New Business Tips
Tips for Starting a Business
Getting into business for oneself is a dream of many New Zealanders. Which is why we have one of the highest levels of self-employment in the world.
But owning your own business is not always the smooth sailing dream of ownership that some may expect.
Where do you start? We wanted to give you a few tips for starting a business after years of building a number of successful brands from the ground up.
Most new business owners start with an idea, a blank sheet of paper and not much else. Everything required for the business has to be built up from scratch. And any business owner will tell you it can be lonely at the top.
But it doesn't have to be that way.
With the right focus on creating efficient business processes and robust financial models, you can create an asset that will continue to grow in value into the future. Below we provide you with a range of topic areas that we strongly recommend you consider before you start your next business venture.
Some important areas to consider when starting a new business venture include:
- Initial Investment
- Ongoing Operational Expenses
- Expected Cash Flow
- Marketing and Promotion
- Tax Requirements and Implementation
- Staff Requirements
- System Redundancy Solutions
- Business Systems and Processes
- Industry Regulatory Requirements
- Company Registration
7 Tips for New Business Success
1. Prepare for a lack of Guaranteed Income
One of the largest concerns to any new business owner is often the lack of guaranteed income. We all have living expenses from our mortgages through to all of the other monthly expenses. Often a business can struggle not due to a lack of business strategy or market opportunity, but simply that the business owner is unable to balance expenses with income levels within the first few years of business.
Pzazz Building
may be the new force in the New Zealand building industry, but we're so confident in the power of our brand, marketing and systems that we'll even guarantee a minimum income for your first three months in business. That's something no other building business is prepared to do.
2. Identify your initial Business Set-up Costs
Initial start up costs can often present a barrier that requires financial support from a bank or alternate lending institution, This is often around ensuring the business has the right tools on hand to be able to deliver their service, as well as creation of the brand and gaining market exposure.
We've kept the costs of joining Pzazz Building
and starting your own business to a minimum for a very good reason - we only want the best people on board. Yes, you will need access to some capital to get started just as you would if you were starting a stand-alone business. But we think you'll be pleasantly surprised by how little it costs for a Pzazz Building business.
3. Starting a Business from the Ground Up
Starting a business from the ground up involves a large number of aspects from business processes through invoicing and effective time management. This will often require countless hours of formulating a strategy and operating model which is likely to evolve over time. Many business owners often underestimate the time and effort required to get this right which can lead to a lack of profit margin which can undermine the business success in the early stages.
When is a new opportunity not a new opportunity? When it's founded on an existing system that's proven itself over fifteen years. But Pzazz Building
offers fresh advantages for astute builders who recognise a unique opportunity when they see it. The opportunity to choose from available territories and be a new member of the Pzazz Building success story with no limits to your potential for growth.
4. Essential Business Expenses (Fixed Costs)
The fixed costs within a business are expenses which do not change based on sales or work volumes. These could be things such as leasing a commercial office, through to monthly software expenses that remain constant. As these expenses are not related to income to the business, they will be there regardless of if it is a good month or not.
Unlike some business, we don't force you to take a lease on commercial offices, although if you'd like to, that's up to you.
Most of our business owners operate from their homes to keep their costs to a minimum. It's all about keeping your business as competitive as possible and paying yourself instead of a landlord.
5. Ongoing Operational Business Expenses (Variable Costs)
The variable costs within a business directly relate to sales volumes. Although this may appear to be something that takes care of itself (as these costs increase in relation to sales volumes), that is on the assumption you are getting paid up front for your services before incurring the cost of supplying the product/service. Although this can be the case with some products and services,others require job completion and a tax invoice before payment is scheduled and received (often the following month).
As with the initial costs of a Pzazz Building business, we've kept our fees low. Lower, in fact, than any other building renovation business we're aware of. We've done this as an incentive for you to grow your business, and you'll find that as you do grow, we're the only business with royalties that actually get smaller.
6. Business Systems and Processes
This is often an area overlooked by the excited start up business owner. The systems and processes behind your business will provide efficiency or cause significant strain on the ability to deliver to your end clients in a timely manner. This can include everything from choosing the correct accounting software, through to planning out what stages a job must go through from inception to completion and what barriers may be present along the way.
We've spent years and hundreds of thousands of dollars developing technology that does everything you need it to do - pricing, quoting, invoicing, financial reporting, project management, sales and marketing, you name it - in one sophisticated but easy-to-use system. truly meets the needs of our business owners. What's more, it has been proven over several years by Fix It Building Services. You won't have to pay anything for software, because there is no software. It's a cloud-based system, which means you can access it from anywhere, even on a building site.
7. Ongoing Training & Support
Getting the best people on board isn't enough. We're also committed to providing the best training and support. Not only will you receive full training before you start with us, but you'll also have access to any training materials and other documentation you need on our comprehensive intranet. We'll visit you at least once every two months, guaranteed. And we hold regular conferences and team training sessions. And as well as having extensive head office support, you'll also have the backup of a growing network of non-competing design and build professionals.
Often a new business owner will come from an industry they know and have experience in. But what happens when he comes off the tools and there are changes within the industry? Often business can be effected by a range of influences from government regulation to alternative solutions driven by technological advancement or a new competitor entering the marketplace. Ensuring you are able to keep.