How to Set Up Your First-ever Small Business

Small business owners often feel like they’re in the early stages of creating their business. They’re just getting started—but what about the rest of their life? How will this new venture turn into a long-term investment that they’ll manage for the rest of their lives? Small business owners are in a unique position to invest in themselves and know exactly how to go about it. They can start with a barebones online presence, or they can get creative and create their own infrastructure. Here are some ideas on how to set up your first-ever small business:

Create a blog

If you’re the type of person who loves to write, you’ll be happy to learn that blogging is a great way to get your foot in the door as a small business owner. Blogs do more than just provide a platform for your business to grow, they also provide you with a way to create a presence for your product or service that you never thought possible.

Find a good market and exploit it

For your first foray into the business world, find a target market that you know well and one that you can potentially touch with a single click of a button. If you’re marketing to younger generations, then your first priority should be finding new customers. Start with age-appropriate topics like, “How can I get better at my job?” or, “What is the best vacation ever?” Instead of trying to come up with new topics, try to come up with existing ones that you can potentially touch with a single click of a button. And don’t forget to keep your blog’s content relevant to what’s happening in the market for your product or service, whether that’s the latest trends in marketing or the new ways that people are connecting online.

Build a social media presence

You can’t just be an online presence for a small business and a blog at the same time. It’s a losing battle, as people are only going to take so much of your content before they’re genuinely interested in reading it. Make sure that you’re putting out great content and earning the reader’s trust before you even begin to grow your blog. You can create a social media presence, both on and off-line, that links back to your site.

Tip up your web newsletter

This can be the single greatest thing you do as a small business owner. You can’t get enough information. So, really, what’s wrong with that? Your first rule of business as a small business owner is to make sure that your customers are getting the information that they need. If they’re not seeing or taking action on the website, it might as well be buried under a pile of rocks in the desert. So, you should be putting out a great deal of content and earning the reader’s trust before you even begin to grow your blog. You can also create a great blog tip-up email that will be sent to all your current and potential customers, reminding them of what the site is about and how they can get in touch with you.

Set up your own manufacturing line or online shop

Manufacturing lines or online stores aren’t new, but they’re definitely at the front of the small business world’s mind. These are the businesses that make products like TVs, laptops, and cellphones, and they’re becoming more popular as people start to use social media and the internet as a contact way to purchase products. Now, most manufacturers are opting to go this route—most notably Amazon.com—to save money on production costs. But some are making the move into their own businesses to expand their sales and make more money. One such business is REI, which plans to open their own 650,000 square foot manufacturing facility in New York City next year.

Conclusion

In addition to all the advantages that come with being a small business owner, there are also a few things that you need to focus on. These include – but are not limited to – setting up your website, creating a blog, finding a good market and exploiting it, building a social media presence, and building a manufacturing line or online shop.