S t ar t i ng andrunning a newbusiness canbe a baptismo f f i r e fo rfirst-time en-

trepreneurs. No one can knoweverything they need to know,but there is a fine line betweenlearning from your mistakesand damaging your business.The aimof this ten-stepplan

is to help you build a simplestrategy for success. Use theseguidelines as a framework tohelp guide your business in theearly days, and create a solidfoundation for long-termgrowth.

1. Are yousuited tobusiness?Ask yourself if you are sui-

ted to being in business foryourself. Although it mightsound glamorous to be theboss, setting up in business(especially in the first fewyears) is hard work, requiringa lot of guts and often bor-rowed money.People get the entrepreneur-

ial bug in lots ofways.But how-ever you catch it, you must besure you are suited to self-em-ployment and the possibility ofbecoming an employer. Beclear about your goals.Writedown the personal and busi-ness goals that, by going intobusiness for yourself, you willbe able to achieve.

2. Come up withan ideaNew businesses typically

work in one of two ways.Theyeither put an original idea into

practice,or build on an existingidea. A large proportion of en-trepreneurs don’t comeupwithoriginal ideas. Instead,they seean opportunity to alter, im-prove or expand on an existingidea.Business ideas can be found

all around us ^ through travel,by watching trends or simplykeeping your eyes and earsopen to the problems peopleneed solved. From a businesspoint of view, many will bewilling to shell out for a solu-tion that works. Just becauseyou have an idea, however,does not necessarily mean youwill have a successful business.So the next step is to researchyour idea.

3. Researchingyour ideaYou must be able to satisfy

yourself (and also potential in-vestors) that aviablemarket ex-ists for your idea; that youknow who your customers willbe and you have an awarenessof your competitors ^ who theyare,what they do and how theydo it. While researching yourmarket, always remember thatyour product or service needsto fill a need and be differentfrom, or better than, anythingalready out there. Being suc-cessful in business is not aboutjumping on the bandwagon.Invest time changing and

amending your business ideaso it becomes different, betteror more desirable to your tar-get market ^ ideally, all three.Quality market researchwill

help you to:& position your product or

service effectively& determine where your

business should be located& workout how you should

market the venture& identify the staff or skills

you will need to run your busi-ness.You can carry out a lot of

useful market research online,using tools such as LinkedIn.Although it can be tempting togo for the cheapest researchoption ^ that is, using friendsand family as guinea pigs ^don’t do it.They will be biasedin their responses and may noteven fall into your target mar-ket.

4. Plan forsuccessIt is easy to start a business.

It costs just e20 to register abusiness name electronicallyon www.cro.ie. The difficultycomes with making the busi-ness a success.Drawing up a good business

plan will force you to considerall aspects of your idea ^ fromyour cashflow toyour manage-ment team ^ especially theareas you’re not naturally in-terested in or good at.A business plan must be

written down, forecastingwhere your business will be inthe next three years and how itis going to get there.The plan will be crucial to

supporting your business, par-ticularly when it comes to ac-cessing finance. Before youeven get to that stage, however,read through your plan your-self. Doing so will help you toassess the viabilityof yourbusi-ness idea in reality.Be prepared to re-visit your

plan regularly to compare thereality of how your business isdeveloping with your originalplan. Amend your plans as ne-cessary while your businessgets off the ground.

5. ReachingcustomersThe best product or service

in the world is worthless with-out a market to sell it to. Youneed toknowasmuch as possi-ble about your target marketfrom the start.You must be able to tell your

market about your product asoften and as loudly as you canafford to. Remember, alwaysmarket the benefits of a pro-

duct or service, rather than thefeatures. Rather than tellingthe customer what you can do,you should be answering thecustomer’s question, ‘‘What’sin it for me?’’Here are some tips:& low-budget and imagina-

tive marketing options such ascompetitions, gifts, and onlinesources are limitless& advertising pays, and

smart advertising pays betterthan bad advertising& there is such a thing as

badpublicity, sobe carefulwithPRgimmicks.

