Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello all,

My name is James, I work for York Catering Supplies and we are developing a forum for the community at http://forum.yorkcatering.co.uk.

We are constantly trying to come up with content for our pages and something we are developing at the moment is a tips and advice section for new businesses/ those looking to start up a business.

What would be really great we be for people to post their tips and advice for starting up a business in this thread. Would you do anything differently? Is there something specific you had to tackle? etc

Your input would be greatly appreciated, I will collate the responses and write an article based on and including your tips.

Many Thanks

James

Protect your investment! :-)

UPrinting.com

Anyone that is looking to start a business should have a coach/mentor and a solid business plan.  Many folks have great wonderful ideas about building a business but they never write it down on paper.  It's much easier to execute a plan when you have the objectives listed in front of your eyes.  Take your plan and find a coach/mentor to help you iron out the details and learn creative ways to execute your plans.  This is critical for every business owner.

Well, who is your target market? Do people who start businesses buy catering supplies? If not, I am not sure why that would be your focus.

Starting a forum is also very hard...why would someone come to your forum when they can come here?

Our best marketing tool is our newsletter. We focus the first 2/3rds on what our readers want, the last 1/3rd on what we want to say. It is work, but it has been very beneficial to us and propelled us to one of the top companies in our niche within 2 years.

Best of Luck!

Monica

Northern Virginia Home Staging

When you start out on something you are not familiar with, please find an expert to help you out. Someone who will dedicate time and energy to get you through all the hurdles. Someone knowledgeable. You will surely need to spend money because while you can gain some insight from forums, you still need lots of expertise to get your forum idea running.

A business coach is the ideal expert. You may also need services of a web designer and a content developer as well as a marketer.

A new online business is no different from a conventional business. It requires investment in time and finance. And it's advisable to start out in an area that you know and understand well.