Kat Ramirez
You have a great idea for a business. And now you want to know, what do you do next? How do you get that business idea off the ground and into action, so you can start making money off this great idea for a business solution.
Hi, I'm Kat Ramirez, your host of Stand Out and Grow. building your business is really, really hard. And knowing what marketing and advertising tools you need to help you become successful, is extremely confusing. After 30 years of working with thousands of businesses, I am here to help you, I want to help you understand the programs that are available to you so that you can stand out, survive, succeed and grow. So let's get started.
You will learn the steps it will take to get started in creating your business, I will walk you through and hold your hand as we talk about each step one by one that you need to make to get your business off the ground and running in the right direction. So let's get started.
This is Episode Two of standout and grow. Hi, this is Kat Ramirez, founder and creator of adbidtise. Today we are going to talk about starting a business. I had a call last week with an entrepreneur who had this great idea. And he was super, super excited.
He said Kat, We should talk because I'm probably going to be needing your services. And I want to make sure that I do all the things right in creating my business. And I said yeah, absolutely. Let's talk because now's the time for us to connect, and walk you through the steps and talk about the things that you need to start doing now or thinking about so that when you create the business, you're ready to go. And there are no hiccups, you know that you have checked all the boxes, and you've crossed your T's and dot your I's.
And so in this conversation, we really I you know, he really was enlightened by it, because he didn't realize there was so much more to starting a business than just having a great idea and saying, Okay, I'm ready.
So let's talk about some of the things that I talk to him about in creating a new company. And when you're excited, and you're like, wow, I have this great idea, I'm going to solve this problem. And so now I'm ready to go. So the first thing that you do typically is create a business plan. So what is the business plan, a business plan is basically you laying out and some kind of formal, written document on what your strategy is going to be. And you're going to use this business plan, not only for yourself to hold yourself accountable, but you're also going to use this if you ever need funding. This is what the business plan is for.
Most business coaches won't work with you unless you have a business plan in place. I know for a fact banks won't touch you unless you have a business plan. And so, again, the business plan is to lay down and set the groundwork for your business, you're going to talk about things in your business plan that are like your mission statement, you're going to talk about what your name business name is how you envision the company, what are some of the nuances of your company, what makes you different? What are your competitors? It's going to ask, you know, you're going to layout in your business plan, your projections, you know, how are you going to make money, what your five-year plan is, what your 10-year plan is, this is all encompassed in your business plan. So it is extremely thorough. And it is, like I said, a formal report that holds you accountable.
But again, this is used, you know, so that you can take this document to financial institutions, and they can loan you money and not just financial institutions if you you're trying to get funding in exchange for equity or something like that. They also need a business plan. So a business plan is just a given you have to do it. It's a no brainer. If you don't know how to find or do a business plan.
There are lots of templates out there, there's a ton of them. If you just Google Search business plan template, you will find some I created a couple of my business plans on Rocket Lawyer calm, you know, and there's a template it walks you through it, I just plug in the questions it asked me a question is very much as a walkthrough. And I actually loved it, because it made it really easy for me to put my thoughts down and really comply, compile the information for this business plan. Okay.
The thing that people don't talk about, though, is, you know, I go to a lot of workshops, and I go to a lot of trees mean facilities and boot camps and what have you, and everybody talks about the business plan. But nobody ever talks about a marketing plan. And because, you know, my background is marketing and advertising. You know, this is something that's near and dear to me, because I believe people need to have a marketing plan in place. And so I want to walk you you through what is a marketing plan? And what do you need in that marketing plan, so that you set yourself up for success. And so we're going to walk through those steps. And I'm going to hold your hand and I'm we're going to go through this together. And at any point, if you have any questions about any of the things that I'm talking about, and if you feel like it's over your head, or you just need a little more conversation in it, please reach out to me, I'm so happy to help you out any way that I can, you know, get 30 years of this. And the other cool thing is, I've seen so many businesses, hundreds and thousands of them in five different major markets where I've seen successful businesses, and I've seen businesses that have failed, and I'm giving you the tools to be the successful one. The one that is not a statistic that is a winner.
