Kick Start a Small Business and Drive Supplementary Income in 2020
2020 has been a wild year for everyone around the world. As we find ourselves working from home more and more and our household budget becomes more in focus than ever before, the question becomes;
How can you generate supplementary income while working from home?
We cover off 5 steps you can take to start a new business or side hustle (with as little capital as possible) to start generating some extra income and level out the old home balance sheet!
1. Chose Something To Focus On
Easier said than done and often over complicated. When trying to decide what you want to do there are a few things to consider.
First, keep it simple! If you over complicate what you do, you will never have a true focus and too often these startups get lost and never get off the ground properly.
Second, what are you good at? A tough question however one to consider. There is nothing wrong with tackling something new but make sure you at least give yourself a chance to be good at it! Don’t start a business selling honey if you’re allergic to bees.
Third, think about the delivery of the product. If the product is your time, consider, will you have enough? Think of something like consulting. If you are going to deliver an actual product, will shipping kill your margin or your price to market?
Once you have considered all of the above, just don’t forget to keep it simple and make your offering basic at the start. Just do it well!
2. Register Your Business
Now you have decided what you want to do, it is time to register your business! Firstly, it is best to speak to an accountant when it comes to money however, the key and most common structures are:
- Sole Trader
- Partnership
- Company
The government has some good resources set up on different structures, what to consider and options you have available. You can read more about them here.
Pro Tip! When picking a name, always check if you can buy the domain name at the same time so you aren’t disappointed when it comes time to build your website.
3. Protect Your Business
Once you have got your business set up, it is time to consider if you need any insurance to operate. For example, if you are going to do some bookkeeping for small businesses to practice as a book keeper by law you must have Professional Indemnity Insurance. In most cases if you are providing your professional skills or advice as your core business, you will need Professional Indemnity Insurance. If you are ever out and about or your customers ever visit your place of business, you can consider Public Liability Insurance.
Some other types of Business Insurance you can consider are:
- Product Liability Insurance
- Crisis Management Insurance
- Business Property or Asset Protection
- Business Continuity Insurance
- Business Express Insurance
- Key Person Insurance
- Cyber Insurance
4. Build A Website
You can spend an absolute fortune building a website. There are a million different agencies out there, all promising the world. The prices vary wildly and you don’t know what you are getting till it is too late. When you are starting a small business or side hustle, the last thing you want to do at the start is spend heaps of money.
So, why not make it yourself!
With incredibly cheap hosting options available now with the growth of cloud computing you can own and run a website for as little as $5 a month spending less than $100 at the start.
One of the easiest to learn, most widely available and well known is WordPress. You can buy off the shelf pre-installed WordPress hosting or you can do a bit of googling a set one up yourself with someone like Amazon. Once set up, all you need to do is buy a theme and you are away! You can even get themes for free however they might not have the same level of configurability without knowing code and when themes are as cheap as $20, it is worth the spend.
If you are going to be running an online store where customers pay for the goods online, while WordPress has some great options you can also consider something like Shopify. While it is a little more expensive (Basic Package is @29 USD a month), it can be worth it as it comes out of the box with great features like coupons, discount codes and very importantly a payment gateway where your customers can make payments.
If you ever get stuck with anything, the beauty is with things like WordPress and Shopify there are so many people using them, the internet has a mass of information out there for free. Worst case scenario you can also use something like Fiverr for the off small job.
5. Social Media
Now you are up and running, it is time to drive some sales. Social media can be a daunting proposition however if you do it right, it can be very powerful.
Set up all of your social media accounts on the platforms you think will best suit your product. Think about the user base and intent as this will drive your decision. Does Instagram scream business consulting? Does LinkedIn sound like the right place to sell sunglasses? Often businesses spend too much time on the wrong platform so make sure you pick what is right. No scatter guns, please.
Once you have opened your accounts up, set up a basic structure and stick to it. For example, if you want to try and post something new every day, make sure you do it EVERY DAY! The algorithms behind a lot of these platforms love consistency and structure so do the best you can to stay on track.
If you have followed all of these steps, it means you are well on your way to getting some additional income in the door. Good luck!
