Ben Goldsmith wrote a great article for Workspace Group this week after an event by Business Doctors at Clerkenwell Workshops‘s clubworkspace. It’s a great quick-read to get your mind thinking about what you can be doing for your small business.

Pre-Startup

It’s important, small business or not, to plan what you’re going to do and answer some basic questions. Without these answers, on paper or in your head, you could head on to the wrong track and your small business could derail faster than you think!

Whether you’re pre-start or have been going years, you need to go back to your roots. This process will clear your vision and you’ll be able to see what your business is all about. Answer these questions: What are your core values? Why did you start your business? How did you first begin? What do you want your staff to think of you? How do you relate to them?

In terms of your core purpose: Be sure to answer this (deceptively easy-sounding) question by looking through your customer’s perspective, not your own. What do you want your customer to expect from you? Knowing this will help you deliver.

If you’re pre-startup and are having second thoughts about your business partner, ask yourself why. Is there any longevity in your working relationship? If you’d rather wear your favourite Levis and kick it on a beanbag whilst he’d prefer a Vitra chair and a Saville Row whistle, maybe you should spare yourself some heartache and part ways early on.

Future-Proofing

It’s important to think about the future — planning ahead is one of the best things you can do for your small business. Small businesses have less resources, less cash, and less employes than their larger counterparts, so it’s especially important to plan ahead to avoid an issues that may arise out of nowhere.

Keep an eye on social, economic and political movements. All of these could effect on the future of your business.

Social media and other technological developments have revolutionised small businesses interaction. Getting left behind could leave you lagging behind your competition. However, if you keep ahead of the curve, you could show a clean pair of heels to the big players in your marketplace.

If there is a change in the law, your business could stand to gain or to suffer. If you know about the legislative reworking before its effect sets in, you can be prepared.

Optimise

If you don’t keep an eye on your key metrics, whether it’s your sales, your leads, or something else, how can you improve your products, services, or the way you approach your prospective clients. If you understand your prospective customers better, you’ll be able to filter out those that are not worth the time and focus on those that will generate the largest return for your small business.

Do you track who’s buying from you? Do you know what they’re buying? Do you know if your top five customers are buying as much from you now as they were last year? Or perhaps five years ago?

I know it’s annoying to hit your with a load of questions – but knowing the answers could pump-up your turnover.

If you track your customers’ buying trends you will be able to better respond to their buying habits. If certain customers are buying less from you now than they were in 2010, you may be able to find out why, and then satisfy their needs.

Furthermore, it’s stops you from being a busy fool. Why chase a customer who will probably not give you any return business? Better to focus on customer retention, and incubate those brand advocates.

The one thing that sets small companies apart from their big brothers is the personal connection you can have with every part of your business: you know what your customers want, what their problems are, and how you’re able to solve those problems for them. So plan ahead, listen to your customer’s needs, and provide better products and customer service than your competitors can. It’s possible to compete with the big boys, so what’s stopping you?

If you enjoyed this article, share your thoughts and experiences in the comments — and share the article with other small business owners.

Source: Workspace Group Blog
Image Credit: comedy_nose

We’ll be hitting up all the great events that are relative to small businesses: we’ll be live-tweeting the events, writing some great articles, snapping some shots so you feel like you’re there, and hopefully taking some videos as well. We’ve got an all-access pass for the whole week, so subscribe to our blog and follow us on Twitter or Facebook to get all the latest updates.

Here’s a sneak at some of the events we’ll be attending:

Mind the Gap: Avoiding a Social Media Skills Crisis
This session will explore the digital industry’s seemingly insatiable appetite for social media skills. Recent research from Altimeter Group shows corporations increased their spend on social media talent, on average, by 50% to £180,000. Speakers include: Rebecca Gloyne (Nokia), Charlie Elise Duff (BraveNewTalent), Niall Cook (Sociagility), chaired by Kathryn Corrick.

Supercharging Your Facebook Marketing hosted by Constant Contact
If you’re like most businesses, you already see the value in connecting with your current and potential customers via social media. But the challenge is figuring out what you actually need to do with social media in order to drive real results for your business or organisation. This seminar is the “what, why, and how” of social campaigns: how to drive repeat business and amplify word of mouth by engaging your happy customers, stay top of mind to make it easy for them to share your message, and measure results.