6. Financingyour ventureYou may never get a better

analysis of or feedback aboutyour business and businessplan than when you approachabank, investor or governmentagency about finance. If you

need money, you must con-vince the lender that you canpay it back.First, think about what the

money will be used for: capitalinvestment, working capital oroperating costs. There aremany financial products avail-able for eachpurpose includingcommercial mortgages, termloans, overdrafts and businesscredit cards.

Aside from the traditionallending agencies and family-founder-friends, there are anumber of other places to gofor finance such as:& the Enterprise Boards

(www.enterpriseboards.ie)support local businesses withless than ten employees.& Ente r pr i s e I re l and

(www.enterpriseireland.ie)provides financial and non-fi-nancial supports to companieswith the potential to reach tenor more employees in the nearfuture.& First Step (www.first-ste-

p.ie) provides loans to peoplewho want to create their ownenterprise and who cannot ac-cess funding, or sufficientfunding, from other sources.

7. Get trainingConsider attending a Start

Your Own Business Course.This will address all of theareas of setting up a new busi-ness, as well as give you the op-portunity to meet with otherbudding entrepreneurs to shareideas and contacts.These courses not only pro-

vide you with all of the practi-cal information you need, butoften challenge your ideas andforce you to think about creat-ing the best business modelthat you can. Contact your lo-cal Enterprise Board for moreinformation or email hello@-QEDtraining.ie and we willpointyou in the right direction.

8. Manage yourcashflow‘‘Cashflow is more impor-

tant thanyourmother.’’Sogoesthe oldbusiness adage,and thisis especially true for start-ups.Before you start, list all the

costs involvedand always allowa contingency for unforeseencosts. Small and growing busi-nesses eat money, so keeping aclose eye on your expenses onan ongoing basis and ensuringthat debtors pay you on timeare vitally important.Monitor expenses regularly,

looking at them as a percen-tage of your total sales, andcompare this to what is in yourbusiness plan.This keeps youreye on the business’s financialhealth. Many people focus toomuch merely on the turnover

figure and take their eyes offthe ball when it comes to ex-penses and monitoring netprofit.

9. Think bigAcommon trap is abusiness

model that creates either a hob-by business or just one job.Ty-pically, in the hobby business,the owner is working morehours for a lot less money thanthey would get on the openmarket. In the second instance,a job is created which simplypays the owner the samemoney that they would get onthe open market, but whichcomes with added stress andrisk and no real freedom.Businesses need money to

survive and also to take advan-tage of new opportunities thatpresent themselves. They alsoneed money to buy you freetime for work ‘on’ rather than‘in’ your business ^ a key com-ponent of success.If you don’t plan for thebusi-

ness to make money, you’llnever be able to buy the re-sources that your businessneeds to grow and to buy your-self the room tomake choices.

10. Exit strategyIt might seem like an odd

consideration in the initialstages, but you should thinkabout the ‘end game’. Askyourself the following:& do you want to build an

asset that you can eventuallysell off for a tidy sum?& do you want to start a

business that increases in valueand runs independently of you,orone thatyou can franchise inIreland and abroad?& do you want to create a

job for yourself that, after re-tirement, gives you a healthypension to sustain the life youare used to?All of these issues are well

worth thinking about to helpensure youmake the right deci-sions, follow the correct pathand lay the foundations for aachievable exit.

Joanne Hession is mana-ging director of Quality Edu-cation Development (QED)Training, a provider of busi-ness training services to start-ups. For more information, seewww.QEDtraining.ie

Top ten tips to makeyour firm a success

OUTONYOUROWN

Before setting up your ownenterprise, consider youraims carefully and create asolid plan, writes JoanneHession

Facebook is a socialphenomenon withoutprecedent. An incredible750 million people aroundthe world use the siteregularly, creating aworld of opportunities forsmall businesses to meetand engage with potentialcustomers.

