What Are the 5 Rings of Starting A New Business?

5 Golden Rings on a Green Ribbon Tied With A Bow!

NOTE: This post was originally written during the Christmas Season, but the content is meant to be evergreen.🎄 This post is lengthy, but I hope you enjoy it because I wrote it specifically for YOU.

“On the 5th Christmas, my true love gave to me, 5 golden rings!” Considering I’m writing this on the 5th day of Christmas, I figured this would be an appropriate subject for today’s blog post.

What would I consider the 5 foundational “rings” of building a brand new business?

  1. What is my why?
  2. Does my business idea have merit in the marketplace?
  3. How will I market and sell my business idea?
  4. How will I collect payment for my product or service?
  5. How will my new business enhance my community?

When you can answer all 5 of these questions honestly, I think you’re off to a great start!

What is my WHY?

Why the heck is this important when I’m trying to build a business? Aren’t there MORE important things to focus on? In all honesty, I think this is the biggest and MOST important question of all.

There will always be obstacles when building something new. If you know your purpose for creating the business, then you will have a reason to find a solution when countless obstacles inevitably get in your way.

Your WHY creates a well of determination that you can draw upon when the going gets tough. Your WHY can be the difference between creating a money-sucking hobby and a successful, profitable business.

Is your WHY more time with family? Leaving your soul-sucking job? Creating a foundation to support charities? Earning enough money to take a yearly vacation or even a monthly vacation? Buying the house of your dreams? Creating a substantial nest egg for retirement?

Whatever your WHY is, once you know what it is AND you have written it down in a place where you can see it every day, you will have a definite target to focus & direct your energy on. This target is your WHY and energy source for your daily business-building activities.

Does my business idea have merit in the marketplace?

Everyone has ideas, but not everyone puts their ideas into action. If you’re looking to create a business but are unsure what to do, try solving a pain point you or someone you know is experiencing.

If you’re looking to create a physical product or improve a physical product that already exists, look for duct tape. If something has duct tape on it, then you know that product has room for improvement. Maybe you’re the person to make that product even better. Someone had the idea to add ridges to the original paperclip 📎 design, which produced a non-skid feature and created millions of dollars in revenue. What will your idea improve?

Once you come up with your idea for a service or product, discuss it with a friend and see if they would actually buy your product or service. Many times, our friends and family will humor us and our ideas. When it comes time to close the sale, will they actually pull out their wallet and give you cash for what you are selling?

If they don’t part with their hard-earned money, then you might need to go back to the drawing board and revise your idea. If they gladly pay you for your product, then your idea might be viable.

Check with some friends and even a few strangers. If they are also willing to buy your idea and put cash in your hand, then CONGRATULATIONS! You may have just started your new business venture.

How will I market and sell my business idea?

You’ve transformed your idea into a marketable product. How will you share it with the world? You can shout it from the mountaintops! You can wear a sandwich board and walk all over town! You can hire an airplane to write in the sky!

Or maybe you can think about who your niche market is and advertise directly to them. If you capture the attention of your niche market and they love your product, they will share it with like-minded people for you.

My favorite way of sharing my business ideas is to use a website. This usually involves brainstorming for a unique and descriptive business name and searching for an available domain name online. If you find something you like, you can usually secure it for about $10-$15 per year. The next step is to find website hosting for your new website; then, you’re off to the races.

Your website lets you control what information you want to share with your niche customers. With most hosting packages, you can create as many web pages as you’d like and write blog posts (like this one) to share additional information about the products and services you are offering.

I also think it’s a good idea to secure the usernames for your favorite social media platforms that match or complement your business domain name. Remember, content is key. If you write a new blog post, you can share it using your social media accounts. In my opinion, you want to use social media to drive traffic back to specific web pages you’ve created on your website.

You might also consider creating a newsletter. You can decide the frequency of your newsletter, from quarterly to monthly or even weekly. What is the POWER of the newsletter? The true power is being able to contact your potential customers directly using their email addresses.

Why should I be collecting the email addresses of my customers and potential customers?

With an email address, you can send messages directly to your customers when you have a sale or new product offering. If you are in the middle of creating a product to sell, you can have people interested in your future product subscribe to your newsletter so they will be alerted when it’s available for purchase.

