Here’s the bottom line in how to start an impact window business. It takes research, self-confidence, some capital, strategy, and working hard. Honestly, any business starting up for the first time requires everything mentioned above. Even for those who have some experience in the process, learning the industry one is about to enter takes a lot of due diligence. After all, the journey isn’t always the same, and more difficulties can be present according to the business you are about to under go.
Now, the first couple of questions you’ll need to ask is: Am I able to afford this business? Do I have the right equipment? Should I really invest in this business?
You need to determine whether you are ready or not for the responsibility of diving into this world, or you will end up having some difficulties that could be avoided as long as you are properly prepared.
While entrepreneurship appeals to many people, it can be daunting to figure out how to start, grow, and maintain your status.
As if that wasn’t enough, every week seems to bring a new option and element you should add to your business, even in the impact window industry or niche.
To make sure you are going in the right way, we compiled the steps you should follow to start an impact window business and not fail in the process or, at least, enjoy the journey a bit more instead of considering it pure suffering.
Remember What We Said About Being Ready?
Well, we just mentioned it a few moments ago, so we bet you do remember it properly, and we hope so since this is part of the first step: Focus on determining whether you are or not.
In advance, you must know there won’t be a right moment to start a new business, so you don’t have to focus on when in terms of location and time, but rather yourself.
It’s not about timing but a mindset that will determine if you are ready to start your own business. Are you ready to win? If yes, you really need to scream it out loud.
It’s not easy to say you’re going to start a business. We get that one in the impact window niche can represent more of a challenge than usual since it is more local and competitive than online businesses you can bet on globally.
Just sit for a bit and think about you, your goals, what you want to achieve with the business, and if you are truly ready for this journey regarding your mental and physical health.
Is Your Idea Good? Can You Protect It? Determine this
As an entrepreneur, one of your first considerations should be to determine how you can future-proof and protect your business idea in every aspect and set.
To do so, you will need to resort to different options, like looking for patents, finding partners, understanding how to approach some factors better, and anything that could be key for your business.
In the case of an impact window business, you might come up with ideas for new products or services that other businesses have not tried or come up with; for this, you might want to register your patents in the products or make sure future customers understand the service was born with you.
You can avoid copycats and ensure that your business is ready to capitalize on future growth opportunities, such as franchising or licensing your inventions or ideas.
When you are looking for investors or selling your business, protecting your intellectual property can increase your business’s value.
So, this step is all about considering the legal and crucial ways to protect your business in innovation and other aspects.
Start Writing Your Business Plan
When you have your worries clear, know how to protect your business, and feel ready to start, you can (and should) begin to create your business plan, which is crucial for any small company or entrepreneur to achieve success and have a clear roadmap of what to do to achieve the best results without any complications.
A detailed and strong plan can help you see the future and force you to evaluate the viability of your business idea. It will also give you a better understanding of the financials of your business and the competition.
A business plan usually covers three to five years of your business and not only the part of starting it.
It outlines all your goals and how to reach them, and thus, it is essential if you are applying for loans or seeking investors as well to show them what you are aiming for and show it is viable or not.
If you don’t know how to create a business plan or what should be included, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered since we understand some people find it a bit difficult to understand if they should focus on simple aspects or go for every detail.
So, to make sure you are doing well with it, you can follow these sections we would recommend for any plan:
- Add an executive summary.
This will be the first page of your plan regardless of the business idea you have in mind. So, for your impact window company, you should start right here.
This page should contain a mission statement that explains your main focus, along with a description of the products and services you will offer, basic information like ownership structure, and a summary of your plans of how you plan to achieve the desired results: Success and growth.
Move on with a company description.
This section should give anyone who reads your business plan a quick snapshot of your business and what it is about.
It will always contain vital information such as the company’s registered name, the address of any physical locations, and the names of key employees.
It also includes details about the company’s history, its nature, and the products or services it offers in more detail and not only as a summary like in the previous section.
- Include your goals and statements.
A business plan should always include a clear objective statement that outlines your company’s short- and long-term goals, so you can have a clear idea of what you need to do to reach or achieve a specific moment or objective.
This section can be used to explain why you are looking for outside financing as well since you will show your potential funding partners what they can expect when financing your business.
It will also describe how the funding will benefit your business and your plans to reach your growth goals.
It is important to clearly explain the investment or loan opportunity and the benefits it will bring to your company as well as theirs, so they are encouraged to provide the money for it.
