Over the last few months we have seen a number of people thinking about setting up their own micro enterprise or small business. Although Biolauncher’s clients are usually high growth potential businesses that need venture capital to grow, we have learnt a few things about running our own business over the last nine years. Having enjoyed one such discussion this morning with a potential new life science consulting company, here are some pointers to get you thinking about and ready to start your (science based) business.

Schrödinger’s cat and business start up – Like the health of the physicist’s feline trapped for ever in that thought experiment, you can only be certain about the viability business idea when you act upon it. It is important to canvas and consider opinion from trusted parties but finding reasons not to do something is much easier than finding the reason to just do it. Equally you can debate the ideal time for starting a new business, but the reality is your time may be right now. Remember if you operate as a microenterprise you can adapt and refine your business as you develop.

From thinking to doing – Our advice is if you want to be taken seriously as a business, start behaving like a business. Work out your start up budget. You will need to decide on a (memorable) name, find an accountant and get registered and register and build your website. We recommend that you register both the .com and the .co.uk address. It is a signal of intention and global engagement. You will also need a basic website, this should not cost a lot of money, and if the site is built in Wordpress you can integrate your site into the wider world of social media for next to nothing. Plan your launch and goals for the first 100 days of the business.

Now for networking – We still remember our first networking forays, and how hard it is to walk into a room full of strangers with a pocket of new business cards. Get over it – most people in the room feel exactly the same. So walk up to someone and introduce yourself and ask them a question about them. Try and think of a few icebreaker questions before you enter the room – “what are you hoping for from this event?” is a safe opening gambit.

Remember that you need to circulate around the room. If you are enjoying the conversation, use the need to move on as a reason to get their card and agree to follow up and meet another time.

There are a lot of free networking events, in the first place aim for quantity not quality. Get out there and find out what people need.

Business Card Marketing – At Biolauncher most often it is our business card that is the intro to the business, the company brochure and leave behind. It is pretty much the ONLY printed material the business uses. Small businesses can make their cards work much harder than your contact details. Moo print enables you to put product shots, customer testimonials, or just about anything on the back of your cards, you can even get a free sample pack, so no excuses for turning up at a networking event without a card. Biolauncher prints everyone’s cards in portrait and landscape format with different graphic representations of our logo on the back. By asking which card format or reverse design someone prefers recipients spend more time looking at our logo. It builds brand recognition and there is a full set to collect .

Lean marketing – if you are pre revenue or pre VC you need to think about how you market your business with minimal cash outlay. There are lots of great tips out there on the internet search for “lean marketing”. You also need to develop your Social Media skills. If you run a Wordpress blog you can integrate it directly to a LinkedIn company page. If you sync your twitter account and personal LinkedIn account your status line will update to show your tweets. Post your PowerPoint presentations to Slideshare.net and embed them in your website and tweet the URL to all your followers. Look for opportunities to speak at events or put up a poster/roller banner.

Useful Links

A great value and talented Wordpress developer Kirsty Burgoine
Moo Business Cards and tips for using them
Budget Roller banners £45.00 (special offer)

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 1st, 2010 at 4:50 pm and is filed under Featured, blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.