How to start a business from your phone

In 2021, you can rely on your smartphone to help you with pretty much anything. If you’re a budding entrepreneur, that includes starting your own business. What a smartphone lacks in screen size, it more than makes up for the inconvenience.

This article will look at a few of the most important tasks for starting a business that you can do from your phone, including:

• Registering your company name and applying for a business license
• Marketing your business on social media
• Building your business website
• Managing your productivity
• Tracking your finances

If you’re looking for more general tips on starting a small business, you can also check out our article here.

 The first step in starting a business should be writing a business plan — this is a rough guide to what you hope to achieve with your business. If you’re using your phone to start your business, this could be as simple as marking down a few goals in the Notes app of your iPhone. 

For more complex business planning, you can use business management apps like monday.com. As well as business planning, this app can assist with team management and scheduling, so you can keep using it even beyond the startup stage of your business.  

You also need to jump through a few legal hoops when establishing a new business. Registering your business name is one, which can be done via mobile using the online government portal. A good business name is at the core of building a strong brand, so think carefully before you make a decision. You can take a look at our article on how to register a company name for more instructions.

While you’re at it, you should also check if you require a license for the particular business you’re trying to start. Businesses related to driving, childcare, and food commonly require specific licenses, so apply for one if you fall into any of those categories.

Smartphones and social media go hand in hand. If you’re primarily operating from your phone, your business should also be closely linked to social media.

Social media is one of the best marketing tools for small businesses, as it’s very easy to open an account and start posting. Find out what the most relevant platforms are for your business (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are the biggest three, but might not be suitable for you), download their apps, and create some accounts.

Social media is a handy marketing tool for phone-based businesses because of how well-developed their apps tend to be. With just a couple of downloads, you can manage your business’ whole marketing arm from your phone. Want a few more tips on navigating social media? Check out our article on how to use social media for business.

Social media might be your marketing hub, but if you want your business to grow, you’ll need your own space to show off your products and services. That means you’ll need to create your own website. 

It can be expensive to hire a website designer, but the growing number of website building services means you can save money by downloading an app and doing it yourself.

Again, this is a job you can do on your phone fairly easily. Wix and Squarespace both have mobile apps, so you don’t need a desktop to take advantage of their services. Building your website from your phone also has the advantage of making it much easier to optimise your website for mobile. A massive part of mobile optimisation is that the site loads correctly and efficiently when visited by someone using a smartphone. 

Although downloading the app and using the service is easy, the finer points of website building can be tricky. If you don’t have a lot of experience in this field, our article on how to create a business website will help you get started.

One of the primary benefits of running your business from your phone is the fact that you’ll have it to hand nearly all the time. Still, this doesn’t mean that you’ll always be using your phone to work. Using your phone for personal use as well as business use means there will be a lot of distractions only a few taps away.

If you struggle with productivity, there are many apps you can download onto your phone to keep you on the straight and narrow. Todoist and TickTick are great to use as to-do lists, since you can easily set reminders and alerts to make sure you’re doing what you need to do when you need to do it. 

Google Workspace is a great app for collaboration, so it’s perfect if your business plan involves working alongside clients on creative projects. It’s also handy since you might already be using some of its functions (such as Gmail or Google Docs) for personal use. Have a look at our article on the best work from home apps for small business owners for more examples of helpful business apps.

Keeping track of your business finances can be the toughest job of all, especially when you’re operating mostly from your phone. This is where the Countingup app comes in.

Countingup is the unique two-in-one business current account that comes with built-in accounting software, helping you to manage all your financial data in one app. With features like automatic expense categorisation, invoicing on the go, receipt capture tools, tax estimates, and cash flow insights, you can confidently keep on top of your business finances wherever you are. 

You can also share your bookkeeping with your accountant instantly without worrying about duplication errors, data lags or inaccuracies. 

Find out more here and get started with your free month free trial today.