Starting an independent business: How you can do it, too
Creating your own business can be a daunting task, but there are numerous resources to help you get started.
MEDINA ONN21 Feb 2025 10:00am
If you're looking to start your own personal business, it can't be overstated just how vital an online portfolio is. Photo: Canva
Managing budgets, brainstorming strategies, being your own marketer: it's a headache that many people understandably feel reluctant to pile onto their other pre-existing responsibilities.
Suraya Zainuddin, the personal finance blogger behind the beloved Ringgit Oh Ringgit website, can certainly relate. She recently shared the humble beginnings of her business, and how she got her start in the personal finance world.
"I've always had an interest in personal finance," Suraya told Sinar Daily. "So I took some time to just [think] ‘you know what, let me try freelancing for a while’.
"I became a freelance writer; l decided to have an online portfolio, which has now turned into my personal finance website, RinggitOhRinggit."
CREATE AN ONLINE PORTFOLIO
As Suraya can attest: if you're looking to start your own personal business, it can't be overstated just how vital an online portfolio is.
Besides increasing your credibility as a freelancer, spotlighting your achievements and showcasing your best work, it's integral to getting more eyes on your business, while informing potential clients what you're capable of.
If you're unsure where to begin, Wix and Squarespace have got you covered, with both platforms providing largely free templates and features key to making an online portfolio sure to stun.
Always bear in mind that your work is the heart of your portfolio. Providing concise descriptions of your projects as well as your role in them will aid greatly in providing clarity to potential clients, as well as highlighting your own contributions.
BUILD YOUR OWN WEBSITE
The homepage of your portfolio should grab your visitors' attention with an eye-catching design, in addition to a short and sweet description detailing exactly who you are, and what your field of expertise is.
And as you progress — don't forget to do research to find the right keywords for your site!
Keywords are the most commonly searched phrases on Google when people are looking for creatives such as yourself. Therefore, be sure to strategically place these keywords all throughout your website to make sure it shows up on searches.
And finally, after all that hard work — be sure to ask both yourself and others before you publish it: what information is my online portfolio missing? What is, or isn't appealing about its appearance? Is it easy to navigate?
This is to ensure only the most optimal viewing experience for visitors on your website.
DON'T BE AFRAID TO EXPERIMENT
Suraya continues: "[RinggitOhRinggit] kind of became this platform that people could refer to for financial advice and resources.
"It just started off as me, like, basically sharing: how much do I spend per month? How much do I make per month? My income generation strategies — or more like, experiments. Like what am I curious to try?”
Many business owners — both big and small — can attest to the tremendous importance of experimentation when first starting out.
Steve Blank, an American entrepreneur responsible for launching the "lean start-up" movement, further elaborates on this concept in an interview with the Harvard Business Review.
"It’s a methodology called the lean start-up, and it favours experimentation over elaborate planning; customer feedback over intuition, and iterative design over traditional 'big design up front' development," he details.
"Although the methodology is just a few years old, its concepts have quickly taken root in the start-up world, and business schools have already begun adapting their curricula to teach them.
"Remember, each thing you try is an experiment. Therefore, whether it succeeds or not isn't the point. The outcome simply adds to your knowledge base and moves you one step closer to an ultimate point of success."
TAKE NOTE OF YOUR PROGRESS
To incorporate this method into your own business: you have to start small, and test systematically.
Don't test something in a single sitting, or attempt to test several methods at once. Instead, create a hypothesis, and then try out a single method at a time.
Keep records of what went wrong, or right. This will help you sift through what aspects of your business need to be optimised, as well as track both your progress and successes.
To quote famed Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates: "It is fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure."
We're delighted to announce that Suraya Zainuddin will be speaking at SheLeads: a networking event that doubles as a platform to amplify the issues women face on the path to success in the workforce. We personally invite you to join us at Studio F, Karangkraf HQ on Feb 27 at 2pm!
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