- Management and business structure.
This section will list the legal structure of your business, such as a sole proprietorship or partnership, or the specific option you choose for it, as well as key employees and managers in detail whether you are the only one for now or will add more in the future.
You should also list the percentage ownership of each owner and founder involved, and how involved each owner is in the company in terms of functions and roles.
- Explain your services and products.
This section will allow you to describe the products and services you offer or plan to offer in your company. Thus, you need to include a description, pricing, target clients, sales strategy, and how you will handle the orders.
The details should be handled based on each product and service, not as general ones only.
Also, you can discuss pending and current trademarks or patents that are related to your product or service.
- Explain your marketing plan.
This is a brief explanation of your marketing strategy and how it will be executed to ensure you build presence, generate leads, and convert clients.
This section, more specifically, can be used to explain how you plan on persuading customers to purchase your services or how you intend to build customer loyalty that will result in repeat business.
For it, you will highlight your strengths and how you will stand out from the rest with the ideas in mind.
- Financial analysis.
You may not have enough information about your financials right now since this section depends a lot on your trajectory in business, and we are talking about starting it, not about an already existing one.
However, suppose you are an existing company looking for small business loans. In that case, you will need to include income statements or profit-and-loss statements, a balance sheet listing your assets and liabilities, and a cash flow statement showing how cash is coming into and going out of the company.
On the other hand, if you are just here to start the business, you can include an analysis of your personal finances to request loans or show individuals and potential funding members you can rely on some aspects by yourself.
- Financial projections.
If you are looking for financing or investors, this is an important part of your business plan. Compared to the previous one, this section explains how your business will make enough profit to repay the loan or how investors will be able to return a decent amount.
By adding, it will allow you to provide information about your business’s sales, expenses, and profit estimates for at least three years so investors have a specific idea of how much they can earn with it.
But to make this section possible, you need to be accurate and ensure your ideas are possible. Basically, while your goals might be ambitious, they should be achievable.
It is important to prove that your business can produce enough cash flow to pay the loan payments.
- Finally, close it with an appendix.
You should list any additional supporting information. You may consider adding a table to the end of the appendix the business plan is too long.
In this way, you will know where to go when figuring out your next steps already established or when showing the plan to someone else.
Review Your Goals & Set Realistic Ones
Although this is something you should do before your business plan, we consider doing it after can also be beneficial.
Goals are usually set when you are going over planning and trying to figure out what to do. Thus, it is only logical that going back to them and determining if they are realistic can be more productive than actually trying to come up with them for the first time.
Now, naive expectations are one of the main reasons businesses fail. People investing thousands of dollars in ad campaigns thinking that they will triple or quadruple the money, only to find out that it is a big fat zero, is more common than we would like to admit.
Many people approach their first business with false optimism and think this isn’t for them as a result.
Of course, it is good to be optimistic about achieving a goal and making the business happen, but sometimes you could be going a bit overboard with it in terms of how much you can actually achieve.
However, if your goals don’t really align with reality and how much you can do for now, there’s no way you will be able to achieve what you have established in your plan.
Are you able to promote your business even if you don’t have any customers or visitors for a month? Do you have the ability to recognize when a strategy is failing? Are you able to be patient and wait for the right time (meaning you may not see immediate sales, but you will see greater returns in the future)?
You have to ask yourself this and more when setting goals, and in this way, you will fall into reality.
You can use SMART goals to help you with goal setting, but ultimately your goals based on your business type and experience will be yours.
You Can Look for Financing Options
Having reached this point and with your business plan ready, you can start looking for investors.
Funding for small businesses is essential to start, grow and maintain them, so we don’t really need to tell you why financing is crucial. However, we do want to let you know that this is the right time in your plan to start to look for it.
Now, when it comes to funding, you have more than the regular options you’re aware of, and we will be listing the most common ones for you to consider based on what you can afford and access for your impact window business.
- Banks.
If you have a good credit score and collateral to offer to the lender, you can rely on the usual banks for your funding and capital.
The traditional banks can be a good starting point since they can help you determine your eligibility for funding. Talking to a traditional bank representative can help you determine what documents are required and your best options, even if your company doesn’t have enough assets or a track record to be eligible for a loan.
Because they are often involved in economic development, local banks can be a great source of small business financing. According to a 2020 report by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, 36% of small-business loans are held by community banks.
