February 2019 was a defining moment, I had to make a big decision, a company restructure was on the cards, and I had two choices, circulate my CV or back myself and open my own business! I backed myself, took my experience and networking relationships, and Mulberry Marketing Consulting (PTY) Ltd was launched!
I had been there before – well, to be precise 19 years back – Mulberry Marketing was a Close Corporation and I was working in the freelance space and for a very brief time was also the agent for Miners Cosmetics UK. It was an incredible learning experience but also extremely tough. After two years, the opportunity presented itself to join the corporate world again, I gained valuable experience working in the international cosmetic industry and then had the opportunity to venture into the insurance and financial services space.
Fast forward to 2020, the year of resilience! On a personal and professional level many obstacles and barriers have been overcome, some of these I believe through the initial preparation and planning I did way back in 2019 when I was working on relaunching Mulberry Marketing, so here is some of my advice for future business owners on the initial foundation phases;
Do it properly!
If you don’t have an Accountant, get one. From the get-go ensure that you have all your registrations in place with CIPC (Companies and Intellectual Property Commission) and SARS (South African Revenue Services). You don’t want any backtracking of accounts and registrations, especially when it comes to taxes!
Complement your accountant with an Accounting Platform, learn the ins and outs of your accounting platform, issue your own invoices, credit notes and receipts. Learn how to read the dashboard and run your monthly reconciliations. You see first-hand, obviously, your income and expenses and this gives you, the business owner, insight to every aspect of what it takes to run your business.
Depending on your line of business, ensure you investigate what Professional Indemnity or Liability Cover you might need. Get yourself a good Insurance Broker and make that annual investment to cover yourself and your business against any potential incidents that could arise.
Open your Business Banking Account, and link with your Accounting Platform to run your monthly reconciliations.
Purchase the necessary licenses to ensure you have access to necessary Software to do business, investigate email platforms such as G Suite to link to your business name and communicate with clients from your business address.
Smile through the process and look forward to the future, there will be days when all the administration and time spent on getting accounts set up, can be extremely frustrating but persevere, it will be time well spent on setting up the basics of a great foundation for your business!
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