Okay, so what is what are we going to put it in the marketing plan? Well, the marketing plan should, first and foremost, identify your business name. You know, I think people assume that when they get to the point where they're ready to start a business, that a lot of people think that they already have a name, and No, they don't, a lot of people don't even know what to call their business. And so if you're the traditional types of industries, like accounting, Attorney, you know, a doctor's office, things like that, you typically going to use your name or an accent tension of your name, which is, you know, all good and said, you know, because it holds that professional, you know, kind of prestigious that you put out there, but there's other businesses that aren't necessarily going to have a name. And they're going to have to come up with a business name. And so if you get to the point where you don't know how to come up with your business name, you're going to have to think strategically, like, how am I going to come up with a name that's going to be memorable, that's going to be strategic, that's going to really help my business grow, and be identifiable? Okay.
So let's use my name as an example. You know, adBitise, I picked adbidtise because it was, it's an ass of advertise, you know, so that's what I did, I created a new name, ad bid ties. And I just made it because I thought, you know, advertising is such a common word. You know, to me, it was a no brainer to come up with a word that was similar to it. So adBidtise, and that's how I came up with it.
Well, and just to give you a little more insight, you know, I also thought about, okay, it has an A, so if it's ever in a business listing, it's going to gravitate to the top, because it's a BCI, you know what I mean? So I thought about things like that. And that's how I came up with my name. If you're going to be challenging, you're not sure how to come up with this name, what I would suggest to you is a pay someone if you can afford to, don't break the bank, please don't break the bank, there are a lot of people out there willing to help you that are affordable. So don't break the bank. So there are people that can help you. So if you can't, if you're challenging, you're struggling to come up with a name, then hire someone and hire someone to come up with a few options for you, you.
The other cool thing I tell businesses to do, and that we do as part of our agency is we come up with a couple names, like two or three, you know, we narrow it down, and then we put it out in social media. And we asked the social media universe, you know, what are your thoughts? Which name do you like, Okay, and so that's a great way to like, kind of, softly introduce your company to people, especially if you already have a website, and you have some of the information on your website, because you want to give a link to your website, so that people start exploring your business. So this is one of the tactics we use, okay. So once you come up with the name, this awesome, awesome, cool name for your business.
The other thing you want to think about is the logo, what is the logo you're going to use, or you are brand yourself and identify your company with, you know, you think about the big logos out there that are well known, you know, McDonald's with the big M and the golden arches, you know, Nike with the swoosh, Mark Apple with the apple. Xerox, there's so many more Xerox is actually just the name. But there's so many out there, you know, what is the logo going to be? What is the Association for this logo for your business. And so if you know your name, it's probably going to be initials, or some version of your name, associated as your logo.
So, you know, that's the other cool, fun thing. If you can't come up with a logo, then again, I highly advise you to pay a professional to do it. There's so many resources out there. You don't have to do this alone or by yourself. But what I would suggest is if you aren't paying people, set your own budget, set your budget, stick to your budget, and then put it out there. And if some if the people can't meet your budget, move on, there are so many people that do these things professionally, there's so many, you do not need to break the bank. I know I can't say that enough. Don't be breaking the bank to create your business. You know, the save that money to drive traffic to your business and to generate new business. Okay.
So the other thing besides the business name of your logo is your tagline. When is the tagline that you're going to associate to your business. And if again, I'm going to use me as a point of reference. If you think about adBidtise, we are affordable advertising options. That's our tagline. And so this tagline is going to help people identify what your business is all about. And so just in a couple of words, it doesn't have to be your mission statement. It doesn't have to be some long, lengthy paragraph, you know. And again, mine is affordable advertising options used to be the biggest bang for your buck.
That's the other thing, you can change your tagline. You don't don't feel like you have to be married to it unless you're going to trademark your tagline. So, you know, so come up with a tagline that's going to fit appropriately to your business model. And really explain you know what it is that you're doing with your business.
Okay, after that, you're going to need a branding guide. So now that you have your name, you've got a logo, you got your tagline, you're going to need a branding guide, what is a branding guide, a branding guide is what is going to identify the fonts that you use, and all of your marketing pieces. The branding guide also identifies the colors, the colors, that will be the primary colors for everything that you do to make it consistent, and everything that you do. So a branding guide is so important to have as part of your business. And so that is the next step.
