12 things to do when starting a business: your first 90 days

The order is part of the strategy

A new business can look complete online and still have no reliable way to answer an enquiry or deliver an order. That is why the first quarter needs a sequence. Your first week should produce a clearer customer and offer. Your next few weeks should prove that people can find you, buy and receive what you promised.

This is a commercial setup guide. Business registration, tax, licences, insurance and employment obligations depend on your location and activity. Keep a separate checklist with a qualified local adviser rather than treating a marketing launch as completion of those requirements.

The 12 things to put in place

Give each item an owner and one piece of evidence. A finished logo is evidence of a logo; a paid pilot is evidence that someone accepted a specific offer.

• Choose one initial customer group and document the situation that makes them buy.
• Interview potential customers about recent purchases, frustrations and alternatives.
• Write one offer with scope, exclusions, price logic and an acceptance test.
• Estimate setup costs, monthly commitments and cash needed before customers pay.
• Confirm business, domain and account ownership, with individual access and recovery methods.
• Arrange the local registrations, permissions and contractual basics your activity requires.
• Publish a mobile-friendly page that explains the offer and provides one clear next step.
• Set up Google Business Profile if your business meets its eligibility requirements.
• Choose one social channel where your buyers already spend time and run a measured content test.
• Keep every enquiry in a simple pipeline with an owner and next action.
• Define delivery, feedback and review requests before the first order is complete.
• Review qualified demand, completed work, collected cash and recurring problems every week.

A useful 30, 60 and 90-day rhythm

By day 30, aim to have conversations, a testable offer and a working enquiry route. By day 60, examine what buyers actually asked for, where delivery took longer than expected and which channel produced suitable customers. By day 90, decide what to repeat, improve or discontinue. These are planning checkpoints, not a promise of revenue within three months.

A fictional home-cleaning business might begin with one neighbourhood and one deep-cleaning package. Customer questions reveal that arrival reliability and the list of included tasks matter more than an elaborate brand story. The team uses that evidence to rewrite the booking page, create a preparation checklist and publish a short demonstration video.

Keep a small weekly decision board

Track enquiries, qualified enquiries, accepted jobs, completed jobs, cash collected and customer issues. Add time spent acquiring and serving customers. A busy inbox is difficult to interpret until you know how many conversations were suitable and how many jobs the team could actually fulfil.

For every weekly review, record one observation, one explanation to test and one change. If people book but cancel after hearing the price, investigate how the offer sets expectations. If customers buy but delivery loses money, adding traffic will expand that problem.

Your first action

Create a one-page launch board with the 12 items above. Mark each as untested, in progress or supported by evidence. Spend the next workday on the earliest missing dependency. The rest of this series expands the customer, channel and operating decisions into guides you can use individually.

Our view: the most useful launch asset is a business that learns from each customer and can fulfil the next promise more reliably.