The Future of Sharing supported by Nokia
It has been well documented that online sharing has been exploding (Facebook making up 52.1% of sharing on the web in 2011, Tumblr and Twitter growing their volume of shares by 1299% and 576% respectively), but what has been harder to predict is what the future holds for sharing, and how that will impact consumers and brands alike. As social platforms evolve, and products are developed to be inherently social, questions abound about whether we will all embrace a world of ubiquitous sharing, or come to reject added noise and clutter. Confirmed speakers include Trevor Johnson, Head of Market Development from Facebook, Global Community Editor Mark Jones from Reuters and Michael McClary from Microsoft UK.

We can’t wait to get there! Also, stay tunned for our full blog launch the same week too!

Introduction

I’ve spent a good chunk of the day learning about a new campaign from Google andYola called Getting British Businesses Online which makes it dead simple for companies in the United Kingdom that do not have an online presence, to get their business online quickly and best of all for absolutely nothing! The service provides a domain name, an email address, and a basic do-it-yourself website, so your business can take its first steps to getting online.

Think of it as the first car you were given for free by your grandmother — it barely started and sounded like a tractor, but it was one step closer to a faster and newer car; the ‘Getting British Businesses Online’ campaign is exactly that for many UK-based companies that haven’t taken the online plunge quite yet.

“There are 41 million people online in the United Kingdom, yet over 1.5 million small to medium businesses operate without a website”¹

I’ve put together a list of important steps (along with additional resources) that every small to medium business needs to take to get their company online. It’s not a completely exhaustive list and some of the steps will require additional research or help from your twenty-something nephew or niece, but if you have a little patience and time, you should get through it quicker than you think.

Step 1: Domain Name

Domain Name 101

The very first thing you need to do is grab a domain name for your business. A domain name is the address people will either type in or see in their browser windows when they visit your website (see ‘Step 3′) and it’s also the second part of your email address (see ‘Step 2′), so it’s an important part of the process that can’t be skipped.

Choosing a Domain Name

It’s best to get a domain name that includes your business name and what it is you do — this is so people know what to expect when they navigate to your website and also so search engines can better rank you for your business name and service. It’s not easy to find common combinations of domain names these days, as most have been registered (many by Domain Squatters), but most domain registration companies will offer you suggestions based on your initial search. It’s wise to try and avoid very long domain names (such as www.BobsBestLondonCakeEmporium.com) as people may not want to type this long domain name from your offline promotional materials or business cards.

Registering a Domain Name

To register your domain name you need to visit a domain name registration company and follow the instructions they give you. I like to use GoDaddy.com or 123-reg to register domain names, but there are other companies online and a simple search for “domain names” will give you a list probably longer than Santa’s.

Additional Resources:

Domain Names Explained
Domain Name Basics
How to Register a Domain Name

Step 2: Email Address

Email Tips

Now that you’ve got your snazzy new domain name for your business, you’re ready to start using a professional email address for all your correspondence with prospective clients. It’s important to remember that your-name@your-business.com is much more professional than using a generic free email address such as my-business-name@gmail.com, but always avoid, like the plague, the use of a personal account such as my-personal-email123@hotmail.co.uk for any business correspondence — most people won’t notice the difference or care about this, but some online-savvy consumers will immediately get an unprofessional vibe from your business and you want to avoid this at all costs.

Email Services

If you’ve purchased your domain name from a reputable company (like the ones above in ‘Step 1′), you may already have an email service included in your domain name package or you can add the service at a relatively small cost. If you’re planning on using other online services such as Calendars, Contacts, Documents, and so on, it may be an idea to look into setting up Google Apps for Business (which is mostly free for small businesses) on your new domain name; setting up Google Apps is quite advanced for some users, so you may need help from a friend.

Business Email Etiquette

If you’re using email for your business for the first time, it’s important to remember some key etiquette tips so your email recipients don’t interpret your messages the wrong way:

• Remember to never write using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, as this can be interpreted as yelling or rude by some readers.
• Remember to always use an appropriate salutation (such as Dear Bob) and an appropriate valediction (such as Sincerely, Shawn) to show consideration and mutual respect to your reader.
• Remember to respond to your customers as quickly as possible; during business hours you should get back to your clients within the hour or if it’s after business hours, the next morning or early afternoon; a quick response can score you many points with your clients and also shows that you value and appreciate their custom.

Email Signatures

If you want to polish the professional look in your email correspondence and you’ve already nailed the email etiquette above, you need a clean and short email signature at the end of your email. In most email applications or web-based email services, you can set a default signature that gets added at the end of each email you send. So, what should your polished email signature consist of? A standard valediction is a good start, but also your company details, such as your business address, your multiple phone numbers, your website address (of course), and anything else you would normally put on a paper letterhead, either by choice or by law.