Banks offer a variety of funding options for small businesses, including term loans, SBA loans, and credit lines, so you can find options inside this alternative alone, meaning you can opt for more than the regular financing you are used to from these institutions.
- Small Business Administration (SBA).
If you are having a hard time with banks for their criteria and requirements, you can skip them and rely on this before anything else.
The U.S. Small Business Administration provides federal guarantees on loans to lenders (mostly traditional banks) when you apply for one.
It is less risky for banks to borrow the money you need to succeed, so it boosts your opportunities to get one.
The SBA guarantees loans and connects you to attractive rates from traditional lenders. You can also use an SBA loan for business startups, unlike many bank loans.
The application process can be difficult, and you may find yourself stuck under a pile of paperwork while you complete the forms, but it can be worth the time and hustle when you finally get the financing you need.
- Online lenders.
Fast funding isn’t impossible, but you usually need a great credit score for this. This is why most people with poor ones yet need the funding as soon as possible rely on this option.
Online lenders are becoming more popular because traditional banks have limited access to capital. This is especially true for startups that have never gone through the process of a business before, or their ideas don’t seem that profitable.
If you ask us, an impact window business won’t be the most attractive for banks, so that online lenders can be much more useful.
Many online lenders can also provide quick cash, and many of them are able to approve funding in less than 24 hours.
These are peer-to-peer lending alternatives as well, which eliminate the need for banks to connect borrowers and investors, both institutional and individual.
However, borrowing costs are much higher than they seem, and you should consider if it is worth your situation or not. Some lenders charge close to 100% annually.
Online lenders offer many financing options for small businesses, including line of credit, term loans, and invoice financing, so you can rest assured that finding one for your business is possible, but you need to consider other alternatives as well.
- Credit unions.
Credit unions, like banks, offer loans and favorable rates that SBA backs. However, they have seen an increase in small-business funding.
According to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, between 2004 and 2020, there was a double-digit increase in the number of credit unions that offer small business financing, which is why it can be easy to find the unions, but hard to access the financing option.
You will likely need to be a member in order to apply for one or have it approved.
Get the Name for Your Business
You must have thought about the business name while creating your business plan. Still, it can be difficult to come up with the right one, and we are confident that unless you were certain about it from the beginning, you would have to think about it twice, especially if you need a domain.com to match it.
To help you choose a name, you can use a free business name generator, so in this phase of your business creation and starting, you can name it properly before moving on with the next step.
Your business name should be memorable, catchy, easy to spell, including usernames and a domain, and be short.
Sometimes, the best ideas for naming a company come from bouncing names with friends to get a second opinion. If you are having trouble choosing the right name for your brand, don’t be afraid to ask another opinion.
Go & Register Your Business
You don’t have to register your business in certain cities or states until you make a set amount of income from the business, but some will require that to promote it and start, you have to register it officially.
Some entrepreneurs register their business on the first day to avoid liability. If you are incorporated within the first day of your business and get sued during the initial stages of the business, your business suffers.
From a legal standpoint, it is better to incorporate your business sooner than later.
Incorporation is not the only type of business venture you have at your disposal. You have the option to be a sole proprietor or to start a partnership.
To determine the best business structure for you, it is important to research your options before starting the impact window company and determine what is best based on your situation.
Plan How to Promote Your Business
Promoting your business is the most important step in starting it, and for it, you will also need some planning.
After all, this is a part in which you will need to invest money and a lot of time and to help you a bit; we include some ways in which you can work around it:
- Facebook: To run Facebook ads, you can target broad interests and include relevant brands to attract their audience. Businesses with niche audiences will love the option to post on Facebook groups.
- Instagram: Increase your Instagram following to make more sales with every Instagram post. To increase sales, you can also include direct links in Instagram Stories so people can ask about your services and products-
- LinkedIn: Create posts and share your thoughts on LinkedIn articles to build your personal branding. To increase your reach, invite relevant users to follow.
- SEO Optimizing your website for search, creating blog content, and generating more leads can help you generate more leads and website visitors.
- Quora: To promote your website, answer niche questions on Quora.
Take It Easy & Don’t Run
It is important that as much as you want to get your impact window business set, you take your time with it.
Thus, you should focus on the essentials and avoid running when you should be walking.
Take the time to go over all the steps and some extra ones if necessary.
