The Mut-Con Business Starter Package is built for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs at heart! With so many developments making it easier to start your own business, there has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur.
At Mut-Con, this is added motivation to pursue our goal of helping clients achieve their goal of entrepreneurship. It is our value proposition and has shaped our very existence.
All our products and services are defined by a desire to make entrepreneurship more accessible. No single product at Mut-Con encompasses this philosophy as much as our business starter package.
The goal is to get you from a simple idea to a fully functioning business. As a new entrepreneur, there are a lot of pitfalls that can permanently affect your success that you may not be immediately aware of.
From proper financial management to choosing the right business structure to tax compliance and even more nuanced considerations like what to look for when franchising and alternative business funding strategies, starting a successful business is a lot more complex than just bringing your passion to the world.
The good news is you don’t have to go at it alone. You can leverage our expertise to start a successful business, and a good starting point is our business starter package.
The package itself is based on our ultimate guide to starting a successful business which is built on our extensive experience helping aspiring entrepreneurs like you turn their dreams into reality.
While we can’t take out all the risks of starting a business, our business advisory takes out a significant number of threats.
Even better, we are not just a team that can help you start a business, we can help you grow it as well. So what can you expect from our business starter package and how does it help you?
1. Business Registration
Compliance is easily one of the toughest aspects of the entrepreneurial journey. In addition to having a lot of requirements to be aware of, ignorance is not really an excuse. You simply can’t say you didn’t know to escape your oversight.
While registering your business doesn’t answer all your compliance concerns, it does go a long way to help. Whether you register as a private company or a non-profit organization, you will have a lot more advantages than going into business as a sole proprietor.
You’d be able to pay corporate taxes, which are a lot more forgiving at lower earnings than paying for your business’s income as a sole proprietor.
This also depends on how you choose to withdraw amounts from your business but in general, you want corporate over personal tax. You will also be able to access additional benefits as a registered business such as BBBEE.
There are a lot of public and private sector initiatives that you will not be able to access without a registered business.
When it comes to funding and funding organizations, we have seen a preference towards registered businesses.
Speaking of compliance, registering a business will help you open a separate business account for your business, which is an important step in starting your financial management on the right foot.
Not to mention, a registered business is just more professional. There is nothing wrong with entrepreneurship as a freelancer but in our experience, registered businesses get more love.
With all that considered, you can understand why the business starter package starts with business registration. We will help you register a private company (PTY LTD) or NPO with CIPC.
In addition, we help you get essential documents such as a BBBEE affidavit and a tax clearance certificate. This is a comprehensive start-to-finish service and you will not have to worry about the cost of registering your business or any additional requirements you may miss out on.
2. Business Plan
At Mu-Con we love business planning. It was the first service we offered as business consultants and that’s no accident.
There is no shortage of quotes on the virtues of planning, and it’s no surprise a lot tend to come from entrepreneurs and business people.
Among some of our favourite planning quotes, one that stands out is by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. It simply asserts that:
A goal without a plan is just a wish
As business consultants, our goal is to help you bring your goals to life and without business planning, we are just helping you chase your wishes.
As such, business planning is at the core of our business starter package. We value business plans as resources so much that we are always building resources around them.
Some of the resources we have built to date include a full guide to understanding business plans, a guide to building lean business plans for faster planning, and a free lean business plan template to help you put your ideas down.
Our business plans are comprehensive. They are designed to help you build an executable plan whether you are looking for a financing document, an operational guide or both.
In the case of the former, you can use our business plans to approach public and private sector funders for financing. We’ll include key funding information such as a full funds needs assessment, funding proposal and five-year financial projections.
For the latter, using a Mut-Con business plan can help you in running your business. It acts as an operational guide you can regularly refer to guide your decision-making.
With a Mut-Con business plan in hand, you can have confidence that your decisions are leading your business towards its goals.
From marketing and sales to resource planning and proper financial management, our business plans help you build a successful business.
2.1 Mut-Con business plans can be used to seek funding
Getting the right financing for your business starts with a great business plan. Mut-con not only helps clients explore the different types of funding available for them but clients rely on our experience to make sure their funding doesn’t ultimately lead to business failure.
We help our clients explore alternative funding solutions that reduce business risk. Furthermore, we introduce our clients to the lean startup, a concept of which we have always been proponents.