Additional Resources:

How To Easily Set Up Google Apps on Your Website
6 Simple Savvy Small Business Email Tips
6 Common Email Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make
101 Email Etiquette Tips

Step 3: Website

Web Design Choices

Now that you have a domain name and you’ve setup your email, it’s time to get your website online. Your website needs to be professional, informative and provide a way for potential customers to contact you further if they are interested in your products or services; if your website is missing any of the pieces, you may not see the results you expect. You can either design a website by doing-it-yourself (which is acceptable for a new small business to get started online, but not really for an established business looking to generate revenue from their website) or you can hire a digital marketing company to create a website for you. **Full Disclosure: My company designs websites as one of our core services, but many companies provide this service and you should select the company you feel is suited for your requirements.**

Do-It-Yourself Web Design

If you’re thinking of taking the do-it-yourself route and you do not have any experience with web design, you will most likely end up at a build-a-website service such as Yola, as mentioned above in the introduction. There are many similar companies online that will allow you to easily design a basic website by selecting some colours, layouts and filling in your business-related content.

Choosing a Web Design Company

If you’re website is important to your business, as you want to use it as a tool to generate revenue, you need it to be clean, polished, navigable, and functional. Hiring a company that designs websites is the easiest way to get the polished and professional image your probably looking for. Every web design company is unique and may offer different services in different packages, so make sure you pick the package with only the services you need. It’s important to see the company’s previous work and look through their portfolio to see if their design-style is right for your company’s website. It’s also a good idea to speak with other local businesses to see who made their websites, as this way you can get a first-hand testimonial before you give your company’s hard earned cash to a design agency.

Do-It-Yourself Web Design vs. Hiring a Web Design Company

At the end of the day, the decision between do-it-yourself web design and hiring a company to do it, comes down to the cost and your allocated budget. It’s completely attainable to get a website for as little as nothing and have it online within hours and it’s also possible to spend thousands of pounds on a bespoke website that will take weeks or months to get online — the main difference is that one of the sites will do the bare minimum, while the other site is looking to reach your goals and is designed around your business and for your customers. It’s important to mentally spread the cost of your website over a longer period of time, as a professionally designed website can help you generate exponentially more revenue than it costs to set up, even if it’s in the thousands of pounds.

Other Services:

Squarespace
Moonfruit
Weebly

Step 4: Directories

Directories 101

Now that your website is online, you probably want some prospective customers, that are searching online, to find your business’s website. If a tree falls and no one hears it fall, has it fallen? The same is relatively true for a website: if your website is online, but no one is able to find it, is your website online? There are many free-to-post directories online, that allow you to add your listing, which will help Google and other search engines find and index your website’s pages, as well as prospective customers searching online.

Google Places for Business

Google Places should be your first stop to add your business listing (with your new website address of course). These listings get thrown in at the top of ‘natural’ search results on Google when people are searching for a business based on a location. It’s the easiest way to reach potentially thousands of additional prospective customers searching online. These listings even show up on mobile devices, so head to Google Places to set your owner-verified Google Places listing now!

Business Directories

Remember all those yellow pages that you used to get delivered at your doorstep? Most of these companies have now moved online and many new ones have sprouted out of nowhere. It’s relatively easy to add your listing (again with your shinny new website address) to these directories. In the United Kingdom some of the main ones are Yelp,Yell, Thompson Local, Scoot, Free Index, and HotFrog. Most of these websites have an “add your business” link in a prominent position or in the footer (the very bottom) of their websites. It’s important to add as much content to your listing as you can, so that your listing stands out from the other generic ones. After adding your listing, many of these companies may contact you to ‘up-sell’ additional services, but you’re not obligated to purchase anything to remain listed, so don’t get pushed in to advertising with them if you don’t want to.

Niche Directories

There are also thousands of niche directories specifically for and from your industry. It’s not always easy to find them directly, but if you search for similar businesses to yours on Google, some of these directories should show up in the first few pages of search results — click through on these listings to add your business as well, just like you did above. It’s important to submit your website to quality websites and never use automated submissions, as this may cause more harm than good.

Additional Resources:

Directory Submission Tips
Submitting a Site to the Open Directory Project
Niche Directory Lists

Step 5: Social Media Marketing

Social Media 101

I’ve re-written this section a few times now. I don’t want to give too much information on social networks, which can seem overwhelming, but at the same time I want to express how important it is for your business to start using social media going forward. There has never been a way for companies to reach their current or prospective customers in such an intimate way; Facebook and Twitter allow you to communicate directly with your customers and all it costs is your time. It’s important to note that social media marketing is a topic on it’s own and if you’re interested how to maximise your return, just research the topic online.

