If you’re just starting to think about building your own business and you’re looking into what’s involved, this article will help you learn about several key services you will need at some point – some sooner than others.

Some things get forgotten and overlooked because they aren’t a primary concern when you’re first building a business. However, some of these things are vital. In addition to all of your standard business expenses, make sure you create a budget for the following services from day one.

1. Branding

Your brand image is what people associate with your business. Ideally, you want people to associate positive things with your brand. For example, some brands make people think of their childhood and good times, while other brands generate feelings of contempt because the company has been involved in human rights scandals. It could go either way for your company, but you can control this to a large degree.

From the beginning, have your ideal brand image in mind and then craft your business policies, procedures, and operations to embody that image as much as possible. Your brand idea is not just a logo – it’s more like a company mission that filters down into everything you do as a company and for your customers. Coming up with a brand idea on your own can be tough, and that’s why you should consider hiring a branding agency to help.

A branding agency will have marketing specialists who can help you create your ideal image of who you want to be in the world in a way that is attainable through various PR and marketing strategies. It’s best to consult with an expert on this because your brand image needs to be authentically attainable and sustainable. You don’t want to create an image that you can’t possibly live up to because that’s how you’ll lose customers.

2. Website development

It should go without saying that every business needs a website. If you think your business is different, think again, because basic marketing principles apply to every business no matter what. Most people are online; if you don’t have a website, you’re leaving money on the table.

Your website is the foundation of how you’ll generate leads online that you’ll then nurture into paying customers through email marketing. Don’t skip the website and only rely on word-of-mouth referrals. You need both to make it in any industry.

3. Search engine optimization (SEO)

Once you have a website, don’t forget that you’ll also need to get SEO services to make sure your site shows up in search results. It’s possible to build your site content up to naturally generate ranking and traffic, but it takes a really long time to do this on your own.

An SEO agency can help you get a head start pretty quickly, with services like link building, blog posts, content marketing, and general on-page and technical SEO.

4. Marketing

Many small business owners learn the hard way that they should have invested far more money into marketing than they originally did when first launching their business. While it’s true that you don’t need to spend a million dollars on marketing, you do need to spend a significant amount of money if you want significant results. There is no such thing as free marketing. Anything that appears free is still costing you time and energy, and quite frankly, free marketing won’t get you the level of results you’ll get from paid marketing.

At the very least, you’ll want to run paid ads (pay-per click, or PPC ads) on Facebook and Google or whatever platform makes the most sense for your business. It’s also worth noting that direct mail continues to outperform email marketing and any type of internet marketing year over year, by generating significantly higher open and conversion rates along with higher customer retention rates.

5. Cybersecurity consulting

If your business gets hit with a malware attack, would you recover? If you consulted with a cybersecurity professional before launching your business, you would be able to say ‘yes’ with absolute certainty.

Professional cybersecurity services will set you up with a system for recovering after an unexpected disaster, even if it’s a ransomware attack that locks you out of your computer’s hard drive. Instead of paying the ransom and hoping the hacker releases your data, you can ignore the demands and just restore everything to a new machine.

Your needs will vary based on your industry

These are just some of the services you’ll want to include in your initial business budget. Depending on your industry, you might need additional services that will support your specific needs and goals.