If you’re looking to become another one of the country’s successful new small businesses, then you’ll need to do everything you can to avoid heading into the markets ill-prepared. Otherwise you not only run the risk of damaging your company, you’ll be undoing all the good work you’ve done so far to get to this position. So what can you do?

While there’s no accounting for all the problems you might face, there are still some steps to take to avoid some of the bigger issues; in this post are three such examples you can encounter and some useful tips on how to avoid them.

#1 Not Enough Financial Backing

You don’t need a business degree to realise that without enough capital behind your start up, you simply won’t be able to sustain it. Everything from your supplies, to your business premises, payroll and more needs financial support to get it off the ground, so you need to make sure you have enough.

What to do: There are a number of ways to handle this, with one of the more obvious being to take out a loan, or secure funds by pitching to investors. You also need to remember that your finances are the lifeblood of your business and should be managed effectively from the start. As such if you have any reservations or feel you’re not qualified for this then it’s worth using an external expert such as Just Accountants for example.

#2 No Online Presence

We live in a digital age today and the modern consumer will expect you to have some form of online presence. If you don’t you’re essentially missing out on a huge market.

What to do: You should setup a website for your start-up and better still you should create free social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to help establish your brand and digitally market your products/services.

#3 No Competitor Analysis

A big mistake is not checking out the competition before you start up. Without this you won’t be able to form a solid business plan as you won’t be able to determine how and why your product/service offering is better than others.

What to do: The advice here is simple, you need to conduct thorough market research in the early stages of your business. Look at what your competitors offer and then consider strategies for how you can provide something better and more desirable to your target markets.

So, take this advice and put your new business on the right path to success and make sure you get off to the best possible start.