Where to Spend Your First Few Thousand Dollars in a New Business

New business owners spend early money on protection and paperwork. Spend it on the things that bring in a customer. Protect what works after it works.

The question that prompted this post was about trademarks. It comes up constantly, and the answer applies to most early spending.

A trademark does not bring in customers

A trademark stops other people using your name. That is worth real money once your name has value. On day one, your name has no value yet, and there is nobody to stop.

Register a trademark when you can name a specific risk. You are being copied. You are entering a competitive market where the name carries the business. You are raising money or franchising, and somebody will ask.

Until then it is a cost with no return attached.

Spend on the three things that produce revenue

A website that answers questions. For most new businesses this is the first and largest impression. It has to say what you do, where you do it, what it costs, and how to reach you. Nothing else on the site matters until those four are clear.

One marketing channel, done properly. Not four. Pick the one where your customers already are, and give it enough time and money to prove itself.

The experience of your first customers. Early customers are your marketing. Do the work well, ask for a review, and ask who else needs it. That referral loop costs nothing and outperforms any advertising available to a new business.

Get these four small things right immediately

• Register the domain in your own name, with your own email
• Set up business email on your own domain, not a free address
• Claim your Google Business Profile
• Use one exact business name, address, and phone number everywhere online

None of these is expensive. All of them are painful to fix later.

When to revisit the trademark

Once the business generates steady revenue and the name is doing work, protect it. By then you can afford it, and you know which name is worth protecting.

Many new businesses change their name in the first two years. Registering early often means paying to protect a name you will drop.

The general rule

Early on, spend on the things that create customers. Once you have customers, spend on the things that protect them.

I help new businesses decide where the first budget goes. Email jon@delcaromedia.com.