How to start your business quickly?

When you're starting your own business, you've got thousands of questions and no answers. I've been helped enormously by fellow entrepreneurs who told me all they knew, and as a way to pay forward, I'm sharing what I'm learning along the way too. Imperfectly, incompletely, from the heart. 

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The better you prepare, the better the outcome, but if you're poor in time and rich in to do's, there's a way to launch your business quickly.

I’ve been thinking about starting my own business for about half a year before actually getting down to do it. And once all the mental blocks were removed (‘I don’t know how’, ‘When am I going to do it?’, ‘Am I good enough?’etc…), a few things helped me to move along quickly. Ultimately it took 6 weeks from committing to launching the website and it could have been faster if I was even better at applying the following principles.

The below will help you to get practical and launch quickly if you have already done the hard work of knowing what you want to sell and how. There's no denying that it's going to be a much harder cookie to bite if you're still working on it or developing an entire program or product from scratch.

1. START BEFORE YOU’RE READY

Don't wait till you have everything figured out and till all stars align. Let’s face it: you will never know all you need to know or have enough time to give your new business all the attention it deserves, especially if it’s a side hustle. Instead, start at the first surge of inspiration and carry on from there.

Don't search for months for The Perfect Name for your business as it will hold you back from taking next steps. Choose something connected to your business that you like the sound of and get going. To get your creative juices flowing, check out my article ‘How to pick a name for your business?’. You will find there 5 ideas illustrated by multiple examples of businesses in Switzerland and I’m also sharing how my own side hustle ‘BabyMiles’ found its name. 

2. APPLY THE 'BETTER DONE THAN PERFECT' AND 'GOOD ENOUGH' APPROACH

This has been my mantra for launching BabyMiles.ch. It's incredibly hard to put something out into the world to be judged when you know it's not perfect. I have a list of about 1000 things that I want to do better but I just can't tackle them all at once - I'm working 80%, I'm a Board Member at Capacity, I’m a Lean in Switzerland Leader, I'm a mother and a girlfriend and oh, I'm pregnant too (tired anyone...?) If you’re wearing multiple hats too, the ‘good enough’ approach will need to do for you too.

3. DO IT YOURSELF

I know it's counterintuitive, especially if you have no idea about any of it, but remember, we're going here for building and launching something simple asap. You can get something fancier later when you really need it and can pay for it but in the meantime, I guarantee you that you can design a simple logo, a website and business cards - all by yourself. 

My approach to all tech stuff is that I won't let it stop me but I want to be done with it as quickly as possible to move onto something that I find more interesting. If you're like me - you're going to like the below. If not - you may cringe :)

And when you decide to do it all yourself, stick to these three rules:

1. Avoid choice paralysis 
2. Better is done than perfect
3. Keep calm

Let’s get practical:

• Buying a domain and hosting - there are thousands of places where you can do that so go for a known, reliable provider and let it rest. Ask your business friend where she got hers and if she's happy - follow her example. I got my domain and hosting at Hoststar because Patrycja Pielaszek recommended it - and she knows her stuff. No regrets so far! With just a few clicks you'll be a proud owner of your own domain - how cool is that?!
• A website or an online store - the go-to places are WordPress for websites and Shopify for e-commerce. The trick here is not to get sucked into the hole of finding the perfect template (called "theme") for your website. My humble advice - don't even start looking at the paid themes. Check out the few free ones, give yourself an hour and make your choice. If it's the first time you're building a website, you won't even know well which features you need. Once your business brings money, you can hire somebody to add all the bells and whistles you like or even entirely change your theme. That’s a headache to worry about later.

I'm using Shopify for www.babymiles.ch and I chose the default "Debut" theme created especially for newbies like me and I was pleasantly surprised how easy to customise it was! My website is very simple and I'm surely not using its full potential but I can write what I like, I can add pictures and my customers can get my product - the NatureBond Silicone Breast Milk Pump - and that will do for now!

?????? Warning - easy how it sounds, it’s not going to be a walk in a park. You will still need to spend a significant amount of time learning how to use the software, what it can do and what it can’t (arghhh…!) Best way to go is to spread it over multiple days and tinker at your website little by little every single day. And breathe. Keep calm. Accept that it’s not going to be exactly as you want it (for now) and that it’s a process. Rome wasn’t built in a day either.

• Logo: I know this can be huge for some entrepreneurs and will hold them back from getting their business off the ground. We all want a beautiful logo. If you want one quickly though you may need to settle for ‘good enough’ and remind yourself that ‘done is better than perfect’. 

It took me 2 hours to design my BabyMiles logo in Canva. It would have taken less if I knew the software before or got a better esthetic sense. It definitely doesn’t win any awards for creativity but I like it and it’s good enough for now!

• Business cards and other stationary (e.g. stickers, flyers, postcards) - just go to Moo and with a few clicks you will have all you need. You can just use your brand new logo or design something fancier with them. 

?? TIP: If you're buying from Switzerland, make sure you're on the German store to improve the speed and cost of your delivery dramatically! My first order went through the US Store and it took a month to get it, compared to just 4 days when ordering through the German store. Plus the shipment was 10 EUR less!

• Business e-mail: Again, making a choice between the providers can be a struggle but luckily many of the platforms where you got your domain and hosting will also offer to take care of your email. I went with Gmail because I already have 3 other Gmail accounts and I can access them all through one app without the need to log in every time. Convenience won. Go here to get your business e-mail (G Suite Basic is probably all you need to start - thanks @Iwona Fluda for letting me know I was overpaying unnecessary for G Suite Business!)

?? TIP: Don't get put off by the step 'Set up your account / verify your domain'. My trust in my ability to do that was close to 0 but thanks to some very clear instructions from Google and by copying-pasting the code into the right fields in my domain account (without having the faintest idea of what was what), it worked! I did a little celebratory dance. If I can do it, you can do it too.

4. ACCEPT HELP

You'll be surprised how many people will be excited about your business and will offer a helpful hand. It's heart warming. Accept that help and let your friends give you feedback on your website, product, service or the check-out process! Ask your business friends how they do what you want to do and benefit from their wisdom - there's no need to reinvent the wheel all over again.

5. GIVE YOURSELF A DEADLINE 

Nothing as motivating as a good deadline to help you speed up every step of the journey. At one point I needed to tell myself that no matter what - I was going to launch a week later. This gave me a few more days to troubleshoot all I could and then to follow the "better done than perfect" advice. Being pregnant too and having a due date coming in a few months was extremely motivating too - I felt I needed to ‘get this baby out of the door’ before the new came in! 

I’m not suggesting that you all get pregnant (ha!) to get yourself motivated but find or create an external deadline for yourself to truly help you to start before you’re ready, to embrace the ‘good enough’ approach, to avoid choice paralysis and to finally START.