We could think of a hundred ways people would love to spend their first paycheck, and starting a business is not one of them. After searching for a new role for months, what would cross your mind is to use the money to pay off debts, get new clothes, or sort out food items for the month. It won’t even matter how much you earn; your first instinct would be towards survival. The idea of entrepreneurship would definitely be a strange one.
However, it doesn’t mean that those who think about setting up a business are going the wrong way about spending the money—no, after all, it is theirs. But in order to use the money properly for the said purpose, you need to carefully plan, research, and maybe take certain risks. The reason is mainly so that you can establish a profitable and sustainable venture and keep it open for as long as possible.
Follow this article closely as we provide 6 useful tips that will help you in building a business venture with your first salary.
6 Tips to Build a Business Using Your First Paycheck
Depending on how much you make monthly or annually, you must equip yourself with certain knowledge to be successful in your new venture. Sometimes it’s not just about the idea; it is also about how you can manage and execute it. See below for tips to get started.
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Set Your Business Goal
One of the qualities of an excellent business person is goal-setting. You should have a vision for your business—know the exact needs you plan to meet or problems you aim to solve. This vision will give you direction on what to do next and contribute to the success of your venture. It should also be in line with how much you are about to receive with your first paycheck. For instance, do you want to create a startup to offer a product, deliver a service, or embark on a giant journey into the digital world, such as a crypto casino? You need to set smart, realistic, and precise goals to proceed.
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Go Simple
Even if you have a huge idea that could solve the world’s biggest problem, you cannot do that in one paycheck. You need to start small and simple with the lowest budget possible. We don’t think there is any business that doesn’t require spending money at every juncture—it makes no sense if you are using up all your funds at once. Hence, what you can do is identify your minimal viable product (MVP) and capitalize on it. For example, you can take your product to retailers and find out what they think about it. In another case of a gaming platform, you can develop a simple website/app and find out what gamers think of it. The entire purpose of this is to get customer feedback, avoid unnecessary costs, and reshape your idea into what people want.
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Spend Time In Research
Even after you’ve received customer feedback, how do you make sure that the money you spend from your paycheck to start the business doesn’t go to waste? The answer is quality research. You must understand your market because that is the one thing that determines the success or failure of your venture. There are several ways to perform this research—for example, you can know your target audience through surveys, social media polls, and questionnaires, and review the price for the service on the market. You can also identify your competitors and their strategies and develop yours to solve the problems that they face.
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Build an Online Presence
At this point, you may have spent a huge chunk of your paycheck—say, about 65% on development and market research, so the next step is to save up a bit. This involves building an online presence. This is one of the easiest things to do—but could be complicated if you haven’t been in the online space for some time. You can start as low as listing your enterprise on Google My Business—it is free and easy to do. Then, you could go further by creating social media profiles for your enterprise and following some individuals in your line. Also, if you can afford it, you can build a simple business website with platforms like WordPress or Pix. Just know that whatever you do, the website has to be simple, informative, and customer-appealing.
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Keep a Good Budget
With less than 30% of your first paycheck remaining, you should proceed with planning and setting your budget. This is a critical point because even the slightest thing while carrying out your plans could take all your money. In fact, you might have to wait until the next pay day to do some things. However, you could start by breaking down costs into a list of essentials—think about sorting out what is necessary that you can afford at the moment and save the rest for later. For instance, you should rather spend on licensing and patenting, and a few equipment and supplies than on premium marketing ads and staffing. This would only be temporary anyway.
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Up Your Promotion Game
Promoting your business through every means possible is the final part. This could be through targeted ads, social media connection and interaction, finding spots in trade fairs or career fairs, and leveraging influencer collaborations. You may not have to spend too much for these, or better still, you could wait until your next paycheck to do this part.
Conclusion
If we are being honest, building an enterprise is more difficult than it sounds—it’s not as easy as we’ve painted it to be. It takes a lot more than someone waking up with an idea and using an entire salary to sponsor it. Nevertheless, this is only a simple template to follow. The most important takeaway is that even if it is possible, you may have to cross some obstacles. In essence, owning a business is about patience, and if you ask around, not many entrepreneurs had it easy in their early stages.