People spend many months or even years developing and refining their businesses before even thinking about registering them or getting started.
Just outline everything, go over the details until you feel comfortable and happy with what you have compiled, and then start looking for necessary information.
You should do your research and plan with the same care and diligence as you would when taking an important test at college and even more.
You are putting your reputation and money at risk. Paying more attention to the beginning will help you avoid costly mistakes such as poor pricing, inadequate window services, or poor customer service.
Next, ensure that your marketing, branding, and social media support your business’ growth while you work so you can achieve all the expected results.
The Local Lead Generation Process for Your Impact Window Business
All right! So, everything is about building properties and generating leads. But how does the process actually take place? Are there other steps I need to know?
The steps I mention below are what students from our local lead generation program follow to generate leads for businesses like yourself. So I’ll help you see what we do. And how if you join our program, you can simply generate leads for your own business (unless you want to start a side hustle and build a laptop lifestyle business).
Essentially, our lead generation can be divided into four steps:
The first is prospecting. You need to take the time to do market research on a niche (industry) and determine how many phone-driven businesses are there.
Keep in mind that this is local research as you need to know how many companies need leads. For example, you may search for “plumbing services Youngstown OH.”
You will find dozens or even hundreds of businesses trying to get themselves in front of the customers by ranking on Map Listings, organic results, and even Ad.
The second step, building. When you find a niche (plumbing, tree services, a software company, real estate…), you will need to start building your digital properties. You don’t need to be an expert in HTML or coding. It can be easy with the right tools.
The third step is now taking time to rank your lead gen website. With the site done, you need to work on SEO strategies and start dominating those Google search results. If you’re new to SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization.
To keep it simple, it consists of the entire process of growing a company’s visibility on search engines like Google and generating organic traffic. And remember this, local lead generation is part of the strategies.
Moving on to step four, once you rank the site, you will start getting your ROI and profits. You only need to rent it out to a local business interested in the leads the site generates. You can offer a couple of free leads to their move on with the actual pay per lead.
To review steps 1-4 above, I described it to a normal student who is building a lead gen business to help local service providers generate more calls. But replace the student with you as the business owner. And replace sending the leads to a business to simply siphoning the leads to your personal business.
By the way, fun fact, about 20% of our students in our local lead gen program are actually business owners who went through the program. And they use the skillsets we teach to generate leads for their own business.
An Example of Lead Generation: Home Advisor
You must be thinking, “if lead generation sounds so good so far, how come I haven’t seen any company?” That’s the thing; there are many out there. You just don’t know they are dedicated to it.
HomeAdvisor is one of the best examples you can find on the Internet as it is a top lead generation company that has spent millions building its brand but also earned even more zeros for this same reason.
They started small as everyone else but invested in building their brand awareness to make people who are looking for home services go to their website and find what they need. They are over 75% of people’s first choice when they need those services.
If you don’t get HomeAdvisor that much or need a refresh, users need to submit their information to request a service and get a professional or expert who can provide it.
HomeAdvisor’s job is to share your information, which makes you a lead, with local companies so they can contact you and offer the service you’re requesting. For sharing this lead information, HomeAdvisor gets paid by the companies. This happens for every single lead they send to multiple businesses.
Business owners who don’t have marketing skills or don’t even know how to have any online presence will always rely on those pages to list their services. They will save time and effort, but companies like HomeAdvisor can make them spend lots of money as leads aren’t exclusive (one lead is sent to multiple companies after all).
Using Facebook Ads aka Paid Ad Platforms: Do They Generate Leads?
They DO generate leads. If not, no one would use them.
However, you need to remember two facts:
- Paid ads or platforms can be expensive.
- They don’t generate “natural” leads.
Whenever someone sees or clicks in one of those ads, over 80% of them did it by accident or are trying to close/report it.
Why? Because they aren’t looking for those services. At least not at the moment.
What those ads do instead is interrupt their time on the platforms. Users aren’t there to find companies or businesses unless they are searching for a specific company’s user, and for that, there’s a search bar. This is why it is hard to convert them to actual customers who will show interest in the companies’ services. Also, you’re limited by a budget.
When using lead generation, everything is organic. You aren’t forcing others to pay attention to your business but rather being there when they need you. This is why Google’s organic traffic will always beat paid ads, and the reason companies continue investing in it, which is a lot cheaper as well.
What Is Local SEO?
