Starting Your Business In Cardiff – Tips For The New Entrepreneur

Beginning a business venture is no small feat, and can be a very overwhelming experience for many, especially for those that have never run their own business before. Starting your small business in the city of Cardiff is an excellent choice and you’ll find that you can find some great success away from larger cities like London. As well as being a great choice for business start ups, the place also has a very high-quality standard of living with affordable housing prices and great transport links around the city and the UK. We’ve listed some of our best tips for starting your business, as well as why Cardiff is a brilliant location for you and your team.

Research Your Industry
One of the first pitfalls many business owners encounter is not putting enough time into researching their own industry. It’s so important that you don’t jump the gun and start running with an idea, to then realise that your idea isn’t actually very good at all. This is going to be a huge waste of your time and money. Instead, make sure you’ve studied your industry, and have identified a gap in the market. Whether you’re offering a product or service, and for simplicity we’ll use products as our example throughout this article, you need to identify if your audience is going to have a use or need for it. There are plenty of businesses out there that have created a product only to realise as late as the retail phase that nobody actually wants to buy their product. Be vigilant and be prepared to drop your favourite ideas if they don’t appear to be feasible.

Check Out The Competition
Part of your research should involve discerning the tactics and deals your competition offers so that you can get a good idea as to what prices you should be selling your products at. Avoid making any enemies, if possible, as treading on toes as a new business is incredibly unwise, especially if those toes belong to businesses that have much more experience than you. Instead, try to build a reputation as being healthy competition instead of a threat. Working together with other local businesses can seriously bolster everyone’s businesses and you only stand to benefit from having allies. Learn from the businesses around you and see what methods they employ to attract customers and implement similar practices, as well as expanding upon those tactics to improve these methods further.

Create Your Business Plan
Think of this business plan as the backbone of your business. Making good use of your research materials, you should create a succinct, yet detailed document, showcasing your product ideas, the methods of creating those products, your unique selling points, funding and investment plans, and your marketing ideas. As well as these things, you can use your business plan to set goals for you and your team, creating your own deadlines to help you measure your first year’s success. If you’re going to be trying to secure an investment loan from a bank or private investor, you’re going to need to present this business plan to them in order to convince them that you’ve got a great business idea. It’s also important to share your plan with those you trust to see if they identify any issues. It may also be worth discussing the plan with your team so that they understand the goals and can flag up any concerns beforehand.

Budget And Arrange Funding
As part of your business plan creation, it’s important to set out your budget, to get an idea of how much funding you need, as well as getting a good idea as to how much you’re prepared to spend on each aspect of your business. It’s imperative that you stick to this budget as well as your plans, to help you avoid mishaps and unexpected issues. Don’t forget to set some of your budget aside for emergencies or you may risk finding yourself in a spot of trouble.

Outsource Important Services
Cardiff is home to some fantastic businesses that you can benefit from as a start up. Companies that offer marketing, IT support, and customer services are abundant and can make your job a whole lot easier. It’s also worth investing in the services of expert accountants in Cardiff such as those at the family-run business, Hodge Bakshi. Then can offer you invaluable advice of running your business and ways in which you can maximise your profits for greater success. They can also help you with sorting out your taxes as well as helping you to secure funding and manage your team’s payroll too.

Hire A Talented Team
Once you’ve outsourced lots of these important services, you’ll want to focus on building a strong in-house team. While it’s incredibly important to find talented and qualified individuals to work for you, there’s one thing that’s sometimes overlooked in the hiring process. That is dedication and enthusiasm for your industry. There’s not much benefit in hiring someone with great qualifications if they appear to be fickle and uninterested in your business. At least when you hire someone less qualified and experienced, but with great drive and ambition, you’ll find that training them to be a strong member of your team is much easier than inspiring someone to care about their job if they’ve already decided that they’re not bothered about it.

Create A Recognisable Brand
Another essential aspect of creating a successful business is the creation and promotion of your brand. You want people to see the name and logo of your business and to know exactly who you are, and that they can trust you and your products. Creating a good brand is no easy task, and so you should spend plenty of time on this. Choose a great name, pick an attractive design and colour scheme, and promote it wherever you can.

Put A Lot Of Thought Into Marketing
As part of your brand creation, you’ll want to develop a great marketing strategy to really help your brand to skyrocket into popularity. Today, digital marketing is the most important aspect here, and shouldn’t be ignored. This involves the generation of aesthetically appealing content, alongside knowing when and how to create posts of social media, or blogs. There are lots of different ways for you to portray your brand and products to the general public, but it takes a level of expertise to do it right. Strongly consider hiring an in-house marketing professional or team to focus solely on promoting your business and interacting with your customers and audience.

Offer The Human Story
A great choice when it comes to marketing is to give your customers insight into the way your business works, as well as the human side to your team. Often, businesses shy away from showcasing their team and end up looking like a faceless entity. Of course, this partly comes down to personal preference but if you want to gain the trust of your customers quickly and easily, you’ll show the people behind your brand. This lends a level of authenticity to your company and can encourage more people to choose to buy from you over your competitors.