Starting your own little business can be a daunting task. The reason why many of us take so long to take the leap of faith is often the financial as well as the mental toll the task will have on our lives.
But if you’re one to make life-altering decisions and decide on becoming a successful entrepreneur here are a few things to know when starting a business
Where to Begin With?
To save you the overwhelming and extensive task of learning from bad experiences, here is a list of 20 things to know when starting a business. These will help you streamline your aims and objectives in accordance with the journey you have decided to embark upon.
20 Things to Do to Start Your Own Business
1. Define your Purpose and Reason to Stay Committed
The entrepreneur market has seen various burnouts over the years. The reason behind these is a lack of clarity and purpose behind the setup. Many entrepreneurs have tried their luck in the industry but have failed to pull through the hardships of setting the initial foundations of a good business.
One of the major facts about starting your own business is that you need to stay consistent in your efforts. There will be days when you will be discouraged and dem0otivated, even by friends and family.
The only way to overcome the lowest points in your entrepreneurship journey is to not give up. Your startup should be something you’re passionate about, to provide constant motivation. So make sure you know exactly why you are getting into the business.
2. Decide Your Budget
If there is one thing that is bound to get out of hand unless taken care of in a new start-up, it’s your startup costs. When you start your very own business you are the sole funder of it initially. So you need to be in a stable financial place to begin.
This means vigilant monitoring of your budget, paying off that credit card debt, and focusing on not creating more of it in the future.
Secondly, you should have backup cash on you, your net worth should be calculated. You should also keep in mind that you will not make profits overnight. This means keeping enough capital to get your business up and running for at least a year.
3. Look into Business Opportunities
Make sure to do proper research and work on the type of business you want to invest your time, money, and energy into. A certain business idea might seem fruitful or exciting in the beginning but if you lack experience in the relative field it is advised that you don’t take it up.
Only look into a startup in which you have the expertise or take experience by working in the enterprise to get basic knowledge of things.
4. Research the Market
Another significant factor to look into is the market you will be dealing with in your entrepreneurial journey. You should specifically look into potential customers that your business will attract. Moreover, you should also do some digging into your competitors in the market.
This will help you level up or come up with newer ideas instead of mistakenly using someone else’s intellectual property. It will also aid you in setting goals for your own progress.
5. Make Your Customer Profile
Among other things to know when starting a business, a very important one is to develop your own customer profile. This will require an investigative streak.
After you have determined your potential customers and are sure of the audience you want to target you must now look into their needs and specific requirements.
Check the general buying trends off the customers, their preferences should also be noted. Now check the potential of your competitors. How is the service they provide, the quality of their products, their customer care service?
Use all this information to get a clearer idea of the trends and devise yo7ur customer profile according to your findings.
6. Give Your Business a Name and a URL
To refine your business and to give a much better impression to clients it is best to dedicate a website to your business.
The best advice that one can give when suggesting names for a business is that less is more. Don’t go overboard with the naming process. A difficult name, long name, or a generally unusual one in the guise of uniqueness will not help your marketing strategy in any way.
Difficult to use and different names are harder to memorize. This will impact the marketing of your business by word of mouth which is a very influential way to advertise a business
7. Establish Your Legal Entity
The legal structure needs to be studied when one is trying to get into a business enterprise. To give a basic idea, the things to know when starting a business also include getting knowledge of the legal aspects of entrepreneurship.
First of all your business should be present as LLC or S-Corp. If you are opting for sole proprietorship then make sure you don’t use your personal social security number. The act generally makes you look unprofessional and may cause legal problems down the line.
8. Get your EIN Number and a Business only Bank Account
The first thing to keep in mind when starting a business is to keep your personal and business profiles separate. This means keeping a separate bank account for your work transactions and another one for personal expenses.
For this, you must get an Employer Identification Number (EIN) to establish your entrepreneurial identity. Once you get this number from IRS.gov your must then go to a bank and open a defined business bank account
9. Time to Get Down to Business
This is the part where you actually get down to business. Once you have taken care of the initial framework of your business you must now start with producing and delivering your services.
A key factor among the things to know when starting a business is that you need to give your best to your initial customers. The reason for this is that you need to get testimonials, build trust as well as a market.
This does not mean that you can drop the quality of your service or product later o, it just means that you need to be extra vigilant in the beginning.
Come up with a master formula, produce your samples and deliver them to your target customers to initiate your business.
10. Set Your Price
Now that you have delivered your samples and your master formula is ready, calculate your costs. Remember, your cost includes the material used, utilities, office space, labor cost, and last but not least your profit margin and administrative fee.
All of these should be kept in mind when quoting your final price. If you’re not making any profit and making unpaid efforts then the whole concept of getting your own business started becomes futile. Keep in mind this is not a 9 to 5 job, rather entrepreneurship.
11. Develop your Business Plan
Once your first few sales have been made you might want to streamline your business into a more professional and growing phase.
Grow it out of its infancy and make a business plan.
12. Appoint a Legal Structure for Your Business
Once the legal structure of a company has been established it is hard to step back from it or change the course of it down the line.
This can cause major problems for entrepreneurs in the future. So make sure when you’re establishing or choosing the legal framework of your enterprise you have the relevant knowledge of all the aspects of a certain plan.
You can get advice and guidance from experts in the field such as a corporate attorney or a seasoned business accountant.
13. Obtain your Regulatory Documents ( business registration and tax identification)
Contact your local municipality to provide you with the required registrations and files to get your license out of the way.
Also, take note of your tax info, contact the federal tax info to obtain the relevant documents for this. Make sure to get all the regulatory requirements checked in the initial stages to avoid legal action later on.
14. Know your Competition
Keep an eye out for the progress, services, and quality of the services your competitors are providing so that you can get one step ahead of them.
15. Funding and Financing the Business
The most important thing while running a business is looking into the finances. Make sure to contact a business accountant to walk you through the complexities of the process.
Devise a business plan and stay true to it and seek professional help to manage your accounts.
16. Get an Office or Location
In the initial steps of setting up a business, one must look deeply into their office setup. You can only be an entrepreneur if you believe in it first. For that, you should have an office, a number to reach you, and an email.
A definite office and contact information will work wonders in streamlining your small business administration. It will also help set up a positive image of your enterprise in the eyes of clients.
17. Secure Your Insurance
The type of business you are in determines the type of insurance you will require. There is a myriad of options to choose from, healthcare, liability vehicles, etc.
Most institutes get health insurance for employees or liability insurance in businesses at risk of physical hazards to patients.
Study the nature of your business to decide upon one.
18. Get Legal counsel
Take professional legal advice to get your business up and running the right way and avoid spending thousands on legal battles in the future.
19. Utilize all your business resources
The local county and your national resources are there to serve you and your purpose. Use them to guide you on your company name choice, legal structure as well as other things like secure loans, etc.
All of these will aid in the systemic buildup of a successful and regulated business.
20. Make Sure to Review the Process
An initial vigilance on the overall technicalities and minute legal and financial requirements of your business will take you a long way in the future.
Taking proper care of your business in its infancy will give you fruit once it stands on its own feet. So make sure to go over all aspects in detail to get a hang of things and as a smooth running of your business.
