The dream for a small business owner is to be successful. There’s a lot that comes into play when you start up a new venture, including an amazing business idea, appropriate pricing, and the dream location. If you’re fortunate enough to start up a business in London, it can be highly beneficial. London is the capital of England, and it is flooded with residents, commuters and tourists, all potentially looking to buy your product or service.

If you have the right business idea, the correct décor, pricing, and can attract customers, then the London location is just going to add to your success. Although starting a business is exciting, it is also stressful and daunting. This article will help those looking to start a new venture to get their priorities in place. Plus, we will hopefully add some tips that you can utilise to help you to minimise your startup costs.

For a startup website is a must and we recommend using a reputed service like Cude Design

Sole Trader, Limited Company or Digital Nomad

First, you need to decide on what type of business you are going to use, and by doing that, you need to understand your business plan. We need to start by highlighting that there are approximately 1.9 million limited companies that contribute to the English economy.

However, we also need to mention that 1 in 5 new startups will fail in the first year. Not only that, three out of five startups will fail within five years. So, you need to think about what is going to be best for you in the long run. It seems that a limited company is the best option if you are eventually going to be hiring staff. If you have a brick-and-mortar service, like a restaurant or chic internet café, then we recommend registering as a limited company.

Whereas, if you are a digital nomad, I.e., you offer content writing services, software development, website design, you work from your laptop because you don’t require any additional costs. If this is the case, we recommend registering as a sole trader until you expand and get an office; it would be more cost-effective to do it this way. And once your business starts growing, you could maybe think of making a responsive web design with the help of firms like Web Design Reading or other similar companies.

Three Key Priorities that Every London Start-Up Should Think About

We’re going to assume that you’ve had your “aha moment,” and you have a solid business idea. We mentioned that a lot of business startups do fail. So, we wanted to do our part to help budding entrepreneurs like yourself get a head start and have a successful business. Of course, these are all tips; please note that they are not gospel either.

Craft a solid business plan

If you have a solid, error-free business plan, it will help your business to get started. Not only that, it is something that you can constantly change and edit as your business changes to suit the demographic. Of course, you will not be able to stick to it 100%, but your ethos and values should shine through your business plan.

There are lots of different things you need to consider in your business plan, including a summary and description of your business, market analysis, a sales strategy, and so on. Perhaps most importantly, you also need to have some financial projections. This is very important as if your business is not financially viable, or will make little to no profit, then it is a waste of time. Thankfully there are things you can do to keep your expenditures down and consequently your profits up. For instance; let’s say you’re starting a beauty or skincare brand. This is a very popular industry at the moment, so it shouldn’t be difficult to start making some serious sales. However, the manufacturing of skincare products can be very expensive to set up by yourself when you include things like warehouses, machinery, and the staff that are involved. So, to keep your expenditures down, you could find a private label skincare manufacturer who will do that process for you. Small changes like these in a business plan will make a big difference.

Moreover, your business plan will come in handy when it comes to sourcing funding. You might need to create a Dragon’s Den-style pitch when it comes to generating startup funds. Also, we do recommend asking for help and advice if you have never written a business plan before. Sometimes, a professional accountant can impart the financial wisdom that you need to get your business up and running.

Think about security

You’d be surprised how many people forget to include security as part of their new startup business model. If you are storing your clients’ information, have a web-email service, and/or have a website, you will need to think about security. Even if you are a sole trader, working from your PC makes sense to have the right security in place.

A security breach can make or break a company. According to Forbes, 60% of small businesses fall victim to cybercrime due to poor security. Ensure your business is GDRP compliant, as well as keeping your data, including financial information, safe.

A Virtual Private Network is a “private” connection between one or more devices. A VPN encrypts your data, masks your IP, and makes the connection inaccessible to unwanted internet users. If you want to learn about the benefits, you can find out more about what a VPN is here. If you do decide that using a VPN is best for your computers, then you are going to need to research various ones that suit your price point and what you want to be protected, etc. You can do this by searching online and looking into a surfshark vpn, for example, and reading up on what they offer. Many times, start-ups do not have enough capital to include all of what they require as part of their operations. Due to lack of funds, they may have to cut back on one or the other thing. However, this does not have to be the case always as you could Get up to 50% off on Torguard VPN or other similar VPN services.

Understand Your Customers

You need to understand your customers, and we recommend that you leverage social media to connect with your clients.

If you do social media campaigns, such as competitions, surveys, little memes, maybe even a vlog, it will allow you to connect with your customers. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, you can use this lockdown to really find out what customers want and need.

If you have their need, then all that is left is for you to give them the wow factor so that they buy into your brand. Arguably, one of the biggest mistakes that business owners make is making assumptions – don’t assume that your customers will or won’t like something. After all, it’s rude to assume because when you assume, you make an “ass” out of “u” and “me.” Instead, you should ask your customers first-hand. Believe us when we say customer interaction is key to selling your brand and business.