When you are setting up your own business, it may feel like you have a thousand and one things that you need to remember. This can feel restricting, but it is important that you also try to tick as many boxes as you can to ensure that your business will always flourish. Here are some of the things that you simply cannot forget when setting up your own business in London.
Get a van
If you are going to be delivering any sort of product from A to B, it is always worth it to get a van instead of just trying to use your existing car. There are so many things that can go wrong when you are trying to use a car instead of a van, that it is probably more worth it to just invest in a van. You can pack more into it, and it can act as free advertising for your business.
Getting your hands on a van isn’t enough. With a full driving license, you will have no trouble driving a small van. However, you do need to make sure that you have the right van insurance so you are fully covered. You may also want to take out some goods in transit insurance to help protect whatever you are transporting with you.
Work out congestion charges
Even if you are a born and bred Londoner, you may have had no reason to drive into the Congestion Zone before. Now, however, your job could take you weaving in and out of it multiple times each day, whether you are visiting clients or making deliveries.
The Congestion Charge is surprisingly easy to manage and can even be set up for automatic payments so you are always covered. However, there are some ways to get discounts and other small benefits that can help with the cost of it, so make sure you check them out to ensure that you are always covered properly. This is unfortunately one of the costs that comes with having a business in London!
Network, network, network!
When you live in London, you are surrounded by people from all walks of life. It gives you the perfect chance to reach out to other businesses and get a little help from them, or maybe even offer your own services. You never know what you might find when reaching out, and you could make some connections that could serve you and your business well for a very long time.
Make sure you look for business networking groups in your local area. This will be a key way for you to introduce yourself to new people and build those key relationships. No matter what product or service you plan to offer with your newly launched business, there is always a way to reach out to new clients and potential partners alike.
Delivery times
Time is funny in London. It can feel like a disaster for you to miss precisely the right Tube, or you can find yourself sitting in a park for hours without a care in the world. As a business owner, you always need to make sure that you are balancing things in exactly the right way. One thing that might hold you back until you can find that balance is delivery times.
Getting stuff delivered to you might be very easy. Getting supplies dropped off at you can be so fast – with same-day delivery being an option for many seemingly mundane items. You might even be able to run up the street to grab something you desperately need from another nearby vendor. However, when it comes to making deliveries yourself, things could be a very different story. You always need to take into account London traffic. It can be brutal, and you don’t want to end up trapped somewhere in an unmoving jam with a time-sensitive product in the back of your van. Learning to master driving and deliveries in London will help to put your business ahead of so many others.
Plan as much as you can
Whether you are scouring the internet for the best goods in transit insurance or you are trying to find the best shortcuts down alleys that you could take, there is always something that you can do to help you take your London business to the next level. These are just some of the things you need to think about when setting up a company in the country’s capital. No matter how trivial or mundane you think something might be during the planning process, make sure it has its own point and that it is tackled in good time. There really is no such thing as being over-prepared when it comes to setting up your own business, no matter where it is based.