Even if you manage to dream up this unique, revolutionary service or product that people need, someone is going to be hot on your heels trying to outperform you and perhaps even undercut you. This is due word spreading faster than ever when anything new or novel comes around, thanks largely to the internet.
This kind of exposure can absolutely be beneficial as much as it can be detrimental, and that’s the way it is with the internet – swings and roundabouts. While it presents you with an engaging and modern platform to communicate with your audience and provide your service remotely, it’s doing the same thing for everyone else in your niche.
You’ve got to keep ahead in Instagram posts; you’ve got to make sure your Tweets are cleverer than theirs and you certainly can’t let them share that cool Infographic you saw before you!
Yes, the internet has opened so many doors to so many small businesses, but it seems like sometimes that is where all the focus goes. Okay, completely online entities have a good excuse for that, but good old fashioned brick and mortar stores or shops still exist, and are still going strong. Even Amazon have just opened an old fashioned, real life bookstore. Which is ironic, as Amazon are arguably the cause of a lot of bookstores demises, and now they are a bookstore themselves.
However, I digress. Yes, your online game must be up to scratch; but there are many things that physical businesses sometimes forget. And believe me, these are not things that you want to forget.
A Plan
I have read too many stores about young kids, scraping together enough money to rent out a space for them to launch their cool, new start-up which is going to sell rocket-rollerskates – yes, I am being serious, and they are as ridiculous as you would imagine.
The problem is that due to the media coverage and the vast expanse of the internet, these guys are under the impression that if you build it they will come. This isn’t Field of Dreams kid. You need a plan, and a good one at that!
There is no excuse not to have an absolutely solid plan, there is plenty of help out there for those looking to start their own business, and you’d be stupid not to use it.
Cover
“A man walks into a bar. He hurt his head.” A joke we’ve heard a million variations of, and will hear a million more. But do you know what that man did? He sued the bar! That’s right, people are quick to point the finger and whoever they can if they feel they have been wronged. If you’ve got a physical space where there is going to be staff or clients or customers, you need to make sure that you’re covered.
Even the most minor slip ups can end up costing you a fortune, so it certainly pays to read up on public liability insurance or something similar – it’ll be worth having some sort of plan in place for the peace of mind alone.
It will also be wise to have a look at any laws or legislature that you think may affect you now, or in the future. Having a grasp of the law that you are living in can sometimes be the best form of defence in many situations.
Drive
Not the Ryan Gosling movie, though that is a good movie, but drive within yourself – goals, dreams, targets! Much like those already mentioned that have the build it and they will come mentality, those who lack drive and ambition, whether they have a good plan or not, tend to taper out soon enough.
Okay, you had a good first month. Your overheads were a little less than you thought. Second month, you broke even. Third month, you made a profit! Well done. But is that is? Not by a long shot. You need to be constantly looking at ways on how to improve both your business and yourself.
If you don’t have this ambition backing up your plan and legal know-how, then you are almost certainly not going to be a success. Yeah, you might not be flat broke, but are you really progressing? Probably not.
By challenging yourself to improve, you are only going to get better. Make yourself your own competitor, then you won’t have to worry about your competitors’ Tweets being cleverer than yours.
