When you’re starting up a brand new business, it can feel daunting to try and remember everything you’re going to need.

Have you secured an adequate funding source? Are all of the legal requirements tied up? Are you ready to source and ship products?

Depending on the nature of your business, all of these and more could be serious considerations, and at some point, it’s going to feel like everything is getting on top of you.

Never fear – we’re here to help. Here are 10 things your brand new business is definitely going to need to succeed.

1. Great branding

Any great business worth its salt needs excellent branding that reflects the company’s core values. Branding is inclusive of not just graphic design, but also content across your business, including things like video and photo content.

That’s where good folks like Cineworx come in. They’ll help you to build a professional portfolio of video and photo content that will illustrate who you are and why your business is worth paying attention to. Even if you’ve got the greatest product in the world, nobody will know about it without great branding, so don’t let a lack of video or photo production knowledge get in the way of a world-beating business idea.

2. Legal representation

It’s definitely not a good idea to sally forth into the business wilderness without the proper legal representation.

Sooner or later, your business is likely to run across some kind of legal headache or other, and there’s almost no way you’re going to be able to navigate that murky world by yourself.

Make sure that you’ve got a dedicated lawyer to handle the legal side of your business, especially when it comes to things like registration, taxes, and other important issues relating to business law.

3. A solid business plan

While it’s not technically required for businesses to have a business plan, you’re quickly going to find yourself in trouble if you don’t create one.

A business plan is essentially a sort of Bible for your business. It instructs employees
on what your business’ mission is and how they should go about achieving it.

Your business plan will be your point of reference whenever things are unclear, so make sure that you’ve written one that’s as bulletproof as you can possibly make it.

4. A social media presence

Social media is pretty much essential for any business worth its salt in the modern era.

If you want to communicate with customers, create organic buzz around your business, and build a brand for yourself, then you’re going to need to maintain a social media presence.

You don’t necessarily need to create two or three TikToks a day, but it will help to have a presence on platforms like X and Facebook so that you can talk directly with customers who may have queries or suggestions for you.

5. A website

Trust us when we say that although your business will likely need a robust social media presence, it’s also going to need its own website.

There’s almost nothing that makes a business look more professional than a well-designed, responsive, and classy-looking website. Customers will know that you’re serious and that you’re not just an amateur looking for a lucky break.

Plenty of great web design tools are out there to help you create a good-looking website, but if you’ve got the money, we’d recommend a web design professional, as there’s no replacement for the expertise and creativity they’ll bring to the task.

6. Good invoicing practices

If you’re planning to interact with freelancers in any capacity, then it’s very important that your invoicing procedures are up to snuff. This goes double if you’re planning to invoice other companies for your services.

Again, there are many websites and services out there that can help you to create professional-quality invoices with very little effort, so we’d recommend using one of those rather than trying to make templates yourself.

It’ll save you tons of time and effort, allowing you to focus on the parts of your business that excite you.

7. Identifiable KPIs

If there’s one thing that can help keep any business honest and on track when it comes to concrete achievements, it’s identifiable KPIs.

You can try and keep things nebulous and vague, but in the end, you’re going to want solid, honest statistics by which you can measure your business’ success.

Your KPIs should be easy to understand, realistic to achieve, and representative of an efficient and effective way to track the efficacy of your business approach.

8. Competitive research

Not knowing what your competitors are doing is tantamount to letting them steal business from you. That might sound like an extreme way of thinking, but we believe it’s true.

That’s why you need to make sure you’ve got solid market research methods in place so that you can always know what your competitors are doing and why.

This could also help you to gain a leg up on them; if you know what they’re doing, you can try and anticipate future movements or fill in niches they’ve left behind.

9. Great customer support

What sets so-so businesses apart from great ones? That’s a question that’s been asked many times, and in our opinion, the answer is simple: great customer support.

A great business prioritises the needs and requests of its customers, effectively bending over backwards to help them get what they want. That’s a surefire way to almost guarantee repeat custom.

Of course, your customer support reps should never put up with abuse or harassment, but they should maintain an efficient, polite manner, even in the face of complex customer enquiries.

10. Investment

We’re not necessarily just talking about financial investment here, although that, of course, is also critically important.

Rather, we’re talking about time investment, as well as emotional input. You need to want your business to succeed if it’s going to succeed.

Spending time working on aspects of your business that need improvement, taking customer and employee feedback on board, and always being passionate about what you do are great ways to show that you’re invested in your business success.