6 Essential Survival Tips When Starting a New Business in Malta

Tuesday, 18 October 2022, 09:35 Last update: about 3 years ago

Malta, or, more commonly referred to as the Republic of Malta, is an attractive destination for those who are seeking beauty and charm throughout Europe. Although Malta itself is an island country that is located in the Mediterranean Sea, many refer to Malta as Southern European when referring to locals, businesses, and relevant transactions. In 2021, Malta had more than 55,000 active business units and counting. If you are thinking of starting a business in Malta, there are a few essential survival tips to keep in mind before getting started.

1. Know and Manage Your Budget

Budgeting is one of the most important aspects of managing any type of business, big or small. Creating a new budget on a quarterly basis with a quarterly review provides valuable insights into existing necessary and unnecessary expenses.

Why It's Important

Knowing your corporate budget year-round and managing it effectively is essential to keep yourself in business and delegate funds accordingly.

How to Get Started

Work with a professional accountant, CPA, or business manager if you are inexperienced at handling corporate finances.
Utilize the right software or management program to easily organize expenditures.
Learn more about where you should allocate current resources and how to best extend your budget on a quarterly basis by conducting quarterly or semi-annual budget reviews.

2. Develop Your Brand From the Start

Establishing and developing a brand is also key to building a successful business in any market or industry today. And one of the most important elements is your logo design. Incorporating a high-quality, professional, eye-catching logo design can help to attract customers and build trust among your target audience.

When it comes to designing a logo you don’t have to spend too much time on it or even money. You will probably change it after a year, so just make sure you have a professional design that aligns with your brand. If you don’t have access to a designer you can use an online logo maker to quickly craft a quality logo for your business.

Aside from your logo you need to work on the rest of your brand elements: With most brands, you only have one opportunity to make a first and good impression. Great branding that is relevant to your business and its products or services can significantly impact the outcome of your marketing campaigns, both online and off.

How to Get Started

Consider your target audience
Develop a high-quality, eye-catching, relevant, and/or interesting logo
Streamline your social media pages to incorporate the same logo and color scheme across all of your brand's accounts
Choose a voice that best represents your brand and is most likely to resonate with your target audience.
Launch A/B tests using different voices, color schemes, and logos if you are unsure of which choices are optimal for your brand's image. A/B tests can help you to gauge immediate reactions, engagement times, bounce rates, overall responses and CTR, or click-through rates.
Ask your immediate following online for feedback and input as you continue to grow your brand to ensure you are resonating with your target audience.

3. Importance of Automating Your Processes

One of the most impressive aspects of the 21st century is the continued development of AI, or artificial intelligence, as well as automation solutions in technology. Automating your business processes today is essential to spend more time focusing on other important facets of your operation in Malta.

Why It's Important

Automation solutions help to save time while simultaneously allowing you to remain as organized and efficient as possible, especially while running your business. Automating your processes will also help to improve the accuracy of file management and document recall, which can typically be completed within seconds.

How to Get Started

Segment your current business processes into separate categories for easier organization and management.
Choose the proper automation tools, resources, and software programs that are ideal for your business model.
Implement automation tools using schedule-based solutions.
Ensure oversight is in place to check and verify the accuracy of automation solutions.

4. Know Your Customers

Knowing your customers may be one of the most important elements involved in owning and running a successful business, whether you are targeting a niche audience or working in major industries.

Why It's Important

When you learn from and listen to the ones that pay your bills, your customers are also much more likely to pledge their loyalty to your business and brand in the future.

How to Get Started

Identify the target demographics you want to reach, such as the age, gender, and location of your target users.
Consider the hobbies and interests your customers may also have personally.
Determine the need or use for the products, services, or content your business provides.
Calculate how you can solve a problem for your customers.
Ask yourself how your business or brand is going to stand out from existing solutions that are available on the market. Are you entering into a brand new market, or will you be competing with existing businesses in a highly competitive space?
Determine the best platform(s) to communicate with your target audience to spread the word.

5. Stand Out

If you want to build a successful business, it's difficult to do so by blending in, especially in a crowded or overly saturated market. If you want to genuinely succeed and make a name for yourself, you will need to help your brand stand out as much as possible.

Why It's Important

Setting your brand apart from the competition is not only a way for you to establish your brand's professional image, but it is also a way for you to bring something unique to your customers. Although it is not always easy, creating a brand image that is truly unique can help your company's legacy last a lifetime. Some of the most notable brands that are known around the world today include McDonald's, Toyota, Starbucks, Nike, and Coca-Cola.

How to Get Started

Conduct adequate market research, including on both startups as well as existing successful corporate competitors. Marketing tools like SimilarWeb can help with this.
Compare your current top competitors with the type of business model you intend to implement and use for your venture in Malta.
Create an authentic, high-quality, one-of-a-kind logo that pops and is memorable, especially for the audience you intend to reach.
Set both short and long-term goals for your brand in terms of marketing campaigns and how you intend to communicate with your prospective customers.
Connect with your audience on a personal level with guerilla, viral, and social media marketing tactics.
Host contests and giveaways to establish trust and generate buzz surrounding your brand.
Brainstorm contests with rare or collectible prizes that are relevant to your business and help to attract participants.
Create products and offer services that genuinely provide a positive benefit to those you want to reach as well as members of your local community.

6. Set Up a Feedback Process

Receiving feedback from locals, members of your online community, social media, and even from your newsletter can help with making future improvements to your business as necessary.

Why It's Important

By setting up and opening a feedback process, you are also providing a sense of transparency to those who may be unfamiliar with your business or are unsure if they can put their trust in your brand yet.

How to Get Started

Ask for feedback directly from customers, newsletter subscribers, and social media followers.
Include surveys, polls, and other forms of requesting direct feedback within your email newsletters, on your official website's blog, and even on social media or your eCommerce storefront.
Send a follow-up survey, poll, or questionnaire to email addresses provided whenever a purchase from your business is made (online or off).
Offer exclusive discounts, coupons, and promotional codes that are available only to those who have shared their email addresses and/or other contact information with your business. This information can also be used for additional marketing tactics in future campaigns you launch, depending on the information you are provided.

Although Malta is one of the smallest island countries in the world, with only 122 square miles, it has plenty of promise in terms of commerce and the future of entrepreneurship on the island. Whether you are just starting out or looking to scale an existing venture you are working on, it is possible with the right tips and plan of action in mind.

Brought to you by John Glover.