If you’re finally launching your very own startup after years of procrastination, you are probably excited yet terrified. You can’t wait to be your own boss, answer to no one, and make a name for yourself within your chosen industry. But, you are probably equally worried about the lack of buzz within your home office, you’ll miss the camaraderie of your colleagues, and generally worry about feeling a little bit lonely. Striking out on your own inevitably results in an anticlimax when you stroll into your home office in your pyjamas to have your head turned by your Facebook feed. Launching your own business needn’t be lonely if you follow these three simple steps.
Network
The most important thing when launching your own startup is your quest to be visible. Clients and potential customers need to know who you are, where you are and what you offer. The easiest way to do this is through networking. Get yourself a pitch at a trade show or two, set up a barnstorming website, and make sure that your social media channels are relevant and up to date. By networking with other like-minded businesses, you can form a web of startup support. Heading to conferences and courses means that you can give out your business cards, touch base with your industry rivals, and become part of the established industry furniture.
Trade shows are also an excellent way to keep your finger on the pulse of sector-specific developments. You might be a small legal outfit seeking new criminal case management software, only to find the latest bit of kit at a trade fair. Or you might be a small accounting practice seeking out the most efficient payroll system. Trade shows are the best places to find these elusive packages.
Consider signing up to a local small business support group. While this may sound ominous, these can be fantastic places to network with local business people across a range of sectors. Informally, you can chat about issues you may be having, give and receive advice, and make links professionally. It can also be a fantastic forum in a social sense helping you to take a load off, relax a little, and feel that sense of camaraderie that you might have lacked since going it alone.
Communicate
It doesn’t matter whether you are working alone or in a partnership, your immediate office environment can become a little isolating. To combat this, you need to make yourself available to your wider clientele and communicate with them in an effective way. Social media channels have now given us the opportunity to converse with our customer base like never before. Real time and less formal online conversations have taken the place of cold calling and email subscription lists.
Setting up your own business may be the end goal of many years planning and working out the logistics of going it alone. While the transition period from full time employee to being your own boss isn’t easy, it will be more than worth it in the end.
