6 Things to Invest In When Starting a New Business

When starting a business, it’s obvious that you first analyze your idea to determine where you will set up the premises and the people that are more likely to buy the services or products that you will be offering. You also think about where you will get seed capital. As you think about all these things, you are more likely to forget about essential things that are needed when opening your doors to the masses. Regardless of whether you will be selling bread or bottled water, there are some things that you must invest in for your business to operate smoothly. When such things are not available, you will definitely experience obstacles along the way that will eventually bring your enterprise on it’s knees. Here is a list of the things that you should give priority when starting a new venture.

  1. Online Payment System

In this day and age, more and more people are buying and selling things on the internet because it’s more convenient that driving to an offline store. Without an online payment system gateway, it will be hard to get paid by our customers. You will also experience the same challenge when sourcing for materials from vendors. Without an online payment system, customers will try paying for goods or services using their credit cards in vain.

This is because credit card payments must be processed by an intermediary for the transactions to be approved. When you invest in such a system, customers will have several options of paying for the items they order for. Apart from paying via credit card, they will be able to pay using either Paypal, Web Money, Neteller and Skrill among others.That’s why it’s advisable you partner with a company that offers resell merchant services

In addition to online payments, you will want to learn all the ways to lower your processing fees. Since this is a direct cut out of your profit, this should be one of the first things you address. It is great to be making sales and having clients in the door, but if too much of that income is going to other merchants, it can take a serious chunk of your income that you could otherwise utilize elseware in your business. Learn more about how you can lower your processing fees today.

  1. Bank Account and Accounting System

It’s not advisable to use your personal bank account for keeping the proceeds that you get from your business. This is because the money will get mixed up with other funds that have been obtained from different income stream.  When you have a separate bank account for your business, you reduce the chances of using money that’s meant for other purposes. Nowadays opening a bank account is very easy. You only need to visit the bank’s website and present your identification documents. You will also need to invest in an accounting software. Such a system is much affordable than hiring an accountant. With an accounting system, you will be able to generate financial records at the click of a button. Sage and Quick Books are the most common applications.

  1. Website

A few decades a go, having a business website was considered optional. But times have changed. These days every business must have a website. This is because it’s not possible to sell stuff online without a website. In fact, nowadays business owners don’t rent office space due to the fact that one can operate from home and still reach out to many people. You can hire web developers to create it for you or develop one on your own. Technology has ctually simplified things. You can use free tools on the internet to create a website even when you don’t have any skills in web design.

  1. Domain Name

A domain name is simply an address that’s used to locate your business on the internet. Without it, people will not be able to find your website, which in return will contribute to low or zero sales. When designing the domain name of your business, you should make sure that people can tell what your business does by just looking at it. For instance, if you make greenhouses, you should include the word somewhere in the web address. If you can’t make a domain name on your own, you can buy one at Flippa.

  1. Business Name Registration

It’s important you register a name for your business before opening shop. This is because the law requires all businesses to registered. This is done to protect the interests of consumers and taxation purposes. Before your name is registered, you must carry out a search to find out if the name is already being used by another business. Once, you confirm no other business is using the name, the registrar of companies will approve it and give you a registration number.

  1. Office Equipment

Although you may not be renting an office space, it’s important you invest in office equipment such as computer, scanner, photocopy machine, desktop phone and office furniture among other things. Having these things will help in improving your efficiency. You will also be able to serve your customers much better. And since some of the things might be expensive, you should just buy what you can afford and wait until when you have more money to buy the rest.  

Adam Hansen
 

Adam is a part time journalist, entrepreneur, investor and father.