BUSINESS: Setting up a new venture: Part 3 - Finishing Touches & Launch

In the 3rd and final part of her mini-series of articles on setting up a new venture, Carla De Azevedo talks to us about finishing touches and planning and managing a successful launch.

Hello and welcome. Previously I touched on branding, marketing and stocking your shop. In this article I will cover the fun parts:

• Adding the finishing touches
• Planning the launch
• Managing a successful launch

Finishing touches: Presentation is everything and finishing touches really do count. It would be tempting to assume that once the stock is laid out all you need to do is sit back and wait for the customers to walk through the door. What I found was that people are cautious and it’s the small details that can make your shop more inviting to new customers. For example, I put up a professional looking shop sign to make it clear there was a new business there. I also devised a simple, bold and uniform pricing system and tidied any messy looking areas, e.g. putting fabric along the bottom of my desk to hide my bin and feet. Another simple idea that really helped footfall was put into action by my neighbour, Life’s Big Canvas. They put footprints throughout the building to help guide customers to each of the shops. In a smaller building this would be unnecessary but, given the size of Bird’s Yard, it has really helped customers to navigate. On a smaller scale it could be as basic as a welcome mat and having the door open with some music playing to send out a clear message that you’re open and inviting.

Planning the launch: A launch party is a great way to win over your customer base but it is also an opportunity to forge partnerships with other local businesses and support each other. Selecting non-competitors or complimentary businesses to sponsor your launch provides promotion for them and a more cost effective way for you to wine and dine your clientele. Establishing yourself as an approachable business from the start will also work in your favour later, as people will come back to you to share mutual opportunities rather than going to your competitors. However, I learned the hard way that when it comes to sponsors it’s worth having a plan B. Sometimes unavoidable things happen and a sponsor might have to pull out on the day.

With the shop looking its best and sponsorship hopefully covering the majority of food, drink and entertainment, there is one other thing that is essential to a successful launch; you need to invite people! ‘Obviously!’ I hear you say, but really you need to invite them a while in advance and keep on inviting them. You also need to think bigger than social media and a few last minute flyers, what you need is press.
Send press releases to all the local media; newspapers, magazines, on-line publications, radio and blogs. No one will come if they don’t know it’s happening and it really didn’t occur to me to invite the press. I was under a misguided assumption that the press just ‘knows’ but they don’t, so shout about it and make sure they do.

Launch: Arrive early and give yourself plenty of time to set up. Don’t rely heavily on anyone if you can help it and make sure you are reachable by sponsors and press. Get someone out flyering on the day to catch any passers by. With all the hard work of starting your venture over, you can finally relax and have a party before all the day-to-day work of being self employed begins, so look after your guests but enjoy it and remember why you chose to be self employed and how lucky you are. 

Thank-you for following my articles, I hope you have taken away something valuable from them.