The branding guide is not something that you do this is typically done by a professional, who has either created your business name or your logo, they did some part of that they might have even did your website, and they were the ones that created the branding guide. So the branding guide is part of the creative process. If you don't have a branding guide, it's very easy again, to hire a professional to get a branding guide for you. So that you have consistent fonts and colors throughout every marketing piece that you have. That's part of branding. That's part of brainwashing. And so if you haven't, you know, gotten to the point to understand and know what marketing advertising about, it's being consistent enough that you you become subliminal after time, because your marketing and branding your service and who you are in such a fashion that it just becomes subliminal. Ok.
Ok, so now you have a few of the marketing pieces. And you are going to carry through your mission statement, the mission statement statement is typically in the business plan should carry over into your marketing plan, because the mission station statement really gives a feel for what is the messaging, what is the feel, what is the environment that I'm going to carry over into all my marketing pieces, you know, so that really does carry through, that's one of the things that follows from the business plan to the marketing plan. So if you didn't create a mission statement in your business plan, then now's the time to create it in the marketing plan.
Okay, now, moving forward in your marketing plan, you know, there are a few other things now that you have to consider and get ready to set up, you know, first and foremost is to make sure you have the domain name. So what is the domain name, that's the www dot, you know, whatever the business name, is.com or.net or.org, whatever prefix you're going to use, okay? And it's okay to use any of them. There is no standard anymore, you know.com is great. But if you can't find.com, then get.net or.org or dot info or any of the other ones. And if you have a hard time finding your domain name, you know, message me, I will help you, I love coming with names. or reach out to your family and your friends. your domain name can be it can be a relationship to the business name. And you know, first and foremost would be most aligned with the business name or with your tagline. So, either or, but make sure you secure the domain name.
Okay, after that, then you're going to have to think about Okay, how much money am I allocating to a marketing budget, because you need to think about that. So you need to think about how much money you're going to have a front to buy all the bits and pieces of the things that you don't want to do. So have a budget for that. So let's say if you had a startup marketing budget, it's 2000, then let that be your budget and don't go over it. And then let's say, after that, you want to set your marketing budget at let's say, I know I'm just being hypothetical. So I'm not saying this should be in stone, or you should be using as I'm being totally hypothetical. But say your marketing budget is 500 to 1000 a month. And that's your budget. And so that's what you're going to live with and you're in, you can comfortably live with that the rest of the life of the company, because when you set a marketing budget, that how you have to see it, you have to see it is that is like your rent, or your car payment or your electric bill, you know, you have to see it as that is you put it in place, it goes out there to help grow your business, because you will get a return, I can promise you that you will get a return. It may not be immediate, but you will get a return. And especially if you keep it out there and you're consistent. And that's the key to it is to be consistent. So that's why I'm a big believer, set a marketing budget.
Know what your marketing budget is for every month for the rest of the life that the company is your business grows, your marketing budget, of course is going to grow with it. Okay. And the other thing is you want to think about is what website? Are you going to be putting your or creating your website on, you know, what platform? Is it going to be wix, Weebly, Squarespace WordPress, which one are you going to pay?
Here's what I will tell you about websites do not absolutely do not break the bank on a website, do not. In fact, I always tell the businesses that I work with is spin as low as you can pinch your penny on the website. Because your website is basically just a landing page. I mean, it's multiple pages, but it's like your, your online brochure. Okay. And it should be set up to be SEO friendly search engine optimization. And we can go into that at another time later. But your website is going to be initially kind of like your brick and mortar. And you can make any website looks super sexy. So you don't need to spend an arm and a leg on a website. And I'm going to repeat myself, you do not need to spend an arm and a leg on a website, please do not spend a ton of money on a website. If you spend a ton of money on a website, you're going to see that that website is just going to stand there, it's just going to be steel. And that's it. You got to spend that money on driving traffic to that website. Okay.