Don’t worry… I didn’t get it at first either. Following the short explanation, local SEO focuses on scaling businesses’ visibility on search engines. However, this is only for those who serve their communities face-to-face.
What does this mean?
Experts and professionals like painters, plumbers, and dentists (but not only them) offer their services to their local customers. Why? Because they can’t deliver them unless they are located in the same area of their customers.
To make sure those businesses get more leads, you need to rank them locally by claiming the business listing on Google to place them on Map Listings. Local SEO also involves online reviews, citation management, and how you manage your entire online presence in the local area.
If you are going to bet on lead gen, you need to adapt yourself to today’s world: The Internet.
Keep in mind that although traditional channels and methods like billboards, warm calls, and pamphlets still work, they aren’t part of your tools. Whenever someone needs a service, they go to Google and search for it.
“Dentist in Miami” or “plumbing services in Orlando,” etc. And you can keep coming up with services or professionals people need and look for. Thus, you need to make sure you’re using Google to get the companies in front of their clients.
Users will always click on the first search results (those near the top), and many of them will be either Ad links (people paid to place their websites there), Map Listing, and then you get websites. Almost all of them are your goal and where you should always aim to place yourself.
Can My Impact Window Business Utilize a Local Lead Generation Strategy?
If you want customers, you better know you need it. Following the previous explanation, lead gen is all about placing businesses in front of their customers, choosing them over their competitors.
Put it simply – it’s all about closing deals and having clients for those companies to make money. The main difference with the usual methods companies use for this is how lead generation approaches different channels to get them in the right place of the market to get customers.
Those channels are all focused on the Internet as most people are searching for products but also services across the net. The issue is that the Internet is way too broad, and businesses don’t know how to place themselves. They usually try, but they get one common result: losing money and time.
How Powerful Are Organic Impact Window Leads from Google?
For companies looking for customers, it’s everything. For you? Pretty much the same. When you build a business with digital properties, you get to make thousands of dollars a month.
This isn’t a “get started today and get rich tomorrow” thing, but it is HIGHLY scalable, and ROI + positive results are guaranteed. Learning a fairly decent and very needed set of skills to create your digital properties and start ranking them on Google is required.
I have invested in several online businesses over the years, and if there’s something uncertain, whether you will get your ROI or not, even more than the actual profit.
However, this business moved my earnings from five figures a year to a month in ONLY passive income while sitting comfortably at home.
On my laptop. Anywhere. Anytime.
You can look at one of the first sites I built back in 2016, and it continues making me over $1.000+ every month. The best part is that I don’t need to touch it or the rest I’ve built over the years, just like this digital property.
What Makes Lead Generation SO Alluring?
Here it goes: you can work from home.
The main issue with regular business opportunities is how much you need to invest in staff, equipment, or rent to have a place to sell your products or offer your services.
We all know the hassles of traditional businesses that involve regular expenses, which are extremely high. Can you afford it? I don’t think so, and even if you can, is it worth it? Now, it isn’t only about the money. You also need to put in a lot of work, and it isn’t only during the first couple of months or years. Usually, it is as long as you continue running it.
You can save yourself those headaches and bone-breaking tasks and expenses with lead gen since it is more about generating leads with digital channels—mainly websites.
Websites can be VERY cheap to build, and with many tools online, you get to do it in a couple of hours instead of days. Any virtual or digital business is scalable and won’t need constant maintenance.
So, let’s summarize this:
- You save money in regular expenses with traditional and most online businesses as what you need is yourself and digital properties (websites).
- You can bet on passive income.
- There’s no need to hire more people to get started.
- You can generate leads in multiple industries, which allows you to work on any niche you want.
How Can I Get Started in the Local Lead Generation Program?
Anyone can start and learn. That’s the beauty of this business model. I knew nothing about SEO, Map Listing, and everything I’ve mentioned so far. It is all about learning the skills, gaining experience, and deciding to take the step.
Remember that this business model will never get old as business owners are always looking for leads. They need to do business and scale their companies. Why not do the same while helping others and still making money?
You can start with this local lead generation course highly recommended for anyone wanting to grow in the business. It is a close training that will take you through each step and make sure you are able to get your ROI, profits and take control of your life.
You will be added to an incredible lead generation family ready to help you 24/7 when asking questions on the group. Anyone is welcome who’s willing to put in the work. Click here to watch the lead gen webinar.