How to Set Up Go High Level for a New Business

Rest assured. It’s easy. It’s steps you can easily follow. You should be able to get it all done without help. So, without further ado, let’s get to it.

GoHighLevel Setup Guide

Unlike some platforms, GHL isn’t free. But you can sign up for a 14-day Free Trial. After that, you’ll need to purchase one of the following subscriptions:

• Starter Plan 
• Unlimited Plan 
• Agency Pro

If you manage a single business, go with the first option. Otherwise, the pricier ones would be your go-to. Once your trial period nears its end, the selection should become a lot easier based on your needs. 

To begin, visit GoHighLevel. You’ll see a “Start 14-day trial” button at the top right as shown below.

That button leads you to the following sign-up form which requires some basic contact and business details:

You’ll also need to enter a working credit card to sign up. But if you’re unsure, you should be able to cancel without being charged within the first 14 days.

Once you’ve filled out the details, click the button at the bottom of the form and you should be good to go!

With that out of the way, let’s proceed to the rest…

Begin With The GoHighLevel Account Setup

Once that signup is complete, you need to open your agency dashboard and create a sub-account for your business.

You can select your location from this built-in map feature. But adding it manually gives you more control over the business details as shown below:

Fill out the necessary information and submit it to create your first sub-account.

This process applies regardless of the number of businesses you have. Whether it’s 1 or 10, you need to create a sub-account for each. 

By the way, you can check out our white label digital marketing guide to see how a seasoned firm can help accelerate your online success. 

Now, on to the rest of the blog.

Begin With The GoHighLevel Account Setup

If you missed any of the following, head over to Settings and fill them out:

• Business logo
• Business information
• Business services
• Calendar settings
• Conversation AI (optional)
• Email services
• HighLevel phone number for SMS

And that’s it. You’re all set up and ready to go. These were the first steps to your GoHighLevel account setup. You can now proceed with everything else GHL uses to help you keep business data organized.

Configure Conversations In Your GHL Dashboard

Once you’re done with the business setup, you can move to conversations.

There are two types of conversation you can start in GHL:

1. With a contact
2. With a teammate

Here’s what you see when you select teammate:

Simply select the teammate you want to create a communication channel with and proceed with “Create Internal Chat”.

Alternatively, if you select contact, you’ll see the following screen instead:

Confirm the type of conversation you need to have. You can add as many contacts as you prefer and proceed through “Create Conversation’.

You can set up conversations through emails, SMS, WhatsApp, GHL’s internal chat, and any other supported communication channels. It’s really that simple.

Set Up Calendars For Organized Scheduling

This next step for this GoHighLevel setup guide is setting up your calendars. For this step, let’s just go through each part one by one.

• Create calendars.
• Configure scheduling type (e.g., Round Robin).
• Assign team members.
• Set a custom URL.
• Define meeting duration.
• Configure availability.
• Connect external calendars (e.g., Google Calendar or Apple Calendar).

It’s all pretty straightforward. So, you should be good to go. But feel free to reach out if you need any GHL services for less.

Add Your Contacts For Streamlined Communication

GHL does give you the option to add contacts manually. But why bother? You can simply add your entire contacts list directly to it by importing a CSV file. 

Manually, you’ll have to fill out all of the information above one by one. Once you’re done, select save and you’ll have that contact store on your account:

In comparison, you can instead upload a CSV file for Contacts, Opportunities or Companies that want in your GHL dashboard for quicker access.

Once you upload the file, you can map the data to respective fields and add any additional information and complete the process of uploading to get your contacts in one place.

Create Opportunity Pipelines For Target Clients

• Create a new pipeline.
• Add stages.
• Add contacts to the pipeline.
• Move contacts through stages as they progress.

As you can see above, we’ve marked a “Sales Pipeline” and a “Marketing Pipeline”. But this is simply for guidance. Realistically, you’d have multiple sales and marketing pipelines which you can monitor simultaneously here. 

Configure Your Payment Gateways

Streamline payments by connecting your payment account(s) directly to your account. This, too, is a one-time setup that helps you keep your payments organized.

Select your payment channel(s) and enter your details to get connected. Once integrated, you can set up invoices and manage all your contracts and client subscriptions directly from GHL. You can also effortlessly generate payment links without leaving the platform.

We recommend Stripe. Why? Because, as you can see through the chart displayed on GHL’s official forum, Stripe is the most compatible payment solution for GHL:

Unlike other payment methods, Stripe offers the most features and payment options to accommodate your business needs.

