Getting found

Just opened? Your first month online

When you have just started, everyone tells you that you need a website, a logo, Instagram, TikTok, a newsletter and a brand. Most of that can wait. A small number of things genuinely move the needle in the first month, and doing those properly beats doing everything badly. Here they are in order, with the free tools to get each one done.

1. Google Business Profile, before anything else

This is the single highest-value thing a new local business can do, and it costs nothing. It is what puts you in the map results when someone nearby searches for your trade, and for many local businesses it drives more enquiries than the website does.

Claim it, verify it, and then actually finish it. Fill in every field, choose the right primary category, set your real service area, and add photos. Half-finished profiles are the norm, which is exactly why a complete one stands out. My guide to optimising a Google Business Profile walks through the whole thing, and the free Google Business Profile grader will score yours in about two minutes and tell you what to fix first.

If writing the business description is the bit that stalls you, the business bio generator will draft one for you to edit.

2. Somewhere online that is actually yours

A Facebook or Instagram page is rented space. You do not own the audience, the reach can change overnight, and it rarely shows up when somebody Googles your trade. A website is the bit you control, and it is what search engines and AI assistants read when they decide whether to recommend you.

It does not need to be big. One honest page with your services, the areas you cover, a tappable phone number and a few real photos of your work will do more than a five-page site you never finish. I have written separately on what a website actually costs and how long one takes to build, both with real numbers rather than "enquire within".

3. Start collecting reviews from day one

This is the one new businesses put off, and it is the one that compounds. Reviews drive your position in the local map results and they are the strongest trust signal a stranger has. A business with a healthy stream of reviews beats a better business with none, every time.

The trick is making it effortless. Do not ask people to search for you and hunt for the review button. Send a direct link by text the same day, while the job is fresh in their mind. My free Google review link and QR code generator creates a one-tap link for your business, plus a printable table-tent poster and ready-made request messages you can copy.

Ask every single happy customer, from the very first one. Twenty reviews in your first few months is genuinely achievable when you are new and doing good work, and it is worth more than almost anything else on this list.

4. Make it stupidly easy to contact you

Check on a phone that your number is a proper tappable link, not just typed out. Make sure your email goes somewhere you actually read. If you are out on jobs and cannot answer, decide now what happens to a missed call, because most people will not leave a voicemail, they will ring the next business on the list.

Small polish that pays for itself early: a proper email signature so replies look like a real business, a QR code for your van, window or business cards, and a free invoice generator so your paperwork looks the part from the first job.

5. Claim the free listings nobody bothers with

Google is not the only place people find local businesses. Bing feeds Windows search and some AI tools, Apple Maps covers every iPhone, and Nextdoor is where neighbours ask for recommendations. They are free, they take a few minutes each, and most of your competitors have skipped them.

The only rule is that your name, address and phone number must match your Google listing exactly. See the free business listings most people skip for how to do each one.

What to ignore for now

Being new means your time is the scarcest thing you have. These can all wait:

• Being on every social platform. Pick the one your customers actually use and do that one properly. Four neglected profiles look worse than one active one.
• Paid ads. Tempting when you want customers now, but expensive to learn on. Get the free basics working first, because ads sending traffic to a weak setup just costs you faster.
• A perfect logo and brand. Useful eventually, irrelevant to whether someone rings you this week. If you have one, the logo background remover will tidy it up for free.
• Blogging. Genuinely valuable later for search, but only once the foundations are in and you have time to keep it up.

Be realistic about timing

A verified Google Business Profile can start appearing within days. A brand new website usually takes longer, often weeks, before Google has indexed it and it shows for anything at all. Ranking for the competitive local searches is a matter of months, and it is driven mostly by reviews and genuine local presence rather than anything technical.

None of that is a reason to delay. It is a reason to start now, because the clock only runs once you have set things up.

The short version

Google Business Profile, then a simple site you own, then reviews from your very first customer. Make yourself easy to contact, claim the free listings, and ignore everything else for a couple of months. That is the whole first month, and it puts you ahead of most established competitors.

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