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Emages Design Owner, Emma Lee

Hi! I just wanted to introduce myself before I throw myself into the the world of BLOGGING!

My name is Emma. I’m a mum of 4, wife to one, graphic designer and owner of Emages Design.

I started my venture as a business owner back in 2016, 4 wonderful years in business and I haven’t looked back. The start was a tad difficult working another job and coming home to design late at night but it only took 18 months of working the two to be able to leave and work entirely for myself.

Let’s go back to where it all started.

I have always loved to be creative, I grew up with an artsy mum and a dad who was a music teacher. School holidays consisted of lots of arts and crafts and I was always encouraged to be as creative as I could be. For my HSC I studied both 2 and 3 unit art coming in the top 10 percent of the state for one of my final artworks with it making it into a local art exhibition.

It stopped there. I would play around with water colour pencils here and there but life got busy having 4 kids along the way and I just didn’t have the time to be the creative I was earlier on in my life. Unfortunately life gets busy and we forget to do the things we love sometimes.

I spent years just working admin jobs just to help out with finances but I got bored with that so in 2014 I decided to study an Interactive Digital Media course which included Website Design, Graphic Design and Game Design. I did’t sign up thinking I’d start my own business, I was just wanting to get back into being creative again.

Unfortunately in 2015 my husband had a workplace accident where he injured his back quite significantly. He had always been the breadwinner, yes I had worked but his job was the main income and it was quite a shock to us when he couldn’t work.

I jumped in and started Emages Design. I had no guidance with the business, I spent hours googling, youtubing, joining every FACEBOOK group I could that could give me insight on how to start up my business. I joined in with online networking groups as face to face networking groups really scared me (I suffer from anxiety). It took time to build it all up but with consistency and using the resources that are available online I now have a successful graphic design business, Emages Design.

In 2019 I decided it was time to step out of the comfort of my own home and join a networking group, there are so many out there but the one I chose was one that suited my needs, a wonderful group of like minded ladies called MIBA. It was a networking group set up by two pretty awesome sisters over in England and has since gone global. Through attending these meetings I have been able to grow some confidence and make some amazing friends. They have a presenter at each meeting and then after you get to network with the other awesome ladies. I highly recommend getting to a meeting if you can, don’t leave it til later on in your business like I did because they are insightful, inspirational and you will make some pretty awesome friends too!

Another goal for 2019 was to enter local business awards. I took the plunge and entered and became a finalist in the Penrith Local Business Awards. It was uplifting and something I’m so glad to have done.

I’ve had difficulty trying to decide what my goals are for 2020 but my first one is to blog! I’m not a writer, at all, but I want to use my knowledge and experience of starting up a business to help others out to help you save time and run a successful business.

I look forward to many blogs ahead.

Emma

Starting a business can be a daunting one and something I had absolutely no clue on how to do it and where to start. I hope that with some of the tips I share today, if you are thinking of starting a business OR you recently have started a business and haven’t quite set everything up that it takes a bit of the overwhelming feeling of ” how will I EVER do this?” and get you on your way to doing what you do best whether you’re selling products on line or you provide a service.

Number one thing apply for an ABN number (AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS NUMBER)

Here’s why you need to do so:

To Register a Business name with ASIC you need to have an ABN number
You need it when ordering and invoicing, if you don’t supply your ABN number on your stationary other businesses can withhold 46.5% from any payment to you and you don’t want that!
If you have an ABN you can claim GST and fuel tax credits
You need one to register a website domain so if you want a website an ABN is a must!

You can find more information on how to ably for an ABN here

2. Next up search for the business name you want over at ASIC

It’s so important to do this, there is nothing worse for you than paying for things like logos, business cards, signage and more and then finding out your name is taken!

Yep all that money down the drain because you didn’t register the business name at the start. Some advice I can give you when searching for the business name you want, make sure there’s nothing very similar to the name you choose.

Why?

Think when you google a business and theres something similar to yours, what if they had better SEO and ranked further up the google search, guess who’s going to get looked at first, definitely not you.

You can do a search as well as register your name over at ASIC

3. There are a few free services out there for new start up businesses in NSW.

For those who want to go through a staged set-up process with a qualification and are pre-income you can consider the NEIS program. It is for people who are not employed or in any training

To find out more information head over hereNext up is Business Connect program (government funded) where you get 4 hours free business advice and any additional training and advice hours are also available heavily subsidised.

You can find out more about this great program over here

When you set up your ABN you can also access the Commonwealth Government funded ASBAS Digital Business Solutions program and get an hour digital review no cost.

Not in NSW ? That’s ok you can find further information on the ASBAS program and also check here for services outside your area.

4. Talk to an accountant to see what you need to do to keep bookkeeping up to date, there is nothing worse than having to back track to get your book work up to date. I started off with a simple WORD DOC invoice template you can do a search through word for invoice templates. Once it got busy I started to use a free service called WAVEAPP which lets you invoice, upload bank statments (unfortunately they took away the automatic bank reconciliation for Aussies but you can physically upload your statements and reconcile that way), business reports and much more.

5. Get your designs started.

You don’t have to dive in and get everything at once, I get that starting a business money can be limited and if you can only do one thing at a time that’s totally fine!

Start with the logo and then go from there. Once you have your logo designed you can start your brand identity bringing your colours, fonts, graphics into to all your digital and print designs.

Things to think about so you know the importance of which designs to get first:

Are you an online platform or will you be more face to face? If you are going to be more online you might think about the designs needed to get your business out there online such as social media designs (templates for social media posts, digital banners etc), however, if you are out in the public meeting up face to face you might look more at physical print designs such as business cards, car signage (this is great for all kinds of businesses) banner designs, stationary designs (letterheads, with compliments slips etc). Having said this if you plan on having active social media pages I think it’s important to get it sorted from the start, it helps you to look professional from the word go and being consistent with your designs on all platforms help you to be become recognisable and remembered no matter where you are!

6. Start Networking Online and Face to Face!

The word networking absolutely scared me when I first started but I wish I had of started face to face networking earlier on in my business because it would of made life so much easier. It’s not just all about making sales it’s about meeting like minded people who can share their valuable info, what they know you may have no clue about and likewise you may been a fountain of knowledge for something hey are clueless about. With networking comes word of mouth and lets face it we are more likely to try someone out if someone we know has already used their services right? One I highly recommend is MIBA, the MIBA PENRITH BLUE MTNS group is a great bunch of ladies. They are located throughout Australia as well as worldwide.

Networking face to face can make being a sole business owner a bit more social because once you go it doesn’t stop at the network meetings, you start to make friends too.

Networking on social media is just as important. Find business groups that can help you out. One that as been invaluable to me is Business Business Business run by a husband and wife team(Linda and Clive) and a great group of people behind them the page is informative, supportive and they do no tolerate any crap! You can ask questions and answer questions and please do that where you can give valuable information to the group or other groups do so because when you do guess who then checks your page out and the rest is history!

Join local FACEBOOK pages where you think your target audience is, post when they have share days, be sure to make sure the groups allow advertising before you post because if you don’t read their rules you’re bound to be booted. Be consistent with your posts on social media think about the times your target audience is online and post in those times.

There is so much more when it comes to social media designs and posts and I will cover these along the way but for now I hope this info has been helpful for those of you who are new to business or yet to start up a business.

Next blog I will be talking about the difference between a LOGO and BRANDING. Yes they are two different things.

See you next blog

Emma

Hello! From Emma

I’m Starting a Business, what do I need to do?