Marcus Richards
Starting a new business can be a daunting yet exciting process. There are new challenges around every corner and every day brings a certain degree of novelty. You’ll need to decide on your strategy, make hiring decisions, and build your brand and reputation.
In many cases, however, you might find yourself blindsided by factors that often remain hidden, but which are nonetheless worthy of early consideration. Lets’ take a look.
Indirect Costs
When you’re formulating your business plan, you should have a reasonable grasp of all of the costs involved. If your early estimates prove to be faulty, you should make a point of continually revising them. Things like stationery, clothing and software licenses might all eat into your profit margins – and if you’ve failed to account for them, you might find that your spending quickly spirals. Sourcing the right workwear is also something worth investing in that is often forgotten about – so you should make sure that you’ve accounted for the cost in your initial budget.
Comprehensive Branding
Your business should have a consistent, predictable identity that’s instantly appreciable across every channel you’re marketing through. This means your social media, physical premises, letterheads and uniforms should all be the same. If the fonts and logos on your van don’t match those on your name tags, then you risk confusing your customers.
Licenses and Permissions
You should have a good idea of all the permissions you’ll need for your business to operate before you get started. This might mean licenses from your local council or special permits for doing certain kinds of activity. This is especially worth thinking about if your business is working with food and drinks, or you’re working from a residential property.
Contingency Planning
It’s likely that at some point in the lifespan of your business, something will go wrong. For example, you might find that your premises need major work done to prevent it from subsiding, or your workers might suddenly fall ill.
Making plans for natural disasters and other unforeseen circumstances might be the thing that allows your business to weather the storm. If you make plans for those contingencies in advance, you won’t be rushed into bad decisions when they arrive – because you’ll have already prepared your response. Make sure that you formalise your plans and write them down somewhere easily accessible.
Short Term vs Long Term
Some investments might not pay off immediately. Sometimes, you might have to wait years. Balancing your short-term expenditure against your long-term gain can be a tricky thing, and in many cases, it might call for you to borrow a little to save a lot. Think about how your business is going to be financed, and assess any major investments thoroughly to determine just how quickly they’re going to pay for themselves.
