Start a Community Driven Business With This Short Guide

A Community driven business is perfect for new entrepreneurs because there are so many mutual benefits involved, and there are several steps you can take to ensure it’s a success. While starting a business comes with many decisions to make, you can make things easier on yourself by researching the area you’re in and finding support from other business owners. Here, we offer some tips to entrepreneurs who are looking to find work/life balance.

Protect Yourself

No matter what kind of community driven business you want to start, it’s a good idea to plan ahead and take measures to protect yourself legally. Forming a limited liability company is a great way to ensure that you will have limited personal liability in the event of a lawsuit or if your business accrues major debt, and it can also add some credibility to your business. There are tax advantages, as well, making it a no-brainer for most small business owners.

Choosing a name that isn’t already registered is crucial, and there are a few fees involved. You can save yourself some time and money by hiring a formation service to file rather than an attorney, however. If you need to register for a “doing business name” or DBA (for whenever a company operates under a different name than how it’s registered), there is an additional legal requirement, a formation service can help with that, as well.

Do Some Market Research

Once you have the legalities covered, it’s time to do some research on your potential competition. This is a great opportunity to get out into the community and talk to other business owners, get your name out there, and find out what people in the area are looking for in a new business. If you’re going to have a brick-and-mortar store or office space, it’s also the perfect time to start looking for a location, taking into account how much room you’ll need to conduct business and store inventory and/or supplies. If a physical location isn’t in the budget, you can always set up a home-based business and branch out later.

Get to Know the Benefits of Your Community Driven Business

As you talk to members of your community, it’s essential to understand and talk up the mutual benefits that come with running a community driven business there. Small businesses provide new job opportunities, as well as new and different products and services. They also pay local taxes that keep schools and infrastructures thriving.

Depending on where you live, your small business could play a vital role in helping the local economy as well. As far as the benefits you’ll receive by setting up in a local community, they include having a built-in support system and multiple opportunities for cross-promotion. Repeat and loyal customers are also an advantage since they tend to be more common in smaller communities.

Get Involved

Once your community driven business is close to opening, it’s time to get more involved in that same community. Because you’ve already talked up your business and made a few connections, this part should be easy! Consider planning a soft opening by invite-only to give other business owners a chance to see what you’re all about. Make it a fun gathering by decorating a little and offering refreshments. Don’t forget to ask for feedback! You can also make it a point to get involved in local fundraising efforts and support other businesses in the area as well. The more you can get your name out there, the easier it will be to garner professional relationships down the road.

As you approach your opening, you’ll want to begin advertising. Even though you are a community business, using social media to promote your business is important. You can use a Facebook ads maker to quickly and easily generate professional ad graphics to announce your presence to your community. Targeting the demographics of your customers will surely bring them in.

Starting a business takes a lot of work, but when you have the help of a community it’s much easier to find success. Utilize social media and other online mediums as well so you’ll have even more reach in your town, and consider making every customer experience a personalized one to bring them back.