Our business plans are comprehensive and contain everything a funder may need to fund your business. We help you draft projections. These are important to prove that your business will be profitable.
They include all the required financial data such as sales volumes, profit statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, and asset schedules as well as key assumptions drawn to come up in the funds need assessment that arrived at the funds you are seeking.
However, getting financed takes more than just a compelling set of numbers. It takes a compelling narrative as well. We help you build a case for why you believe in the numbers presented.
We help you build a convincing case for why your business will be profitable, generate positive cash flows, grow in value and give a positive return to all your stakeholders.
2.2 Mut-Con business plans can be used to run your business
A business plan is more than just a document to seek financing. It’s a document you can refer to regularly to align your strategy with your growth goals and your vision for your business.
Using a business plan, we help clients build a roadmap for success. This roadmap is based on our success in helping entrepreneurs build successful businesses.
When you get stuck, your business plan can help you get back to winning ways. In addition to helping you take advantage of opportunities, your business plan can help you manage threats.
That’s the beauty of a great strategy. At Mut-Con, our business plans come with comprehensive strategies. These strategies are an essential success factor in our business starter package.
A Mut-Con business plan includes key business strategic areas you can refer to, including:
- A vision, mission, goals, and values you should always strive to align your business to.
- Some background to your business to introduce it to stakeholders.
- An overview of your market to help you better position your brand.
- Some great marketing strategies to help you win over clients.
- Some comprehensive strategies to beat your competition because Mut-Con clients are not afraid of competition.
- Very importantly, a comprehensive management and team strategy because all great businesses are built on the back of a great team.
- Some insights on the location and facilities you will need to build a business that delivers a great service always.
3. Company Profile
Your company profile is an integral part of your business identity and your branding strategy. It’s an essential tool for communicating with your stakeholders.
Building your profile can be a great step in defining your brand identity. While you can start your business journey without a company profile, it’s a lot easier with one.
That’s why it’s an essential part of our business starter package. Together, we can clearly set out the vision, mission, goals and values of your business.
This ensures that any potential stakeholders immediately understand what your business is about and why they should work with you.
We also explore your products and services because your profile is an important selling document. It’s a great tool for your market to discover what your business can do and should start conversations.
We also explore key profile sections like your team, company history, and communication channels.
Our favourite section is your social responsibility though. No business should be without one. Even as a small business, you must stand for something.
Your clients expect it from you. We love helping entrepreneurs like you define and communicate what their businesses stand for.
It reassures us of our own values and reminds us that one entrepreneur at a time, we are making a difference in the world.
Equally important to the copy we put in the profile is the design. Like everything else we do at Mut-Con, our company profiles are on brand.
They not only follow your brand identity but they just plain look good. We top all of this off with a flip-book version of your company profile that’s easy to share and fun to browse.
4. Business Website
We are obsessed with taking businesses online and we are not alone. Google searches for “small business website” have gone up 25.68% in the last five years.
This is a demonstration that entrepreneurs understand the importance of a website for their business, and consumers agree as well. 75% of consumers judge a company’s credibility based on its website.
Considering that 81% of them conduct research online before engaging, it’s clear that without an online presence, your business is closed out from a significant part of the market.
While a website alone is not a complete online presence, it’s a great starting point. And at Mut-Con we understand this.
That’s why website development was one of our first solutions and it’s an essential part of our business starter package.
Our websites are built on the best website development philosophies to help you sell more. We start with a comprehensive set of goals for your website.
We help you avoid the trappings of a website built without goals because these websites don’t achieve any business goals.
Building a website that reaches business goals starts with building an on-brand website. Our copywriting services will match the tone and voice of your brand while reassuring clients you are the best in your industry.
We have built a portfolio that boasts websites from a lot of industries over the last 5 years. We use this experience to build our clients websites that not only drive traffic but also create leads, conversions and sales.
In addition, we don’t skimp on design. Humans are visual creatures and we respond positively to what we are attracted to.
A good-looking website helps you make the best first impression possible. Just because it’s part of a business starter package doesn’t mean your website should compromise on appeal.
5. Company Logo & Basic branding
The modern-day entrepreneur cannot escape the need to build a brand to build a successful business. Not only do you need to build a brand but you also need to demonstrate the value of your brand.
The modern consumer, be it in the business-to-business or the business-to-customer sphere, is bombarded by choice and for your business to stand out, it needs a brand that stands the test of time and stays in the mind.
