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12 Steps I took to start a new and profitable business

Conni Warren

I told you in a previous blog post Why I quit my job that I would share the steps I took to start my business. 

I admit, I have started a business before, but it was a small office of a larger organisation complete with a referral network, software, marketing and training built in. Everything was ready to go for me.

This time, I have set everything up from scratch - the name, brand, scope of services, website, social media, all the plans and then implemented them. Because a plan is nothing without implementation. 

I have learned so much and I want to share that with you. So, here are the twelve steps I took… 

I am by no means an expert but if this blog helps you or someone you know to start a business, then it is worth the time I spent writing it. 

I just want to say though - if you are unsure about starting a business, maybe because you can’t afford to quit your job, there are plenty of ways to start lower risk than I did - I will try to include these options as I tell my story. 

Here’s my steps:

  1. First, I did my research. I researched what work I could do as a contractor using my skills. I used a variety of sources and methods and did a bunch of work on this. Here’s what I did: 

    1.1 I asked a LOT of people who they use for the type of work I was interested in. My favourite answers were when people said they couldn't find anyone - BINGO! 

    1.2 I researched online for others doing this work in my area (in my case, the Northern Territory) and I made notes on their businesses and what I knew or could do differently. For example, I was leaving government employment in 2022, my recent experience was positive, as was my experience in many sectors.  

    1.3 I considered what work I would not do. After 25 years working in administration, sales and executive support, I knew what I didn’t want to do. To narrow down the things I could do, I used my profitability goal and my target market/s.

    1.4 I looked at rates others charged. I calculated that I could make enough income and profit. I offered lower pricing than my competition because I was entering the market as a newbie and needed to get the work in. There is a lot of material on the internet about pricing which I found really helpful. 

  2. Once I decided what to do, I brainstormed business names. Some of them were terrible so I won’t be sharing them. I love my business name On The Same Page Consulting. I always said to my bosses that I wanted to be on the same page as them or that we needed to get on the same page as our clients / staff so it was an easy decision. Plus, I am a huge reader, so it made perfect sense to me. 

  3. Next I drafted a business plan. I think that the Starting a Business Guide and associated list at Guide to starting a business was super helpful. It made me think of a few things I had missed on my TO DO list. 

    I can’t remember where I read this, but a good business is sellable and the name has value.  It would be hard to sell Conni Warren Consulting to someone with a different name. I think it’s unlikely there will be a Conni Warren out there to buy my business if I ever wanted to sell it. 

  4. At this point I checked my thoughts with my business minded friends. They have a broad background for work, education and industry so they are my cheer squad in both business and personal matters and offer critical and honest feedback and input. This team still helps me and I think critical friends are really necessary when building a business on your own. Teamwork is a thing I miss about ‘having a job’. 

  5. I then registered by business name and ABN. If you haven’t run your own business before, I highly recommend understanding different business structures before registering a name and getting an ABN. It’s a bit harder to change over later than it is at this point. There’s good information at business.gov.au. In the NT, there is also support available at Business Enterprise Centre NT or the Territory Business Centres.  If you still aren’t sure, a good accountant can help. 

  6. This step is ongoing but was important to my process. When I started thinking about a new business idea, I started reading more business books. This helped me to get my head in the right place. I will write some reviews on the books that I have read. I think that it is good to explore things as you need the knowledge, rather than setting an impossible reading list.

  7. Now this is where it got challenging for me. My next step was to prepare a cash flow statement. Again I used the free resources at business.gov.au. I love spreadsheets (I’m a geek), but I found this step harder than the other tasks. I find words and ideas much easier than numbers. One of the best bits about my last job was that I had a colleague working right beside me that did the numbers stuff. We had a real yin and yang thing going on - they concentrated on numbers and me on words. 

    Basically, I had to make a lot of guesses on the cashflow. I used my goal of having 10% profit on any income as the guiding light. It still looked quite sad at the beginning. But if you are like me, and you want to just get on with starting the business, then I recommend not getting too hung up on this and just develop something basic. You can edit it every week or month as the information comes together. 

  8. I was really excited about setting up a good brand.  I started preparing my branding with a logo and colour scheme. With very limited graphic design skills and no software, I was really excited when my close friend told me about Canva. I love both the app and the desktop versions. I’ve had fun developing my brand and templates. I even ordered my business cards from the app after step 8 and it was so quick and easy. Canva just gets better and better so if you haven't used it yet - please do yourself a favour.

  9.  Next, I started setting up my website using SquareSpace. To be honest, I did only a little bit of research because I was getting all of this done whilst still working full time and at the end of the year when it is busy. I have been really happy with the pricing and user experience of this system. I would highly recommend it to those with even a little bit of experience with websites or who are willing to spend the time working it out. Of course, I found writing the words the easiest bit.

  10. I then worked on planning my marketing. I had a lot of fun, and stressed A LOT. I have a marketing plan - and yes, of course I got the template from business.gov.au. It was great to have prompts about who my perfect client would be and what methods I would use to promote my business. This really got me excited about starting, but I also knew I had lots of work to do. When I was completing the marketing plan, I used Pinterest to do my research - I found it was a good way to organise the articles and websites I was reading. 

  11. Finally, I set up my home office and I told my dog, Atticus Finch (Atti for short), that I am going to be working at home with him now. He didn't say much at the time, but he loves being my offsider now. 

  12. I planned a public (online) launch (2 February 2022) and strategy for launching. In hindsight it was cringey, low tech, low effort and could have been more polished. I knew though that if I didn't do something easy, I would never launch. After all, it was no space mission and no one was going to die if I stuffed it up. Here is my Facebook Live video if you want to share the cringe - https://fb.watch/fCw9ct7U73/. I wouldn't take it back though, it got hundreds of visits to my website and I think that it was a positive start to the business. I advertised it on my personal and business facebook pages and my LinkedIn profile. I set it up as an event on Facebook. 

NOTE: I am proud of myself for doing this because one thing that not many people know is that my youngest daughter had been admitted to hospital the night before and my husband was taking the parenting lead that day. That was hard and I almost pulled the plug on the launch, but I didn't and it was worth it. 

So there’s my 12 steps for 12 steps I took to start a new and profitable business. I hope it was helpful. If you are considering a business idea, you may wish to mix it up a bit. 

Here's a list of the 12 steps I took to start a new and profitable business:

  1. Research services or products, competition and pricing 

  2. Brainstorm business names

  3. Wrote a business plan

  4. Sense checked my business ideas 

  5. Register a business name and get an ABN

  6. Read business books

  7. Prepared a cash flow statement

  8. Branding

  9. Website and email address 

  10. Marketing plan

  11. Home Office set up

  12. Planned a public launch

If you think this would be useful for someone you know, please forward or share it. 

I love feedback and questions so please comment or ask for more info. You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, send me an email.  

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Conni.