At Planted Marketing, we have over six years of experience exclusively working with start-up businesses. We love working with new business owners to help them create their brands from the ground up and we understand the importance of laying a good foundation when building your company. Creating your own business can be daunting and overwhelming. While there are definite perks to being your business owner, there’s a lot to consider before starting your own business. 

Let’s discuss what to expect when starting a business from scratch and offer you honest advice about what you need to know before diving into the business world. Money, time investment, and patience are all crucial to building a business from scratch. 

Building a new business is not fast; it’s not cheap, it’s not easy, and it’s not for the faint of heart. However, a new business is an investment toward your future, and the more you put into it, the higher the return on investment. So let’s look at what to expect when starting a business from scratch and how to prepare for the highs and lows of business management.  

It Takes Time
Building a business is a lot like building a house: it helps to have a professional involved! Slight humor aside, building a foundation is crucial to starting your business from scratch. Start building your foundation with your website and content. The goal when starting is to amass a following on social media and become a respected authority in your niche. Starting with planned marketing strategies can make building a foundation easier, but as with many parts of running a business, building a solid foundation takes time. While several companies claim to offer shortcuts to building followers, organic marketing and traffic are much more reliable and have long-term payoffs. However, be aware that building a new business is a slow climb. 

One way to speed up engagement with your business is by creating a founding face. As the founder of your business, you have the potential to drive engagement using your personality and your story. Think of some of the biggest tech companies in history. Figures like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Nicola Tesla all have a founding story and a personality. These entrepreneurs knew that their image instilled trust in their company, and their perception as technological geniuses and innovators helped inspire interest in their businesses from the start. While not every founder can carry this level of charisma, making yourself available and attached to your company can add an emotional component that allows customers and clients to connect with you. This connection can, in turn, speed growth and help solidify the foundation of your site. Above all, be honest about how much time you’re willing to invest in your company. If you cannot invest your time when your business is starting, it will become more challenging to sustain your business in the future.

Prepare to Invest

While the end goal of starting a business is economic growth, starting a company from scratch is a financial investment. Contracting workers, hiring employees, buying content, advertising, sending samples, and investing in applications all cost capital. While capital loans exist for the express purpose of starting a small business, it can be overwhelming to invest in a company for limited returns. Remember that building a foundation and reaching out to customers takes time. 

Your customer needs to see your brand seven times before they’ll make a purchase, which is why an aggressive marketing strategy is a key to growing your company from the start. Investing in organic marketing, reaching out to influencers and reviewers, and starting social media campaigns are worthwhile but expensive forms of marketing. Without investment capital, to begin with, your company’s growth could stagnate. 

Patience is Key

Remember that even with the best marketing strategy in the world, it can take a few years for your business to break even or turn a profit. This lack of financial gain is a normal part of starting a new business from scratch, so be sure to plan and set realistic expectations for your business. While we all dream of starting up a new company and having it succeed from the get-go or becoming an overnight household name, it can take years of hard work and dedication to see your business flourish. However, once your business is up and running, your hard work and patience will be worth it.

If you want to grow your small business through organic marketing, the experienced experts at Planted Marketing are here to help. Our experience and personalized marketing strategies can help your business gain recognition, experience growth, and become an authoritative voice in your niche. Contact our team to learn more today. 

Planted Marketing is a full-service digital marketing agency created for small to mid-size businesses, start-ups, and personal brands. We customize our plans to fit the business at each stage of growth. Want to learn more? Send us a message at info@plantedmarketing.com. Talk soon!