Think of the brands you interact with regularly. Could be the colours of FNB. The humour of Nando’s. How you feel when you see a Nike jogging ad. All these elements contribute to your loyalty to these brands.
They communicate these brands’ missions and remind you why you love their products. Some of these brands are so ingrained in you that sometimes you can tell you are interacting with them subconsciously.
The phrase “just do it” just took you to Nike even though you are reading the Mut-Con blog. Your brand needs to develop this power to make an impact.
It’s not easy, but you need it. A strong brand that resonates with your market takes time to build but we can help you get started.
A starting point is defining the elements of your brand and we can guide you. We have worked with a lot of entrepreneurs like you and crafting a brand identity and brand strategy that works is part of our DNA.
We have an understanding of how colours can evoke emotions and why some colours work best in some industries.
Our goal is to understand your mission and from that understanding, we can help you pick a brand voice and tone that communicates that mission.
Ultimately, your brand identity will be based on how you want your business perceived, but Mut-Con can help you get the technical elements right.
Starting with a simple logo and a few colours, let’s help you present your business how you want it to be seen.
6. Social Media Profiles
Social media marketing is still a great way to achieve a lot of small business goals. Despite this, many small business owners make the mistake of under-utilizing or completely ignoring social media for their business.
With over 4.3 billion people globally, or 75% of the world population over 13 years old actively using social media, this deprives small businesses of the opportunity to reach their potential audience where they obviously want to spend a lot of time.
Everyone and their grandmother use social media so whatever you sell, your market is on there. A solid social media presence built on the back of a great social media marketing strategy can help you:
- Generate leads, sales and revenue for your business.
- Build a recognised and reputable brand for your business.
- Build a community for your clients and provide support.
- Gain a better understanding of your market.
- Better deliver customer service among other things.
Our social media section of the business starter package is designed to help you achieve just this. We don’t help you just set up social media pages, we help you set pages that achieve goals.
The starting point is helping you select the right social media platforms for your business. This will help you not spread yourself too thin by investing everywhere.
Thereafter, we move on to help you set up on brand social media pages. However, just as important as how your pages look is what’s on them.
We’ll help you complete all the important sections of your profiles with great copy so that they are easy to find and they convert visitors into leads or clients.
From there, we can discuss some great content strategies for your pages. These are aimed at generating great engagement with followers at different stages of your sales funnel as well as driving business goals.
You can even consider a suitable social media management package from Mut-Con to help you make the most of your social media marketing.
7. Full Month Consultation
At Mut-Con, we believe no entrepreneur should have to go through their journey alone. This is why we are business consultants first and everything else second.
Our mission, the core of our services, is insights for success. What this translates to is striving to give you a clear, comprehensive and useful understanding of what it takes for you to start and grow a successful business.
All our solutions are designed to be distilled down to insights our clients can use to succeed and we love to level the playing field, that’s why Mut-Con clients fear no competition.
You can strut into your industry with the confidence to challenge the biggest players. You do this because of the knowledge that you have the support of an equal if not better team to theirs at your disposal.
And that’s what inspires us. The ability to give small businesses like yours access to the best minds traditionally reserved for big industry players so you can quickly close the gap.
This is what makes our consultation an integral part of our business starter package. For the first month of your business journey, when you are most vulnerable, we are at your disposal.
This is the time when you need to make key decisions that will affect your success. This is therefore the time you will need to leverage our experience the most.
We might not be the best at your specific industry, but we are fast staking our claim as the best in business.
Together, we can combine our knowledge and expertise, take your industry-specific expertise and supercharge it with our understanding of the business environment to help you go into business with the advantage.
This consultation is also important to help you interpret and utilize some assets from the business starter package such as your business plan and company profile.
So let’s get you started
Building successful businesses is our ultimate goal and in that regard, our business starter package could be our most valuable product.
We have built it in line with our value proposition to make entrepreneurship more accessible. That’s an advantage for you, the aspiring entrepreneur.
It covers all the essentials, which should help you get into business with confidence. This confidence will be backed with tangible strategies to win your market and beat your competition.
As business consultants, we can see no greater value we can offer our clients. Our business package is, of course, always evolving and we always welcome your input.
If there’s more you believe we can add to further help entrepreneurs, let’s chat.
