Starting a Business? What to do first when you are Starting a Business
Launching your own business is one of the most exciting—and overwhelming—decisions you can make. Whether you’re creating a side hustle, a passion project, or pursuing full-time entrepreneurship, starting with confidence is key. In this post, I’ll walk you through the step-by-step process I use to help my clients build a cohesive brand, a website optimized for results, and a sustainable content strategy for long-term success. Pro tip - listen to the podcast for full details!
55 \\ How to launch a Small Business in 2025 with Branding, SEO and great Web Design
Small Business Branding - Why it comes First
Branding is the foundation of your business. It’s not just about creating a pretty logo—it’s about building a cohesive identity that communicates who you are, what you do, and why people should choose you. According to Forbes:
Establishes Credibility: Businesses with professional branding are three times more likely to be perceived as trustworthy.
Builds Trust and Connection: Consistent branding helps foster the know-like-trust factor that’s essential for engaging clients and customers.
Elevates Your Value: Great branding allows you to charge higher prices because it reflects professionalism and expertise.
When you work with me, we begin with a comprehensive brand questionnaire that dives into both the philosophy and style of your business. From your mission and values to the colors and illustrations that resonate with you, this process ensures your brand reflects your unique vision.
Small Business Web Design: Bringing Your Brand to Life
Once your brand is established, we translate it into a functional, beautiful website. Your website is more than a digital storefront—it’s a powerful tool to connect with your audience and convert visitors into clients. Personally, I specialize in what I call ‘semi-custom’ website design where we take a template and bring it to life. It allows us to keep the costs down which is why it’s so helpful for businesses just starting out!
Here’s how we ensure your website is impactful:
Consistent Design: From fonts to colors, your website reflects your cohesive branding.
SEO Optimization: I build with search engines in mind so your site ranks well and reaches your ideal audience. THIS is the biggest mistake I see with web designers and new websites.
User Experience (UX): A clear and easy-to-navigate site ensures visitors find what they need without frustration.
This is obviously the 10,000 foot look at web design but it gives you an idea of why it can be so important.
The Role of SEO in Long-Term Success
Your website may look amazing, but it won’t get results unless people can find it. That’s where SEO (Search Engine Optimization) comes in. It’s the long-term strategy that drives traffic to your site and keeps your business visible.
Let’s look at the example above. I typed in Fishing in Wisconsin to pick a random website to pull an example. Here’s the thing… This website doesn’t have an H1 header (check out this blog to know why that’s important). A simple change knowing SEO is instead of having “welcome” being the header it should be “Your Guide to the best fishing in the U.S.”.
As part of the process, when I help a business I:
Conduct Keyword Research: Identifying terms your audience searches for to connect with your content.
Conduct Competitor Analysis: Understanding what’s working for others in your space.
Do On-Page Optimization: Crafting metadata, headers, and content to improve search rankings.
Creating a Sustainable Content Strategy
Launching your brand and website is just the beginning. To maintain momentum, you need a content strategy that keeps your business visible and relevant. As we are working on launching your business, I remind clients to develop a plan tailored to their goals, including: blog posts, social media strategy and email marketing.
Work With Me to Start Strong
When you work with me, you’re not just hiring a designer—you’re gaining a partner who understands the journey of building a business. From brainstorming ideas to creating a brand package that includes logo mock-ups, color palettes, illustrations, and stock photography, I’m here to help you show up confidently from day one.
Ready to turn your business idea into reality? Let’s chat about how branding, web design, and SEO can work together to set you up for long-term success.
