Partner Article

How to get started: Five tips for entrepreneurs

Paul Lawton, Head of Small Business for O2, offers his top tips for entrepreneurs thinking of starting their own business - as O2 Business research reveals that 2 April was the most popular day to start a business in 2013.

1. Follow your dreams

There’s a lot of entrepreneurial spirit in the UK, but many dreams are never realised because we aren’t confident of our own abilities. A recent survey we did showed that almost two-thirds (61%) of people in the UK weren’t confident that their grasp of modern technology was good enough to start a business.

Starting a business can be overwhelming but there’s always someone who can talk you through the tech. O2 Business’s Start Up Promotion comes with full support from the O2 Business customer service team who are on hand to guide the less digitally savvy through the start-up process.

2. Be savvy, and rent it and use the cloud

With technology advancing faster than ever before a lot of savvy small businesses are choosing to rent everything in the office from the computers to the water cooler. It means you can stay up to date with technology without the high upfront cost, and also gives you better control of cash flow.

It’s because of this that O2 Business has developed O2 Lease which allows our smaller business clients to get the latest smartphones with no upfront cost for the phone. You can avoid the big overheads whilst still equipping your office with the technology you need from the very beginning. 3. Get a good work-life balance

Starting a business takes a lot of work and it won’t stop once you’re up and running. But this isn’t a reason to let the job get the better of you. It’s important for you to be happy, and if you’re living in the office it’s unlikely you will be. Utilise technology such as such as Office 365, 4G, cloud, and collaboration tools to make it easy to conduct business from beyond the confines of the office.

4. Think about your digital strategy

Many small business owners are guilty of not embracing the opportunities that digital can bring. For example, Twitter serves as a ‘neutraliser’ in the world of social media, allowing small businesses to compete favourably with large enterprises that require big marketing departments.

You might obsess about the layout of your store, but what about your online presence? How are you going to build an audience, convert customers and keep engaging with these customers in the digital space? A good starting point to help you think about this is O2’s Social Insights tool, providing hints, tips and advice on engaging customers further afield.

5. Don’t give up

Not everyone will have as much faith in your business as you will. While it’s always important to heed the advice of others, (your critics are often the most helpful) if you think it’s a brilliant idea then you can make it work. Don’t give up with the first knock back, there’s always another route to success. Taking a risk is the start of every new invention.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by O2 Business .