Connect All Your Marketing Channels

Again, pretty straight-forward, and you can connect the following socials to track it all in one place:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Google Business Profile
• LinkedIn
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Pinterest

You don’t have to integrate socials you don’t already have. The point is simply to make your social media management more efficient. You can review all interactions of your connected platforms and also schedule posts across the board.

Configure Email Marketing For Newsletter Automation

Next up, email marketing. Simply create your campaigns and don’t worry about designing everything yourself. The built-in templates have you covered.

• Create email campaigns.
• Use built-in email templates.

That said, whether it’s email marketing services for agencies or individual businesses, you can always reach out to WhitelabelPartner to optimize your campaigns for higher ROI.

Set Up Your GoHighLevel Automation Setup

Now you get to the fun part: automations. This is where GHL takes a lot of the manual work off your plate. Create your workflows, define your triggers, and add whatever actions you need it to take from there. You can configure delays, send emails, send SMS, or even trigger automated calls, whatever fits your process.

• Create workflows.
• Define triggers.
• Add workflow actions.
• Configure delays.
• Send emails.
• Send SMS.
• Trigger automated calls.

You can use one of the workflow templates already in there, or just build one entirely from scratch if that’s more your speed. 

You Can Also Build Websites & Funnels

Once you’re done with the GoHighLevel automation setup, you build your websites and funnels. Use a template, or start from scratch if that’s more your style. Either way, the drag-and-drop builder makes it simple to edit pages exactly how you want them.

• Create websites.
• Create funnels.
• Use templates or start from scratch.
• Edit pages using the drag-and-drop builder.

That’s not all. You can also explore GoHighLevel SEO reporting and analysis to see how well you perform for your preferred terms on Google and other search engines. This way, the platform also facilitates your efforts for increased organic visibility.

Follow Up With Forms & Surveys For Submissions

Same idea here. Build your forms, use a template if you don’t want to start from a blank page, and customize them to match your brand.

• Build forms.
• Use templates.
• Customize forms.

Ever heard “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”? That’s what happens if you don’t have forms. The form tracking software, Zuko, suggests that 66% of people who start an online form complete it. If that’s the case, you’re missing out on leads that could have been yours and are now probably headed to a competitor. So, be sure to have these set up.

Configure Reputation Management For Your ORM

Reviews matter, so don’t skip this step. Send review requests and keep track of what comes in from all your connected sources, all in one place.

• Send review requests.
• View reviews from supported sources.

This setup ensures you have all your online reviews in place. So, you’ll have a better idea of the platforms that are more receptive to your services and how you can improve across the other ones.

Search The Market For Additional Integrations

Need something GHL doesn’t already offer out of the box? Head to the Marketplace and install whatever apps you need for extra functionality.

Of course, we do recommend caution as marketplace apps could be from third-parties as well, and it’s best to review who the actual publisher is before you add something to your platform.  

Beyond The Primary GoHighLevel Setup Guide – What Next?

As you understand now, GHL is quite simple to use but there are levels to how well you can utilize the tool for the best output. This was a basic guide to help you understand the many different modules of GoHighLevel. 

But to get the most out of it, you’ll need to get your hands dirty. This means you’ll have to review every part of it, experiment with it, automate it, compare it to manual efforts, and keep improving to gain the results you expect. 

On one hand, this gives you total control over every aspect of your digital efforts. On the other hand, you also need to invest a ton of time and effort to get everything in line. 

Alternatively, you can outsource your efforts to an expert agency to implement everything strategically from the get-go. As Henry Ford puts it,

“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success”

If you choose the latter route, you’ll need to choose the right white label partner. A good partner will provide you with profitable solutions to save your time and budget. You can tell an agency’s a bad fit if they:

• Promise overnight success.
• Use complex confusing jargon.
• Push you to sign immediately.
• Take days to respond to queries.

Connect to Grow with GoHighLevel!

Need urgent help with the setup, or would prefer an expert handle it for you? Connect with a reliable outsource digital agency to get the job done. 

Whitelabel Partner works with both agencies and individual businesses all year round. So, when you connect with a GHL expert from our team, you know your project is in good hands.

Reach us for premium GHL solutions today!

Call Us: +1 980-390-2338

Email Us: contactus@whitelabelpartner.com

Frequently Asked Questions

Well, here are answers to some of the most common questions. We hope this clarifies your concerns and you got the value you seeked!