To get your businessstarted on Facebook, youneed to set up a personalpage and create a businesspage. It can be easy toconfuse a personal pagewith a business page. Todifferentiate between thetwo, bear in mind that apersonal page will have a‘+1 Add Friend’ box atthe top, while a businesspage will have a ‘Like’box at the top.

To create a page, log onto http:www.facebook.com/pages/create.php.You will automaticallybecome the administratorof the page, but you willalso have the option ofmaking other usersadministrators once theyhave become fans of thepage.

When you, as theadministrator, write onthe wall of your page,your post will appear asthough it is the businessitself ‘speaking’.Comments from non-administrators willappear with theirpersonal profiles.

BrandingBranding your business

page is important and youshould treat it as youwould your officialwebsite. You can registeryour Facebook address toinclude your businessname – for examplewww.facebook.com/socialmedia.ie. Thisfacility is available to allbusinesses once theyregister a vanity URL atwww.facebook.com/username.

Choose a distinctivepicture for your profileand upload furthervisuals into an album,featuring along the top ofthe page, to demonstrateand showcase yourproducts and services.

NewsfeedThis is a personalised

news stream featuringnews from the Facebookfriends, groups andbusinesses you have optedto ‘like’. Your aim, as theadministrator of yourbusiness page, should beto feature as prominentlyas possible in thenewsfeeds of your targetaudience.

Find ways to activelyengage your fans – be it byusing special offers anddiscounts or entertainingthem and making themlaugh. Ideally, you want toensure they share yourcontent with their friends.

ToolkitFacebook has an array

of tools available to helpbusinesses build theirfanbase on the site. Theseinclude the following.

1. Ads: Facebook Adsallows you to usedemographic information– such as age, region andpersonal interests – totarget a specific audience.

2. Insights: these givebusiness pageadministrators insights

into the demographics oftheir fan base. Monitoringthese insights can play acrucial part in helping toensure you are talking tothe right audience.

3. Places: theexponential growth ofsmartphone technology isdriving demand forlocation based marketingstrategies. Put simply, thismeans that customersarriving at your premisescan ‘check-in’ online,letting their friends knowexactly where they are.Using Facebook Places,you can register yourbusiness for the serviceand, every time acustomer checks-inonline, you get free andimmediate exposure.

4. Apps: businesses caninstall FacebookApplications to improvethe functionality of theirBusiness Page. These appscan include anything froma welcome page to aFacebook store,embedded videos, blogand Twitter feeds, datacapture services andpromotional applications.Here are details on someuseful apps for businesses.

Pagemodo.com – allowsyou to redesign Facebookpages. It is free to create,but does have a Pagemodofooter on the page, whichcan be removed at ayearly cost of$20.

Involver.com – offers acomprehensive range offree and professional tabsfor Facebook businesspages, includingYouTube, Twitter andFlickr, plus ‘on page’services, such as RSSfeeds, sign-ups, coupons,gifts, promotion galleriesand store locator.

Northsocial.com offersa bundle of applications,such as competitions,sign-up, shop and manymore.

Constantcontact.comallows you to maintainregular contact withcustomers and clientsusing targeted emailnewsletters, invites tooffline events and onlinesurveys.

StrategyWe recommend

integrating all of yourdigital media channels.

You can use websitesand blogs to drive trafficto a Facebook businesspage by installing aFacebook Connect ‘LikeBox’. This willautomatically updateyour Facebook profileand appear in friends’newsfeeds.

Conor Lynch is a socialmedia strategist andfounder of SocialMedia.ie,which advises businessesnationwide. Seewww.socialmedia.ie

Social mediafor start-ups

More than simplyFacebook value

In the first of a new ten-partspecial, social media expertConor Lynch offersadvice and insights into howonline tools can help newcompanies establish their brandand win business. This week’stopic is getting started onFacebook

CONORLYNCH

Joanne Hession, founder and managing director, and Siobhan Finn, director of enterprise learning and development, QED Training MAURA HICKEY

Remember,alwaysmarket thebenefits of aproduct orservice,rather thanthe featuresit has

n26THE SUNDAY BUSINESS POST

SEPTEMBER 11 2011