What are the best things to consider, when starting up a business, right here – in and around Mid Sussex?
Start by becoming familiar. No one knows you yet, so you need to get known. This could be by ‘popping up everywhere’; consider supporting local charities, sponsoring the village football team and running ads online to get your name out there. New businesses need to get recognition before they get customers. A news item in a well-read magazine like ours, also supports this narrative.
Once people in your neighbourhood begin to see you repeatedly, the next stage is remembering you and what you do. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen overnight, but marketing is often a long game – where you need to keep doing the right stuff.
For those early customers you have got – encourage them to leave reviews and share their experiences. Recommendations help build trust and local credibility. These early adopters may even turn into your unofficial sales team, with a bit of luck!
Above all, it’s probably worth remembering that your first job – when starting a business – isn’t necessarily to go and get loads of customers. Really, it’s to make sure the right people (your ideal customer) know who you are, what you do and why they should remember you.
When a new business opens in any of the areas which we work in, we love to run a little ‘welcome news story’ – we know our readers love these features, and they are a brilliant way of introducing the business owner’s story to our readership (that specific local community) in a non-salesy way.
