Top 5 things every modern business should have to ensure success!
1. A business name
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Once you've decided on a name, check its availability as a url (website domain name) and all social media platforms – even if you don't use these right away, it's about protecting your name from being taken by somebody else and ensuring little to no compromises have to be made on displaying your business name.
Click the wix logo to search for available domain names.
Click any of the socials logos to search for available account names.
2. A logo / brand identity
Your Brand Identity should consist of:
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Logo
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Icon (if necessary to enhance the brand)
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Available in a variety of file formats and colours for a high res reproduction
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Basic or In-depth Brand Guidelines depending on Business size and specific needs
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Brand Colour Palette
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Brand Fonts – within the logo, but more importantly for all visual communication in oder to maintain consistent integrity of the overall brand
A CLOSER LOOK
The aim is to tap into as many senses as possible so that your ideal client easily remembers who you are when they're ready to buy from you. Mystery Hare Ltd works with you to create a cohesive Brand Identity with your logo being one part of a much larger picture.
Brand Identities start at £1,200.
3. Various Templates
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By having pre-made templates you retain the integrity of the brand, ensuring you're representing your brand consistently instills a sense of professionalism and trust in your potential clients. It also cuts down on your admin tasks, creating more time focussing on the main priorities of the business.
A CLOSER LOOK
consider Accessibility in your branding – inclusion around your neurodiverse client base, people who wear glasses or colour blindness covers a large portion of the public so always ensure this audience is considered.
As part of the neurodivergent community, I understand how engaging this group benefits all audiences, it would be amiss to not consider small but significant changes shows your company in touch with the modern client.
Any repetitive documents should be created as an editable 'template' to reduce time spent recreating every time. Simply edit your template each time, bespoke for the client.
Here's a list of some of the most common branded templates a business needs:
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Email signature
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Proposal
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Estimate
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Invoice
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Report
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Contract
If you're a business that deliver talks or workshops then some Resource Templates are useful too! Items like Presentation Slideshows, Handouts and Worksheets are very useful.
4. Online Presence
A CLOSER LOOK
As a modern business, you need to be online to be recognised as a legitimate business – social media accounts are free but a website shows you've financially invested in the success of your business.
Depending on where your clients generally hang out will dictate which platform to invest most of your marketing activities and time.
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To further show your business is professional, invest in using your domain name for a professional email address. Google Workspace provides 2 email addresses on their entry-level subscription, you could have:
Click the Google logo to look up how much a Workspace (email included) would cost…
Social Media Platforms are important to show that you understand the modern landscape and the challenges your clients endure – you don't have to show up regularly but if you don't show up at all, you're missing a trick and potentially losing clients based on their perception that you're not understanding how to run a business in a modern way. The following Social Media Platforms are the most popular:
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LinkedIn
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Business networking culture where you can network, recruit, find jobs and educate recently graduated students who want to learn from expert articles
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Be sure to have a Private and Company Account (and brand them consistently)
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Facebook
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Family and friends – community-based culture. Casual, join groups where you can provide value and grow your reputation as an industry expert
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Again, be sure to create a Private and a Business Account
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Instagram
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Image-based content
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YouTube
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Video-based content
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Think sharing your expertise to position yourself as the Industry Expert in your field/profession
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TikTok
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Short-form video-based content
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These all rely on the specific Social Media Platform algorithm pushing your content forward in front of your potential client, which is why having a website is equally important. It allows multiple online opportunities to be found by your potential clients. They will research you online before they make their first enquiry with you, so you might as well try and cultivate your online presence as best you can.
5. The boring but essential legal stuff
A CLOSER LOOK
Google now requires that all websites have clear guidance on Cookies and how your website collects, stores and uses data from website browsers.
Your website must have a cookie pop-up where a user can accept all cookies, edit the cookies collected, decline all cookies and view your Cookies Policy which explains the relevant details. If not, your website won't be highly ranked and organic reach is impossible. You only won't be allowed to buy Google Sponsor advert packages to rank higher in their search results.
Click the cookie icon to read a blog article about the changes and empowering users to be in control with their data.
Click the ico logo to read more about your business's requirements and the type of fee you'll need to pay.
As a business owner, there are a few things you have to have – to protect your clients and to protect yourself:
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Insurance
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Even if you don't work out of a brick-n-morter building, you need Indemnity Insurance. The benefits to protect you are so worth it and you can pick one up for relatively cheap online
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GDPR
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Even though the UK have voted Brexit and left the EU for most things, GDPR is still in play and you need to follow the guidelines to avoid yourself from getting into legal trouble.
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It's about data protection for your clients so you're not selling their data onto 3rd-party companies that can abuse that data
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Click here to read more about adhering to UK Data Protection Law
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Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
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As part of the Data Protection Law, you must pay an annual fee to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
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Click the ICO logo above to read more about it and answer a series of questions to measure the type of fee you need to pay based on the level of private details you need to collect and store as part of your business practice
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Legal documents
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These should be easily accessible to your website browsers and clients:
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Ts & Cs
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Privacy Policy
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Cookies Policy (linked to from you Cookies pop-up banner)
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You can normally get starter templates to edit specific to your business through your Indemnity Insurance or even using ChatGPT. It's worth bearing in mind that these will be basic and generic and you'll get to a size where hiring a lawyer to craft these for you will be a better decision. For now, try this website where you can create a free template by answering a series of questions. Unfortunately you can't copy and past the text onto a do to change, you have to embed the Ts & Cs into your website but you might be able to use a work-around if you're a bit tech-savvy
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Links to your legal pages should be in your footer menu bar as 'good practice', users are conditioned to look there for this kind of information
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If you're interested in uplevelling your business through branding, marketing and really knowing your business so you can declutter and focus on streamlining your process and targeting your ideal client through strategy then, contact me.
Let's set up a Discovery Call where we can chat about your business and how to move it forward so you're ready for growth.