How to grow your business

Starting a business is no small feat. It can be incredibly difficult to keep up with all of the logistics, paperwork, and planning that goes into it. While this might seem overwhelming at first, there are plenty of resources available to help you get started!

In this blog we share some tips to help you grow your business start-up.

1. Create a business plan. Whilst a plan is something you are already likely to have in place, now is a good time to review it and look ahead to 2022 so you can hit the ground running with vigour in the new year. As part of your plan, it’s important to identify your company’s strengths. Understand what has been going well up until now and then take the time to work out how best to apply this to ensure growth.
2. Network with other businesses in your field. There will be many local business groups and networks to tap into to help with ongoing business referrals. Look at groups such as BNI and the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry. If your business is within a Business Improvement District (BID) catchment area and you pay a levy, then connect with them as they will likely run networking events and by its very nature a BID offers a whole community of support to network with on your doorstep.
3. Improve your online presence through social media. Depending on your business social media can offer a cost-effective way to reach out to new customers and engage with existing ones. It also helps to position you as a trustworthy brand as people seek out more information about you before they buy products or book your services. If you mainly deal with business to business clients then LinkedIn is a great social network to explore and build your contacts.
4. Do you need to refresh your website? As a start up, a website is likely to be one of the first things you will have created to help your business be found online. However, after the initial excitement of the website going live, it’s useful to regularly look and see if any updates can be made to help with ease of navigation. It may sound obvious but is it easy for a website visitor to see how they can contact you? Make sure your email address, phone number, and premises location, if relevant, is easily visible.
5. Is your business set up correctly? For business start-ups you need to think about registering your business whether you are a sole trader, limited company or partnership. There are rules depending on the type of business you run as you may need licences or permits or insurance. This generally applies to businesses that sell food and drink, or a live venue or perhaps a market stall. It’s best to check whether you need a licence for your business sooner rather than later. You can always work with an accountant who can help you navigate the rules for business start-ups.
6. Keeping books and records in order. You may wish to consider using bookkeeping software to track your profits. Xero is commonly known for being a cloud-based bookkeeping platform which can help you achieve new efficiencies and provide you with a real-time understanding of the status of your business. Xero enables you to record bills and expenses, create sales invoices and record all your bank transactions efficiently through the automatic bank feeds.  
7. Budgets and Forecasts. Careful financial forecasting and budgeting is essential to help you achieve your business goals. You may find that you need to outsource elements of your business to free up some of your time to concentrate on pushing your business forward and growing it. It may be that an accountant can help you with planning and keeping your business plan on track to help you reach your financial goal. If you employ anyone then you will need to manage payroll including paying National Insurance contributions and ensuring workplace pensions are set up for those that are eligible. In which case a bookkeeper or outsourcing payroll could provide you with that expert help you’ve been looking for.

Business start-up advice

Starting a business can be an exciting and rewarding experience. However, it is also very time consuming and competitive. There are many things to consider before you start your own company, but by setting goals for yourself you will have more success in the long run.

This is just a brief overview of some of the things to consider when setting up your business.

If you need advice and guidance on setting up your business and managing financial accounts, then Talk To Our Team Of Accountants At McKenzies. We can help to guide you on the forms to complete, legal requirements and help with budgeting and forecasting.