Start-up- Hindsight 20/20

[NorCal]

I am looking to start a small business in professional services. I know hindsight is always 20/20, so I'm curious to see what things you did during start up that you regretted vs. something that worked really well?

I'll break it down into a few categories:

Incorporation (Self filing vs. 3rd party like Legalzoom)

Industry Research (What did you anticipate vs. what you didn't anticipate)

Point of Sale

Business Location

Marketing (What you tried, what worked vs what didn't work)

Affiliations (Professional, personal, or otherwise)

[Freelancier]

I only have one cash cow where I've had enough time to figure out what worked and what didn't.

What worked: marketing works a lot better than not marketing. Seriously, some people forget that their primary job as the business owner is to make sure everyone who could be a great customer finds out about what you're selling.

SEO takes a LOT of effort in a crowded market, Adwords takes a little bit of money, but less money once you figure out what works well. I spent about $5K to figure out what worked well and now spend only about $120/month on it to get on the first page of the keywords my clients search during the hours I want in the geographic location I serve. Oh, if you don't have at least $5K to throw away on marketing, you're going to be struggling for a while anyway, just because you're going to be too afraid to find out what works and what won't.

Networking only goes so far unless it's with happy clients. Networking with someone who wants to sell you something is likely just going to waste your time; better to spend your time with YOUR customers instead of someone who might maybe someday help you get in the door somewhere. Learned that while sitting around waiting for the latter to happen on a business.

Not sure if you need a corporation instead of an LLC. LLCs can be done without a service in most states now; corporations still take a little effort to get right, so you might want to get with an attorney to get the details on how to get it right.