There’s a lot to think about when you’re first starting up, and usually, it’s a financial juggling act to boot. It’s hard to know where to invest your hard-earned dollars before the business starts generating an income, but here are my top tips on where to save and where to splurge.
1. Company set-up
Do you want to start as a sole trader to test the waters, or do you expect to grow quickly? There’s quite a large set-up cost with a Pty Ltd, so in the majority of cases, I suggest starting as a sole trader and moving to a company set-up once the business is consistently earning. Partnerships can be fraught with danger, so if you have a business partner, I’d suggest going for the company set-up in place of a partnership.
2. Business name
If you’re pondering a name, make sure you search the ASIC business name register for availability (click here), and also check that you can buy the correlating URL. If you can’t get either, try a different name. These two investments are non-negotiables and absolutely essential expenditures.
3. Logo
It’s great to start out as you intend to go on, but the budget doesn’t always stretch to a fancy logo. If you’ve got a decent kitty, then 100 per cent invest in professional branding, but if your purse strings are tight, jump onto Upwork or Fiverr or any other e-lance website. You can grab yourself a fairly cheap logo to get you started. You can’t expect miracles with this option, but at least it’s a starting point.
4. Website
Without a doubt, you need a website. Yes, you can sell directly from Facebook and Insta, but a website gives you credibility and gives you a certain level of professional legitimacy. If your budget doesn’t stretch this far, jump onto one of the consumer platforms like Wix or Squarespace (I don’t recommend WordPress if you don’t have previous experience). Both of these platforms offer drag-and-drop templates that are super easy to use with zero design experience. Wix even gives you a free URL when you upgrade to a premium account so you can kill two birds with one stone.
