It’s not all too surprising that many of us are considering starting up businesses of our own. If you have been thinking on this wavelength, here are a few pieces of advice that will help you to get up and running!

Shop window with an open sign

Decide What to Sell

First and foremost, if you’re running a business, you need to have something to sell. This could be a product. This could be a service. Whatever it is, it has to be impressive enough to entice people to buy it and to generate a profit. This, of course, can be a difficult enough task in itself. But now, more than ever, you’re going to have to put a whole lot of effort and investment into product development and market research to ensure that your product will sell during these trying times.

People are more reluctant to spend their money on non essentials in this economic climate, so you’re going to have to have something really good on offer to get them to part with their cash. Sure, the market may be less saturated right now due to the collapse of other companies. But it is more difficult to operate in too – hence the collapse of other companies. If you’re considering selling an essential good, chances are many others have veered in this direction too. You’ll have a lot of competition. If you’re planning on operating in an area where other companies have collapsed, there may have been a reduce in demand for such products and a reason for their collapse.

Just make sure to use a market research agency to interview individuals from your target demographic and to determine whether they’re interested in the products you’re offering right now and – more importantly – whether they’d be willing to spend enough on these products for you to make sales and generate a sufficient profit to make the whole thing worthwhile. This may seem long winded, but it really is essential. Market research can determine whether your company will last or not – or even whether it will make an initial sale or not!

Decide Where to Work From

Once you have a plan of what products or services you’re going to sell, you’re going to have to decide where you are going to run your business from. Now, there are two main options. The first is to set up from an office space. This is the more traditional way of doing things and the good news is that there are great quality, flexible office spaces out there. Just take a look at Bond Collective Private Offices as an example. Having a set office space that’s already set up for you will guarantee you a comfortable and productive space to operate from. It also provides you with a legitimate looking business address automatically. If this is an option for you then great! If not, you might want to consider working on a remote basis. Of course, when you operate your business from your own home, you’re going to have to take some pretty significant steps to make sure that everything runs as it should and that you have a good sales strategy. The steps below should help you to achieve this!

Invest in a Business Address

First and foremost, you’re going to need to set up a professional business address. You don’t want your personal address to be publically available and you also want to make sure customers and clients take your business seriously and see it as a professional entity rather than something operating from someone’s spare room. There are plenty of companies who will provide you with a business address for a small monthly fee. You can then use mail forwarding to ensure that any mail that is delivered to this address can make its way to you.

Choose Your Workspace Wisely

If you’re working from home, you’re also going to want to make sure that you create a dedicated, productive workspace in your home to operate from.This will help to draw a line between spaces where you work and spaces within your property where you relax. It will also prevent you from working from bed or the sofa, which can prove terrible for your posture and can also result in laziness. Having your own workspace can also ensure that anyone you live with can easily identify when you are working (and should be left alone) or when you’re relaxing (and can be chatted to). The space that you choose for work should have plenty of natural light, have some sort of comfortable and supportive seating and should be a comfortable temperature with plenty of ventilation. Finally, you should ensure that it has a strong wifi connection. This will help you to work to your maximum ability. If you’re having trouble with your wifi speeds or router, check in with your broadband provider, who should be able to resolve the problem.

Invest in Ergonomic Furniture

We’ve briefly touched on comfortable seating to work from, but it is worth taking a moment to look into ergonomic furniture. If you care about your health and wellbeing at all, ergonomic furniture should definitely be considered an essential investment. Sure, it may not be the most aesthetically pleasing furniture to have in your home office. But it can save you from developing all sorts of health problems down the line. Ergonomic furniture is specially designed to support your posture when you work, preventing excess strain being put on any one area of your body. This can prevent issues from occurring such as repetitive strain injuries or back aches and strains.There are countless options when it comes to ergonomic furniture and accessories,  ranging from an ergonomic desk to a chair, keyboard, mouse, back support, foot rest and more.

Of course, these are just a few steps that you’re going to have to take into consideration and carry out in order to get your business up and running. There are countless further areas to focus on too – whether that’s website design, customer support, marketing, advertising, branding or anything else that comes as part and parcel of running your own business. But hopefully, some of the above information will really help to get the ball rolling and can inspire you to take the necessary steps to get things off the ground! While operating during these times may be difficult, it is possible. So, don’t lose hope!