Before starting out your business, you will need to have a few things in place, such as a company name and basic branding.

This guide will help you to understand the easy way of setting up your business marketing and administration.

A business name or trading name

As a new business, the best is to start off your company as a Sole Trader. You can always re-register your company at a later stage. Sole trader is less expensive as you will not require auditing.

You can use a “company name generator” online to help give you ideas for your business name. 

Try to keep your company name short and should have an indication of what service you do. For instance, a business name such as “Jake’s Refrigeration” will have more impact than just “Jakes Services”.

A company logo 

A business logo should be a reflection of your company name or what service you offer. It should be neat and attractive and resonate with you. A reputable graphic designer can assist with this, or alternatively an online Logo Generated can help give you ideas for a logo.

Business cards

Although we are in the digital age, business cards still hold value especially when meeting new potential clients. It omits the awkwardness of repeating yourself several times when giving out your number or email address.

Letterheads

These include invoices, reports, job-cards, delivery notes and quotes, or any document or letter that you may issue to clients.

These should include your company name, logo and contact details.

Website and Social Media

With the rise of digital age, it is important to have a digital presence online. New clients want to be able to do some research about you before they sign you up as a provider. 

Your social media presence should always be clean and not have any content that would distract or deter new clients from doing business with you.

Facebook pages

Facebook pages have become more popular with businesses as there are many new features that have been added over the years.

Your Facebook page will need to give your clients an idea of what you do, who you are and build trust.

Email addresses

An email address should be professional and easy to pronounce over a phone call. Complicated email addresses always lead to misspelling and therefore emails may be lost.

You can use a Gmail account, or alternatively have an email address with the same website name (if you decide to have a website). Another option is to buy a monthly subscription (which is not expensive) with a website hosting provider to allocate a professional looking email address for you.

WhatsApp Business Account

A WhatsApp business account is a quicker way to communicate with clients instead of email. It is more professional to use a business account other than a private chat. You can tag, highlight new and old clients to categorize clients to help you manage or send bulk messages. With a business account you can also add a personal message to reply to customers who have contacted you. Attachments, catalogues, or services can also be added to your business account.

Company Website

Websites to help with promoting your business to give clarity on what service you offer. 

Although it’s not always mandatory to have a website as you can use Facebook pages to do the same thing. However, as you progress, hire more employees or expand your business, you may want to consider a website.

Websites can seem expensive, however, a simple 3-page website built with WordPress is a good start.

Hosting providers such as GoDaddy, Hetzner or Afrihost can offer affordable solutions for any new business., 

A basic 3-page website is effectively all you need:

Home Page which shows what services you offer.

About Page can include services that you offer and a few pictures of jobs you have completed.

Contact Page for clients to contact you via email or telephone number.

Google Business

If you are located in a specific area or servicing an area, we recommend that you register your business on Google with your company name, service, operating times as well as the area you are servicing.

At this point, it’s not important to spend too much money on Google Searches, however, this will be covered in the Marketing Section of this course.