Before You Open: Seven Things to Set Up So Customers Can Find You

When you're opening a shop or starting out on your own, there's a long list of urgent jobs: the fit-out, the stock, the card machine, the sign above the door. Being found online usually goes to the bottom of that list. It shouldn't, because the first people looking for you will be searching on their phone, often weeks before you open. Here's what to set up before you open, in the order I'd do it.

1. Claim your Google Business Profile, and do it early

This is the single most important one, and the one most people leave too late. Your Google Business Profile is the box that appears on Google Maps and on the right of the search results, with your hours, photos, reviews and a button to ring you.

It's free. The catch is that Google has to verify you before it goes live, and that can take anything from a few days to a couple of weeks, sometimes by video call and sometimes by postcard. So start as soon as you have an address, not the week you open.

Two things to get right from the start:

Use your real business name, exactly as it's on the sign. Adding extra words like "Best Laundry Coleraine" breaks Google's rules and can get your listing suspended.
If you go out to customers rather than them coming to you, as a mobile hairdresser, cleaner or tradesperson would, you can hide your home address and show a service area instead.

2. Choose the right main category

Google asks for a primary category, like "Laundromat", "Café" or "Beauty salon". It's one of the strongest signals Google uses to decide which searches you show up for, so pick the one that matches what most of your customers are actually looking for, not what sounds best. You can add a few secondary categories for anything else you do.

3. Put real photos up before you open

Listings with photos get far more clicks than ones without. You don't need a photographer. Photos of the shopfront, the inside, the fit-out in progress and the work you do, taken on a phone in good daylight, are better than nothing and much better than stock images. People want to see what they're walking into.

4. Pick one phone number, and set up WhatsApp Business on it

Decide on the number customers will use and put it everywhere. Then install WhatsApp Business, the free business version of WhatsApp. It gives you a business profile, an automatic away message for when you're closed, and quick replies for the questions you get asked fifty times a week. A lot of people here would rather send a message than ring, especially for a price.

5. Decide your opening hours, and keep them identical everywhere

It sounds obvious, but it's one of the most common problems I see. Different hours on Google, Facebook, the website and the door confuse customers, and make Google less sure your details are right. Settle them, put the same hours everywhere, and remember to update Google for bank holidays.

6. Have a way to ask for reviews from day one

Your first customers are your best chance at reviews. They're pleased you've opened, and they'll often happily leave one if it's easy. Get your direct Google review link, which is in your Business Profile, and make it easy to use:

a small printed card with a QR code by the till or in the van
a short, friendly message you can send after a job
the habit of actually asking, every time

Never write reviews yourself or ask friends to post fake ones. Google removes them, and customers can usually tell.

7. A simple website that answers the three questions everyone has

You don't need a big website. You need one that loads quickly on a phone and answers what do you do, how much is it, and how do I get in touch, with a call button and a WhatsApp button that are easy to tap. Your Google listing will link to it, and it's where people go to check you're real before they ring.

And one more: write down your starting numbers

Once your listing is live, Google shows you how many people viewed it, asked for directions, and rang you, under Performance in your Business Profile. Check it once a month and write the numbers down. It takes two minutes, and it's the only way to know what's actually working rather than guessing.

What this looks like in practice

This summer I set all of this up for a laundry opening its first high-street shop in Ballymoney. Before the launch, searching for it turned up nothing. Over July to October, its Google listing was viewed by 744 people, 127 asked Google for directions to the shop, and 21 rang straight from the listing. The thing that surprised even me was that, for a local shop, the Google listing did as much of the work as the website.

None of the seven steps above is complicated on its own. The hard part is that they all land at the same time as everything else in an opening week, which is exactly why they get left.