5 Steps to Starting Your Post-Pandemic Business

Perhaps you felt frustrated with your employer throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Maybe the difficulties you faced at work during those tumultuous years motivated you to look into other career paths, and now, you’re thinking about opening your own business. Here are a few tips for opening a thriving business in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Choose Your Business Idea

Selecting a specific business idea is your first step. But which types of companies are poised to succeed after the pandemic? Code Brew states that delivery services, online education apps and programs, ecommerce companies, and virtual fitness programs are all quite popular amongst consumers.

Register Your Business

You might assume that you don’t need to register your business right away, but doing so early on can help you qualify for certain benefits. For example, many business owners register as Limited Liability Companies (LLCs), as they’re granted tax breaks and limited liability. Plus, this structure gives you the peace of mind that comes with knowing your personal assets are protected. Others find setting up an S corp in Washington state is advantageous, as this entity allows you to take tax deductions on company losses and comes with lower self-employment taxes.

Working with an online formation service is an easy, budget-friendly way to navigate this process - it’s more convenient than filing on your own and cheaper than hiring a lawyer. They can help you ensure that you have all the necessary paperwork for filing in Washington state.

Manage Your Finances

As a new business owner, managing your finances effectively is your top priority. Integrated accounting software makes the job much easier. This is a great way to store and organize all of your receipts, invoices, and other important documents. With a clear file storage system, you can maintain compliance and take advantage of any tax deductions that you might be eligible for. You can also easily check in on your cash flow at any time to assess your company’s financial health.

The Hiring Process

You might be able to manage your company’s operations by yourself for a while - but eventually, if you plan to grow, you’ll need other people to assist you with new projects and your expanding to-do list. To attract high-quality candidates, Shortlister recommends refreshing your online job listings frequently to gain more traction, advertising openings on social media, allowing candidates to conduct interviews over the phone or with video conferencing software, and giving new hires some flexibility when possible. For instance, if you’re hiring for a marketing role, you don’t necessarily need to require your employee to work on-site - they should be able to handle almost all of their responsibilities remotely.

Market Your Offerings

If you want to draw in customers in the wake of the pandemic, digital marketing is key. From creating a business blog to posting on social media, marketing online can help you connect with thousands of people.

When you’re choosing images for your marketing materials or sending photo files to a graphic designer or web designer, you might want to compress JPG files so that you can email them quickly. But traditional compression options can negatively impact the image quality. Try a JPG to PDF converter to simply turn images into PDFs and avoid losing quality. Plus, with a tool like this, you can convert several images at once and send them all at the same time.

Starting a business takes a leap of faith. But if you know that you can’t build the career of your dreams while working for someone else, it’s time to embrace the opportunity. By choosing a business structure and idea, investing in accounting software, hiring the right people, and using effective marketing strategies, you’ll be prepared to enter the post-pandemic business landscape.

Membership in the Sequim Chamber of Commerce offers resource and relationship opportunities to help you grow your business. Join us today!