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It has been about 6 weeks since I launched Your Executive Secretary as a business, although the planning and research phases had been happening for a lot longer.  It was during that planning and research phase that a few people said it would be nice if I kept a Business Diary via the Blog about the business, the trials and tribulations of start up and the activities I was getting myself involved in – so this is the first of those entries.

So what has been happening?

In establishing a business, there are a few fundamentals that need to be done:

• Working out whether you are suited to being a Business Owner.
• Having a product or service to sell – that stands out from everyone else.
• Identifying a good business name.
• Finding a target market.
• Choosing the right price to sell product / service.
• Choosing the right location to sell that fantastic product / service.
• Crunching the finance.
• Talking to all of the important people (people like HMRC).
• Arranging a Bank Account.
• Getting a sexy logo and the all-important business cards (Thank you to the Print Agency, Ferndown for sorting mine).
• Building an all singing, all dancing website (Thank you to Gazelle Design and Marketing, Bournemouth, for creating mine).

I did all of these particular tasks pre-launch and so from the launch of the business on 12 Dec 12, I have been able to concentrate on marketing myself through social media and networking to get those all important sales.

Social Media has been an interesting learning curve for me.  I have concentrated my efforts on LinkedIn, Facebook Business Page and Twitter and I have to say, I love the interactions/relationships that I am developing across the 3 spheres.  However, I am learning that each medium needs a different approach and takes time to do well.  My next step is to learn to analyse the effectiveness of my efforts and then to build a presence on Google+ and Pin interest!  If we are not connected on social media and you would like to, please click the relevant icon above.

Networking is all about building a set of useful contacts, although Andrew (the husband for those who haven’t read my About Me Blog) and I know lots of people in Dorset, as a new Business Owner, I have found it important to get out there and meet people with common business interests.  With this in mind, I have joined a local networking group, having originally been invited as a guest of another member.  The Group meet monthly and I have had already had a couple of successful leads as a result of my attendance.

Networking and profile raising are all about being visible and I have worried about promoting myself too blatantly so instead, I am actively listening and finding out about what others do and trying to remember that knowledge so I can introduce them to others in my network.

I appreciate that networking is an investment, and the results are not immediate.  I know that often people buy people and it takes time to build the appropriate level of trust.  So I am making networking (both on and offline) part of my business social life and I am really enjoying it.  To that end, if you are looking for a connection and you think I might be able to help, please get in touch – I would love to refer you on.

Other than the above, life continues to be fairly hectic – we are still temporarily living in military housing but we have to be out by the end of the month, so we are busy packing the house back up again to put it all into storage while our house renovation takes place.

However, I am pleased to say that the Builders started today (only 20 more weeks to go – providing it all goes to plan), with my office being the first element of the project to be done – so hopefully in 2 weeks time, I will be working and writing my Blog from my nice new shiny office – please keep your fingers crossed for me! I will post a picture of what the new office looks like once it is done!

I hope you have enjoyed hearing about the first 6 weeks of Your Executive Secretary in this Business Diary, it is my intention to write these particular type of entries every couple of months; if you would like to know more in the interim or if you think we can help you in your business, then please call Amanda on 01202 872061 or email [email protected]. 

Next week, we have the first of our Guest Blogs for this year:  Neil Woodard, of Woodard Coaching and Consultancy on the Benefits of Coaching for Business Start Ups.