commitment, any of these services can become your business! From dog walking and car cleaning to photography and graphic design, if you have the skills and ability to carry out these much-needed services, there will be people in your area who would love to benefit from them!
A business plan is a useful document that you can create to ensure that you know all the ins-and-outs of your business. In this document, you need to establish your goals for your business and how you plan on achieving them. You will also need to write your mission statement: why your organisation exists and your main goal. This statement serves the purpose of getting others excited about your business.
Ensure to keep this document short and clear, as you may also find that you need to use it for legal and professional purposes, such as getting a loan from a bank.
Something you may find useful here is getting involved in our project: What Say You. Here, you can submit a Piece to Camera telling us all about your new business idea! Especially if you find talking about a subject a lot easier than writing about it, what better way to organise your thoughts and perhaps get some outside opinions on them?
Accounting is an essential part of running any kind of enterprise, whether you are starting a small business or a multinational corporation. It’s important to understand the basics when it comes to accounting in order to make sure your business runs smoothly and stays profitable.
Of course, in order to start your business (and the accounting side of the business!) you’ll need money. There are two main ways in which you can go about this. One method is to make a starting investment into your business. The benefit of this is that you’ll have more money to get yourself off the ground. However, if your business doesn’t work out, this money is lost.
The second method is to bootstrap your business: this means to start with very little money and re-invest the money back into your business as you start making it. This will reduce the chance of going into debt. On the topic of debt, make sure to get insurance on your business. This may help to soften the blow of any debt if you get into it.
To start with the basics, one of the first things you’ll need to do is calculate how much it has cost you to get your business going. This will allow you to calculate how much stock you’ll need to sell before you start making a profit. These calculations can be used to prevent running yourself into debt. In relation, you may find it useful to open a business bank account, which will help you to keep closer tabs on your expenses and profits. To add, this will prove to be of great help when filing taxes (if necessary).
Onto one of the more fun parts of accounting: pricing your products and/or services! To do this, you’ll need to calculate how much a product has cost you to make, remembering to consider all of the long-term costs (for example, if you rent a room/building specifically for your business). After this, you’ll want to price your products to make more on them than what you have paid to create them. It may also be useful to consider the prices of products similar to yours to get a rough idea.
Now, let’s breathe a sigh of relief! Next, we can finally get onto one of the most exciting (and important!) steps: coming up with a name for your business.
It goes without saying that your business name will need to reflect on your business. You may find it useful to brainstorm a list of words that are related to your business, making sure to get out a thesaurus to make use of any synonyms that you hadn’t thought of yet. Once you have this list, you can use some of the words to experiment with phrases. It would be a good idea to make use of some creative writing techniques that you may have picked up in school (for instance: acronyms, adjectives and alliteration;) ) as these devices can make your name more memorable. Speaking of creative writing, it’s crucial that you know your business inside and out before you name it, much like titling an essay after you’ve written it. That way, you know that it’ll be a perfect fit.
You may decide to pair an adjective and a noun; the noun perhaps reflecting what you sell and the adjective describing it. Or, you could decide to use your own first name/ nickname alongside the name of your products. “Carly’s Clothing Co.!” “Dinky Trinkets!” Anything that feels fun and interesting to you!
Once you have your business name, you can register your business to ensure that your name has not already been taken and to protect it from being used by someone else. At this point, you may also be thinking of designing a logo and a website, for example. Registering your business will also ensure that these are protected. Furthermore, having these added extras will give your business a more professional feel, making potential customers feel safer making purchases from you.
You may have just read all of the above information but still feel stumped regarding the whole “getting the wheels turning” thing. In this section, we have a couple of methods you can use to get your business moving. Keep in mind, the following section (about growing your audience) is equally important here, so make sure to read on!
Perhaps the most obvious option (and one you may already have thought of!) is to build your business on freelance websites such as Ebay, Etsy and Vinted. In fact, there are already quite a few people out there who have built a rather profitable side-hustle by searching for bargains in second-hand shops and selling them for a profit online., as well as making their own goods. However, this method requires quite a lot of effort- especially for someone who is just starting out.
This method is very similar to what we already discussed in the ‘Create designs for products’ section. If you don’t already know what dropshipping is, you will work directly with a supplier who is responsible for creating, storing and shipping out products. All you will be responsible for is creating a brand, building a consumer base and advertising those products to your customers. Usually, a supplier will have many products to choose from so you can even create a theme for your own store out of the products available (for instance, products related to gaming).
Once again, it is important to first order a sample of products from your supplier to ensure they are good quality. Afterall, you will still be the one responsible for your customer service!
This is a fantastic method for beginners as you will be able to spend a lot more time and focus on building your audience up and earning some income before investing in creating your own independent products.
Building an online presence will allow you to enlarge your audience. The bigger an audience you have, the more potential customers. Create accounts across multiple social media platforms to maximise your presence. What’s more, with a large/growing audience, you may have an increased chance to be noticed by brands for opportunities such as sponsorships.
Before you begin posting on your accounts, it is important that you get to know your audience thoroughly. What sort of humour do they like? What are their main values? Which social media platforms do they use the most? This sort of knowledge will help you to shape your content towards their preferences, making it more successful.
Diving into the community of your potential customers, you may discover already existing businesses that are liked and admired. You may find it useful to network with such account owners to better become a part of the community and to share audiences.
Now, it’s time to crack on! Whilst it’s no secret that starting a business can be a daunting task, with proper execution, dedication, hard work and passion, young entrepreneurs can absolutely reach their goals and create successful businesses. Wishing you luck!
Also known as oratory or oration, the art of public speaking is one that a large amount of people find challenging and uncomfortable. Contrary to popular belief- this is very normal and ok! The skill of becoming a good public speaker is not necessarily synonymous with being a confident public speaker, more so appearing to be a confident public speaker. In other words, learning how to hide your nerves and feign confidence! This […]
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