You may be thinking, why not just create a huge social media following instead of going through the trouble of collecting email addresses?

That’s a great question! I have heard horror stories of businesses that create a huge following only to have the terms of service change with their preferred social media site, and they lose access to all of the followers they have built up over months and even years of hard work. It’s better to have direct access to your customer through their email or phone number than through a messaging service to which you might lose access.

Remember the MOST important rule! NEVER abuse your customer’s contact information. Never sell it! Trade it! Share it! Don’t lose the trust of your customers just to make a quick buck!

In the age of digital media, should I still have a business card?

Some advice I received when I first started playing poker was to do the opposite of what the table did. If you were sitting at a loose table, then play tight. If your table was full of tight players, be the loose player in the bunch. This strategy gives the advantage to the person who is different from the rest of the pack.

In this era of digital media, audio files, and eBooks, there is something special about holding a physical book, handling a vinyl record from your favorite band, and even receiving an actual business card. These physical objects activate additional senses which stand out among the crowd of intangibles.

Personally, I have invested in high-end business cards, some of which have cost me up to $5 apiece. Were they worth the price? Definitely! Especially when I was top of mind when a client called me to hire me or make a purchase. That one sale usually paid for the entire batch of business cards and then some.

Whether you decide to use flyers, business cards, postcards, or a combination of different media will be a decision you must ultimately make. The main point I want to stress is that this older “technology” can still be useful in today’s day and age, especially when coupled with a QR code for your customers to scan. Even if they don’t take a business card, they can still take your information with a click from their mobile device.

How will I collect payment for my product or service?

Cash is KING! At least, that’s what my uncle always tells me.

When a customer asks how they can pay me, I usually joke that I take everything: Cryptocurrency, Gold Bullion, Silver Dollars, Zelle, CashApp, Venmo, PayPal, Credit Cards, and cold hard Cash.

With your new business, you need to decide how you want to be paid and what you will accept as payment. If you are selling online, it’s convenient for your customers to pay using a credit card.

In case you didn’t know, anytime credit cards are used, fees are incurred. Most customers aren’t aware of this because businesses tend to absorb the fees as the cost of doing business.

With you on the business side of the table, it’s important to understand the fees that your business will be charged for the convenience of accepting credit cards.

If you decide to accept credit cards as payment, I would love to earn your business. I manage a Merchant Processing Brokerage which allows me to match your business to a reliable processor with the best rates.

Whether you choose to use my company or someone else, I want to make sure you have plenty of information to make an informed decision. Feel free to read this blog post on accepting credit card payments online.

There are also other payment options in addition to credit cards. Depending on what country you are in, there are several services and apps that allow you to transfer funds from one person to another. Many of these are free, but some will charge a fee if you are a business. There may also be fees incurred if you want instant access to the funds instead of waiting for the 2-3 day transfer period.

Keep in mind that there are usually small fees involved with accepting electronic payments, usually ranging from 1%-5%. It’s always a drag having to pay fees, and it’s very important to be aware of what you are paying. If needed, charge a little more to cover those pesky fees.

In business, instead of focusing on what you are leaving on the table, I suggest looking at what you are taking home. After fees, with every happy customer you serve, you’re getting 90%+ of a sale, which is better than 100% of nothing.

How will my new business enhance my community?

This is one of my favorite topics! “Be the difference you want to see in the world!” – (a quote by someone famous)

I believe that whatever we create in life, flows into the lives of those around us. When we live our passion, we bring more flavor into a diverse and colorful world. When we listen to the voice in our hearts and create something new, we inspire those around us to do the same.

Imagine a world where people take action and solve problems in our communities, nations, and the world.

Does creating a business making handmade crafts sold on ETSY change the world? I say YES!

Creativity is a powerful force. When we are creative and solve problems in the world, like designing a unique gift for your favorite auntie, a biodegradable cleaning solution that is safe for children, a book that is the perfect read while on vacation, or a food cart that serves delicious meals on the weekend, we are putting pieces of ourselves into the world. Your community becomes a better place because of YOU and YOUR creation!

I’m excited to learn about what YOU want to create and put into the world! If I can be of help, let me know.

Discover YOUR answers to the 5 rings of building a business, and I think you’ll be off to an AMAZING start!

Get started with Step 1!

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