Facebook Pages for Business

You can setup your business’s page on Facebook by visiting this link and adding all your business details, just like you did on the directory websites; if you already use Facebook for a personal account, you can add a page directly from inside your account. If you put a link to your Facebook page from your website (many DIY-services include this option out of the box), your customers can “like” your company on Facebook and any information (articles, photos, updates, promotions, and so on) that you post on your Facebook page will appear in their accounts. Facebook is great for connecting with your existing customers, but we’ll look at Twitter next which allows you to connect with prospective customers.

Twitter for Business

You can setup your business’s page on Twitter by visiting this link, and once again, adding all of your business details. Twitter allows users to “follow” your account, similar to how Facebook’s “like” feature works, but there’s also another great way for small businesses to reach prospective customers, based on what they’re “tweeting” about. You can head to search.twitter.com and search for words and terms that are relevant to your business and get realtime results of people publicly discussing them; you can then “mention” them in a response and potentially engage a new customer. Twitter does have a learning curve attached to it, so if your twenty-something niece is around, ask them for some help, as an experienced user can easily show you how it all works.

Additional Resources

Twitter for Business
Set Up a Winning Facebook Fan Page
12 Tips to Engage People on Twitter

Step 6: Get Blogging

Blogging 101

You’re reading a blog< right now; sure I’m not talking about what I ate for dinner this evening and this an article of sorts, but it’s still a blog and it’s a fantastic way to engage your website visitors and customers. It’s very easy to get blogging — all you need is time, energy, original content and a blogging platform or software, which I’ll mention below.

Using a Blogging Service

In a perfect world, your blog would be baked in to your company’s website and would share the same look and feel of your main website, and this may be the case if you’ve taken the route of a professional web design company. But, it’s not the end of the world if your blog looks different than your main website. The easiest way to get started right now, is to head to Tumblr and start a free blog. You can choose one of Tumblr’s free themes, design your own theme, or purchase a premium theme. One of the best features of Tumblr is that your blog’s address can be http://blog.your-domain-name.com instead of http://tumblr.com/my-company-blog, which only adds to the professional look of of your company online. You may need help configuring your domain name for this to work, but Tumblr provides easy instructions on how to do this.

What’s A Blog Got To Do With It?

I’m sure you’re thinking what’s the point? Why should I blog? What should I blog about? You should blog about whatever you’re knowledgeable about. There are two main reasons to write articles on your company’s blog: the first reason is that you’re creating original and relevant content that can bring prospective clients to your website or engage your existing clients; the second reason is that by creating this original and relevant content (sorry for repeating that, but it’s important) other people or companies in your trade or field may link to these articles, increasing your relevance and authority to search engines, which may increase your website’s ranking on relevant search terms. In some ways, blogging is used as a tool in search engine optimisation, but this is another article on it’s own, and all you need to know is that blogging will only help your business in one way or another. Also, remember to use your social networks to spread the news that you’ve written a new article; your subscribers may pick up on this and your content could syndicate quickly throughout the web.

Additional Resources

10 Small Business Blog Tips (that Make a Big Difference)
What a Blog Can Do For Your Small Business
Top 100 Small Business Blogs

Step 7: Advertise

Google AdWords

You’ve now established your company online, but there’s still more you can do to generate additional leads and customers. One advertising solution is Google AdWords, which is a pay-per-click advertising service that runs alongside the free or “natural” search results on Google. The unique selling point of Google AdWords is that your ads only appear when people are searching for your relevant terms and you only pay a fee if someone clicks on your advertisement. You’re also able to track your spending and your return on investment with the built-in tools. The success of your campaign is only limited to your budget and how well your website is optimised to convert visitors into customers (via contact forms, purchases, or other methods). It’s advisable to use a search engine marketing company or educate yourself about this service before trying it on your own, as it requires a complex setup to optimise your spending. **Full Disclosure: My company manages pay-per-click campaigns as one of our core services, but many companies provide this service and you should select the company you feel is suited for your requirements. We are not affiliated with Google but one or more individuals hold a related qualification issued by Google Ireland Limited. **

Additional Resources

Google AdWords: Small Business Centre
4 Ways Google AdWords Can Increase Small Business Profits

Conclusion

Every step you take to bring your company online, is a positive one. The majority of consumers and clients research everything online, so it would be a shame if they missed your company. Initiatives such as GBBO are helping spread the word — and I hope this article will help some small businesses better understand what’s required to truly get their company online.

I’m sure things have been missed — and many revisions will be made to this article in the future. If you have any comments or other suggestions for this article, please share them with me.

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