The easy (and sometimes free) way you can start a business

For many people, this time of year can bring about a lot of reflection. We start to ponder about the year that was and things we want to change for the year ahead (often with our careers being a particular focus). If your career is something that’s been on your mind, perhaps you’re ready to finally give that business idea a go? Below,  NEE-V’s founder Eryn Behan talks about the easy (and sometimes free) way you can start a business.

Where to begin when starting a business

1. Put your ideas down on paper (or virtually)

If you’ve got a business idea that’s been floating around in your mind, now is the time to start writing it down. When things are ‘all in your head’ it can be hard to really figure out where you need to start with your ideas and where you’re headed.

It can be as simple as jotting it down in a notebook or as complicated as building out a business plan online. Whatever it is, write those great ideas down – it can often be the thing that sparks other great ideas.

2. Break it up into small steps

The idea of starting a business can feel really overwhelming. However, things like registering your business name, reaching out to a graphic designer or opening up a business bank account don’t seem as daunting. The reality is, building a business from the idea phase can come into fruition if you just break up that big goal into small steps.

Try to build out a timeline that can give yourself tasks each day and get to work ticking things off that list. Before you know it, those little tasks all add up and you might be ready to launch!

3. Test your ideas

One of the scariest parts about starting a business is knowing if your idea is actually going to work. Sure, you obviously think it’s a good idea, but how do you know if everyone else will? This is where testing your idea can really come in handy.

Reach out to friends, family members and colleagues to find out their thoughts about your business idea, test your products or even get them to make some decisions for you. You can do this by starting a private Instagram chat group and post polls for your friends to answer, or even reaching out to strangers on things like Facebook’s Like Minded Bitches Drinking Wine group. Remember, two (or hundreds) of heads are always better than one!

4. Consider all your costs first

This might sound like an obvious point, however starting an eCommerce business can either cost you a lot of money, or not much at all, depending on where you spend money, and where you save it. Of course, there’s unavoidable costs but there’s also many so-called costs which you can find a cheaper or free version of.

However, before you even start spending money, consider every little thing that you’re going to have to pay for, first. If you don’t know what things will cost, you will need to do a lot of research. This will save you – and your bank account – later.

For me, starting an ingestible collagen brand meant that I had some unavoidable costs (like the creation of the physical product), however there were certainly many other ‘costs’ that I factored in at the start, but didn’t actually have to spend money on.

The truth is, starting your own business can cost you virtually $0 if you take advantage of all the free tools available to you.

Take advantage of the cheap (and sometimes free) tools

Below are some of the tools that I have used from the start, and still use to this day.

Canva

Canva is a graphic design tool where you can create logos, presentations, social media posts and a whole lot more. Sure, it won’t do everything a professional graphic designer can do, but if you don’t have the money to spend on that right now, it can really save you.

Later

Later is an incredible social media scheduling tool where you can plan ahead your social posts. You can use the platform for free for up to 30 posts a month and you can set literally set and forget your social posts. It not only saves you money on having to pay a social media manager, but also saves you time, too.

MailChimp

MailChimp is an email marketing platform that allows you to send EDMs to your email database. Of course, when you’re first starting out a business you may not have an email database, but this is a little reminder to make sure you build out that database from the start! Once you have those subscribers, you can easily design a beautiful email newsletter and send it out to your customers.

Calendy

Calendy is an online scheduling tool where you can book meetings and appointments with a just a few easy clicks. You can also incorporate it into other software so people can easily see your availabilities and schedule in meetings with you.

Slack

Slack is a messaging app that allows you to easily talk to your team or those outside of your business (such as contractors and freelancers). It’s a very informal way of essentially sending an email or quickly getting in contact with someone. You can also create channels so all your communication or information is in one place.

WordPress

Most people have heard of WordPress and what they do, but if you haven’t, they create websites fairly easily. There are many other great website builders but WordPress is very well regarded and compatible with many other plugins and software.

Pexels

If you need imagery for your business but don’t have the funds to pay for a photoshoot, there are lots of free stock photos options like Pexels that you can use (just be sure to credit the photographer).

Google Docs

Google Docs is great for collaborating on documents and keeping them all together in one place. You can create spreadsheets, documents, slides, forms and folders.

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