Today, I am so excited to announce a new series of episodes from The Brand It, Build It Podcast. If you’re a long-time listener, you may have listened to our SEO series — The Small Business Owner’s Guide to SEO — a 3-part series of episodes about Search Engine Optimization and ensuring your website is discovered organically when people search via search engines.  (These were episodes 72, 73, and 74). You may have also listened to our Beyond Your Brand Series — a 4-part series of episodes about using your brand design effectively through consistency, creating an experience, and building a foundation for future business growth. (These were episodes 60, 61, 62, and 63.) 

Today, I’m excited to introduce an all-new series of episodes called “New Business Roadmap.” The best part about this upcoming series is — whether you’re considering starting a new business, or you’re an experienced business owner who wants to solidify the foundation of your existing business — these episodes can serve as a truly helpful resource for strengthening your small business from the inside out… essentially, creating a strong and solid business from which you can experience clarity, purpose, and meaningful growth. 

Through this 5-episode series, I’ll be using my business education and our 7 years of small business experience to go back to the drawing board and share how we would approach starting a new business from scratch — the questions we would ask, the decisions we would form, and the steps we would take to create a successful, sustainable small business. So, to kick things off with, for the first episode of this series, I’ll be sharing the 5 initial questions I would ask myself — and determine the answers to — when approaching my new business. Answering these 5 reflection questions in a thoughtful and honest way can set the tone for your business journey ahead.

New Business Roadmap: Part 1 of 5

Welcome to Episode 101 of the Brand It, Build It Podcast. Today, we’re kicking off a 5-episode series called “New Business Roadmap.” We’re pulling back the curtain and sharing how — with 4 years of business education and 7 years of small business experience behind us — we would approach starting a new business from scratch. Of course, every small business owner and every small business is unique, but we hope these 5 episodes simply serve as a starting place — a way to organize your dreams and visions with purpose and direction. Today, we’re sharing the 5 initial questions we recommend asking to ensure the business you’re starting is created with purpose and strategy. 

Why do I want to start a business?

When first approaching small business ownership, it’s important to know why you’d like to start a business. There is no right or wrong answer, but knowing what’s at the heart of your decision to start a business can serve as a starting place for your business journey. Some small business owners value having creative freedom. Others value serving people well. When starting a business, it’s important to know what you’re motivated by. That way, as you make decisions within your business, your core motivation can serve as a helpful guide. You can make decisions aligned with the “why” behind your business. Seven years ago, we started With Grace and Gold, because Andra and I shared a passion for helping small business owners succeed — to have a brand and web design their business could truly grow from. Helping fellow business owners connect with their audiences more openly, and grow their businesses more seamlessly, encourages us still today. 

Who do I hope to serve through my business?

Often times, concepts for small businesses are sparked from a specific personal interest or area of expertise. For example, maybe you love decorating your home, and it inspires you to start an interior decorating business. Maybe you love personal organization, and it inspires you to start a personal organizing business. Although it’s awesome to create a business connected to your personal interest or area of expertise, it’s essential for you to know who you hope to serve through your business. The prospective clients you connect with, and the clients you serve, will allow your business to operate, run, and succeed. So, when starting a small business, it’s essential to know who you hope to serve — to confidently know there is a customer or customers in the world — or in your area, if your business is location-bound — who would benefit from your offerings. Along those same lines…

Do my clients know they have a problem, and are they actively seeking a solution to their problem?

