The past decade has seen an influx of small, developing businesses going head to head. Plenty of our beloved brands started off as small businesses and startups, which is inspiring to aspiring entrepreneurs to say the least.
We have the popular game Genshin Impact, which started out as an indie game company in China, utility and creative site Canva, whose founder started with only a handful of employees, and Instagrammable Colourpop Cosmetics, which now has two sister companies.
The pandemic made it easier for people to start businesses from the comfort of their homes. With most commercial establishments closed, and people tend to stay indoors, budding entrepreneurs found the time and resources to put their plans into action. In fact, we’ve seen half a million small businesses that started in the US alone in 2020, 24.3% higher than 2019!
Getting Started
They say your journey starts with a single step, and that can’t be more true than for starting a new venture! Deciding to open your own business from home is a huge step, and kudos to you if you decided to go this route. Getting started is always the hardest part – where do you even begin?
First thing’s first – have a promising business idea. Play on your strengths and find where your passion lies. Love baking? Open a home bakeshop. Is animal care more your speed? Open a shop for pet supplies, toys, and food that is well-researched and organic. Once you’ve started working on your business idea, the rest of the specifics will follow suit.
Playing with the Big Names
With so many companies out there that have established themselves for generations, your mom and pop shop may seem like a grain of sand compared to the sea of multinational corporations you’re competing with.
Don’t get intimidated by the competition, and find out what makes your business different from the rest. Remember, all those big-name companies started out with an idea too, and they worked on their idea until it grew to what it is today.
Keep believing and working on your business venture, and accept constructive criticism along the way. Let yourself improve, and find ways to speak to your market. Build up on your strengths, and don’t be hindered by your weaknesses.
Standing Out
Standing out is not always a good thing; but in terms of business, it is necessary to bring your business into the spotlight. Of course, you’d want good, positive publicity around your business, so you will need to take steps on making that happen.
Standing out can come in forms of the innovation of your product or service, much like Apple, Tesla, and Zoom, or through consistent and effective marketing campaigns like the ones from McDonald’s, and Coca-cola. Standing out keeps you ahead of the competition, and gives you an edge over the big-name companies.
Simple Advertising Tools
Customized Promotional Products
Customized promotional products are different from custom labels and packaging. These promotional products are often given away to prospective customers in hopes that they will bring value to your brand.
Not all promotional products are helpful, however, since we’re so used to seeing common forms of giveaways like plastic fans, pens, and the like. If you’re looking to customize promotional products, go for useful, unconventional methods, like towels, umbrellas, and water bottles.
Take water bottles, for example: you rarely see a company advertising on a water bottle, but it is a portable, and common item that people bring with them everywhere. It’s like a walking billboard that is untapped in marketing, and is inexpensive, so even starting companies can utilize them. They come in plastic bottles, and the eco-friendly aluminum ones too!
By placing your brand on items like bottled water, you are ingraining your business on the minds of passersby seeing your ad, as well as the person drinking the water. You gain value-adding awareness of your company’s products and services. You can customize bottled water with your business name and logo here: https://myownwater.com/
Local Advertising
One positive aspect of a startup is that you can leverage on the fact that you’re still small, and go for local advertising. Local advertising is often cheaper, and can bring awareness to your brand among the local residents.
Place your business in the papers, or geo-lock your sponsored posts online to attract people around you to your business. Once you’ve captured a sizable audience in your local area, you can start growing from there. Take advantage of your inclusion in your community to study the consumer trends around the area, and apply them to your business.
Video and Social Media Content
In the age where content is like gold, we tend to consume as much content as we can process in a day. Use the digital age to your advantage by providing expertise video content for your consumers. Linking your business with expert content does not only provide you with value-adding brand awareness, you also gain a following online.
Today’s social media consumerism feeds the most tech-savvy companies, whose marketing and advertising plans translated to the current trends and internet culture. Unlike in large corporations, where every decision requires approval from an entire team, your smaller company has the advantage of streamlining content to keep up with the times.
Flow like Water
Water isn’t always a calm, reserved stream that flows consistently forward. On the contrary, water is unpredictable, and can have moments that are calm, moments that are raging, and moments where everything is completely still.
In business, you will experience rough patches, as well as positive moments, and stagnant times. Like water, the market is unpredictable, and sometimes you may feel like you’re not making a significant contribution to your market share. However, you need to find your flow, and adapt to the current situation like water shapes itself to a bottle.
Starting a company is hard – whether you’re building a startup, or working from home. Keep improving yourself and keep on figuring out what works with your business, and you’ll find that your business will start to flow like water.