So know and understand what platform and this is important. Because how much control do you want? How involved Do you want to be? How much do you want to work on that website? Because if you want to be totally hands on, then it's got to be a website that you can play with and you can manage? If you don't, then who cares?
You know, I will tell you that the WordPress is the hardest site to work with, you know, and whereas Weebly wicks Squarespace, and there's a ton more. They're all plugin pays, and they're really easy to work with. And they're great websites, and the SEO in the back end is really awesome. So don't ever let anyone tell you to believe that one website is better over the others. No, they're not. Google will tell you it will serve every website equally. There is no preference. Google does not have a preference for WordPress, Google does not have a preference for any of them. So please don't let anyone try to convince you that one is better than the other. They are not. Okay.
And then you want to know how do you want to set up your email? Are you just going to create a gmail? Are you just going to create let's say, advertise at gmail. com? Or are you going to have a vanity? Gmail? Are you going to go with, you know, www dot Kat at advertise. com, you know, what, which is the route you're going to go. So you've got to think about that there are several options for you when you think about that. Because there's a lot of free ones where you can set up and get a free one. And there's a lot of paid ones. And when they're paid. They're not that expensive. They're typically like $5 each email, you know. So think about, you know, how are you going to set up your email, what are the options that you're going to use for those. And, again, I can drop some links of all of these things that I'm suggesting to you, in the notes of this podcast, okay?
Social media, okay, there's a ton out there, you don't have to be on everyone, pick and choose your battles, pick the ones that align with your business. So know the social media that you're going to set up and know the social media is that you're going to work. Because the last thing you want to do is set up social media and never ever touch it or ever work on it, don't do that, that's doesn't help you and it doesn't do anything for your business. So there's nothing worse than going to a social media, and nobody's ever posted on it.
So pick and choose your battles, I don't care if it's just one and you put all your time and energy into it, that would be awesome. So again, until you can hire someone to do this stuff for you full time, all the time pick and choose your battles, because your time is so precious is so very precious. And it's going to be you that's going to spend the time on these.
Okay, so now that you have most of this done, and you thought about your budget, which to me is the most important part because you need to understand the money that you're going to be working with, because that's going to lay the groundwork on what are the options that are available to you, in regards to rolling out your marketing plan, you know, and, and what I want you guys to think about as we wrap this up is, you know, your marketing plan is in place to drive traffic to your website.
When you're driving traffic to your website, you have control of a lot of things, you know, and you know, there is there are things called a pixel for retargeting, and we'll get into this in another podcast. But retargeting is awesome. That means that you now control and put ads in front of people who have visited you, and visited you in certain pages, okay? It's a very, very powerful tool.
You also get to see where people walk through on your website. So it's just like if you had a brick and mortar, and you got to see someone walks through the door, and then you saw them go into the sports section, or you saw them go into the women's clothing or, you know, the underwear section, or whatever. So when you get to see this, now you understand what do you need to put in front of people first all the time, especially if they're all going to the same place over and over and over. It makes you very strategic. Okay.
So. So this is really cool. And again, this is really a quick summary on what some of the things you need to think about and starting your marketing plan. Because business plans are great. But people need to start thinking about marketing plans also. And they need to think about it at the same time that they do their business plan. Because it's so important to have a plan in place. It's for the success of your company. It's for the success of your business and the product or the service of whatever it is that you're trying to deliver. It is so important to you.
If you guys have any other questions, or you want to hear more about this, or even want me to expand on some of the things that I talked about in this podcast, please drop me a line. If you know of anybody who can get some value out of this, please share this with them. I would love to have some subscribers, please sign up and subscribe.
We are delivering the podcast once every week. I'm super excited about it. I love the topics that we have. We've got so many guest speakers coming up. And I'm super thrilled to bring them to you guys. And I just want you to learn about advertising and marketing. And I want you to have as many much information so that you can make very good business decisions.
Thank you again for listening to stand out and grow. Please follow us on social media. I'm on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, just about any place that you can find me and I look forward to talking to you guys next week. And you know, just be safe and wish you lots of success. And thank you so much for listening to me tonight. Or today. Sorry. Thank you so much for listening to me today. Have a great day and I will talk to you later.
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