The clients you are hoping to connect with and serve through your business need to be aware they have a problem in need of solving — and they need to be actively seeking a solution to their problem. For example, if I want to start a wedding photography business in Minneapolis, I need to know that clients are seeking wedding photographers in Minneapolis. I need evidence that clients are actively seeking wedding photographers in Minneapolis, too. I can find evidence, because I know people are getting engaged to be married, people are attending local wedding vendor events, people are searching on Google for wedding photographers in Minneapolis, and more. I can know, with a certain degree of confidence, that if I start a wedding photography business in Minneapolis, there are clients available who are seeking wedding photographers in return. On the other hand, maybe I want to create a daily planner for creative entrepreneurs. First, I need evidence that creative entrepreneurs are struggling with daily planning. Is this a concern I’ve heard about organically? Is this something my fellow creative small business owners have expressed? And next, I need evidence that creative entrepreneurs are seeking a solution to their daily planning problem. Are they using — but not totally loving — other resources for daily planning? Are they searching online for daily planners for entrepreneurs? When I ask, “Do my clients have a problem, and are they actively seeking a solution to their problem?” I’m essentially asking, “If I start the business I have in mind, will there be clients who value what I have to offer, and will purchase what I have to offer?” Before we started With Grace and Gold in 2014, Andra was a professional stationery designer and was part of a community organization for wedding professionals. The community organization was made up all kinds of wedding professionals — photographers, planners, venues, floral designers, and more. Her fellow wedding professionals knew she was a designer and often asked her if she could create brands and web designs for their businesses. Unknowingly, Andra had gathered the answers to those questions, “Do my clients have a problem, and are they actively seeking a solution to their problem?” Their answers were yes, so when Andra and I combined our strengths to form With Grace and Gold, we had confidence we would be able to serve these clients well.

What products or services do I hope to offer through my business, and what is my minimum viable product or MVP?

A couple of years ago, I was an Adjunct Instructor, teaching a college-level course about small business marketing. One of my favorite lessons shared was, “The business you start today, doesn’t have to be the business you dream of having 5 years from now.” As an example, maybe you want to start a jewelry business and have your own storefront. There is freedom in knowing, you don’t have to create a full product line and begin leasing your storefront on Day 1. Instead, you can create a curated collection of jewelry and begin selling your jewelry at pop-up shops. As you learn and grow through your experience, your business will naturally evolve, too. Maybe Year 3 becomes your goal for opening a storefront and scaling your jewelry business further. Your business can grow in seasons and in phases, and chances are, if you’ve watched fellow small businesses, or you’ve had other businesses of your own, you know that the business you see today is not the business that was created on Day 1. At With Grace and Gold, our offerings have changed and evolved year after year. We’ve added, we’ve pared down, we’ve experimented, we’ve failed — and doing so has made all the difference in helping us to learn and grow and form our business as it stands today. So, what products or services do you hope to offer through your business? And can you pare those product or services down so you’re simply able to get started? A minimum viable product is defined as a product with just enough features to be usable by early customers who can then provide feedback for future product development. So, is there a way you can gauge interest in your products or services, before taking the time to develop your products and services? Is there a curated collection of products or services you can create, before taking the time to develop a full range of products and services? Is there a way you can start your business in a minimal, curated way — simply to ensure there are customers ready to purchase from you or book with you? Having a minimum viable product, starting your business in a minimal, curated way, allows you to save time, save money, work kinks out of your products, services, or processes — and so much more. It’s also worth noting that, having a minimum viable product doesn’t mean your business isn’t elevated or polished — or doesn’t feel complete. As an example, for 5 months before With Grace and Gold began, we created a Landing Page with a newsletter opt-in for prospective clients who wanted to learn more about our brand and web design services when our business launched. Andra and I shared a link to our Landing Page with our own respective audiences over the course of 5 months. Doing so allowed us to launch our business to a group of 100 subscribers, some of whom became our clients when our business did launch. Creating this minimum viable product — this minimal representation of our business — allowed us to hit the ground running once we did launch. So, what would your minimum viable product be?

What resources do I need in place in order to simply get started?

As you think about your minimum viable product, maybe the resources you thought you needed, and the resources you actually need, differ. Maybe, through exploring who you are, what you do, and who you serve, you’ve found that you don’t need quite as many resources as you thought in order to start your business. Start listing all of the resources — products, software, people, places — you need in order to successfully launch your business. Getting organized and brainstorming the resources you need will equip us for success when it come’s to next week’s episode:

Join us next week Monday for the second episode in our 5-part “Small Business Roadmap” series. Once you’ve decided upon these foundational details of your business, what should you do next? In next week’s episode, we’re sharing the foundational business tasks we recommend completing — the foundation-building tasks and the housekeeping tasks needed to start your business.

About Brand It, Build It Podcast, Hosted by Kelly Zugay

Hosted by Kelly Zugay, co-founder of With Grace and Gold, The Brand It, Build It Podcast is a leading small business marketing podcast for small business owners, creatives, founders and entrepreneurs. Enjoy weekly, actionable episodes to build a successful, sustainable small business from the inside out.