Starting your own business can be surprisingly easy these days. As long as you register your company to some degree and have an idea that actually appeals to people, you should have no trouble getting off the ground. With a bit of financial assistance here and there, there are plenty of great strategies to help you get off to a great start.
But with that being said, it’s best not to rush into starting your own business if you don’t have experience. There are many considerations to keep in mind, and we’ll be listing five of the most important ones to help you establish a stronger foundation for future business growth.
1. Protecting your home address when registering a company
If you’re registering a company then you need to provide some kind of address. For most at-home businesses, this is usually going to be your home address. However, this can invite a lot of unwanted attention and effectively links your business to your address. This means that people can search up where your business is based and effectively find out where you live. This can be a huge security concern for people, hence why it’s important to consider ways to protect your home address.
One way to protect your privacy and shield your home address from the Companies House public register is to consider a privacy package. This essentially gives you a registered office and service address somewhere else in the world. It provides you with all of the digital company documents that you need and you can even get a free business bank account. This has the added benefit of giving you a professional-looking address in a prestigious location such as London, and you can even get your mail directed to that address so your home doesn’t receive business mail.
2. Identifying where your financing will come from
A brand-new business doesn’t have many sources of financing. After all, you probably don’t have customers or clients right now, so your only source of cash would be yourself. However, there are various ways to fund your projects such as crowdfunding or even speaking to investors. But for most home businesses, it’s far more likely that you’ll be digging into your savings or working with business partners that can help to fund you.
Make sure you identify where your financing will come from as it’ll define most of your budget until you can start selling products and services to paying customers.
3. When should you hire people for your company?
You also need to consider when you should be hiring people for your company. The idea of running your business alone might be appealing to some people, but it’s also a lot of hard work and can be extremely time-consuming. The key to running a business is to optimize the way you use your time, hence why it’s important to delegate tasks to other people in your business.
But hiring people is expensive. You could get around this by hiring freelancers for certain tasks, and you can also outsource duties such as accounting to a professional service. But at the end of the day, you’re still going to need actual employees in your business if you want to grow in the future. This is where it’s important to consider the roles that you need to hire for and also how much you can afford to pay in terms of salary. It’s a huge responsibility to have a paid employee in your business, so you may want to consider seeking assistance from a recruitment agency.
4. Is there a way to move your business out of your home?
Running a home-based business can be charming and fun, but it’s also somewhat limiting. For instance, you can’t really hire in-person employees because you can’t exactly have them come and work at your house. You also can’t purchase equipment to use for your business since it might take up a lot of space in your home. If you have close employees then you could technically run a business out of your garage without risking the privacy of your family. However, it’s far more ideal to eventually upgrade to a small office.
But when should you consider doing this? Ideally, you should have a reason for wanting to move your business out of your home. For instance, maybe future business tasks require a lot more floor space, hence why you need a larger office. Maybe you’re looking to hire local employees to work with you in person, or perhaps you just want more space to store products. Whatever the reason is, make sure it’s a good one that justifies the cost of renting an office.
