Starting a business isn’t for the faint-hearted. Pre-requirements include a real passion, dedication, sacrificing free time and a lot of patience. However, if you’re ready to take the plunge and consider starting your own business, it’s a solid indicator that you completely believe in your idea, and from this point, with solid guidance and support, you will find yourself on the right track.
Watching your business grow may seem like a reward you’ve always dreamed of, but building the right foundation for a business is often the biggest challenge for most entrepreneurs. The market is big and there are endless gaps to be filled, but not everyone is equipped with the knowledge on how to get started. Considerations must be taken from planning, strategizing and laying out the foundation for your future business to acquiring funding and launching your company. This guide will give you step-by-step information on how to get your business started.
Business Idea
The very first step is coming up with your business idea. It’s very likely that you already know what market you want to enter or what product and services you wish to sell. If you’re still struggling with coming up with a business concept, try brainstorming some ideas and conduct some research on fields which may interest you. Look for what may be lacking in a certain industry, scout for unpopulated gaps in the market and think about how your online/physical branding might look.
Once you have come up with a rough idea of the business field you’re interested in, conduct further research. It’s important that you examine how similar companies operate in the market you are going to target. Don’t forget to look at how they are branding/selling themselves and how you can do it better. Now focus on your USP (unique selling point), what makes you different and how you will deliver. Once you’ve refined your idea, you’re ready to make a business plan.
Building a Business Plan
The next step is to create a solid business plan. Planning your business means understanding your company to its fullest and its ability to grow. There are things you need to answer in your business plan that are incredibly crucial. Some of these questions include the name of your business, how you’ll be finding your target audience, how relevant is your service or product to the industry and how a five-year progression will work out. You also need to think about competition, production cost, margins and even the digital foundation you will base your marketing efforts around.
Creating Your Company Name
Remember, coming up with a name is important, however, make sure it is unique, easy to read and memorable. In today’s world, the huge diversity of brand names and companies can make it hard for you to differentiate – make sure to do your due diligence. Find out what your competitors are doing and how they have branded themselves. The name of your business will play into your brand’s legacy so make sure you actually like the sound of it. You should also check if the domain with your business brand name is available in order to avoid having duplicate brand names.
Simply put, a business plan is created to help you predict business growth over the coming years, how you plan on overcoming some initial hurdles and how sustainable your business is. Many people do not focus on their business plan before investing and end up losing money instead of making it.
In this day and age, businesses must have an online presence. To get you started, here are the first two steps to get your business online:
Website Creation Fundamentals
This is the first step in getting your business up and running on the Internet. In order for you to appear in web browsers like Google, you need to register a domain and find website hosting. You should try websites such as HostGator or GoDaddy – they will require you to pay a small monthly fee in order to get everything up and running, but since they are well-known industry giants, you will rest assured your web property is in good and secure hands.
Although your company’s presence on the web will be crucial long-term, you do not necessarily need to spend your whole budget building the world’s best website. There are more important things to invest in such as business operations and marketing. However, what you do need is to make sure that you have a simple and professional-looking business website which looks appealing, is fully functioning and has all the relevant/important information in order to have a solid foundation.
Growing Your Business Using Funding
The next step is to determine whether you need funding, or if you can start without initial capital investment. It would be useful at this point to use a startup cost calculator to help work out your startup costs. Setting up a business requires capital. Therefore, you need to determine how much money will be needed to cover the initial expenses. Start-ups are known to fail within a year, running out of money before making any profit, and this is why it’s important for you to consider how much capital you will need. It is always worth it to look at small business loans or programs that your city might be running – there are always opportunities to secure some money in order to help you get a head start.
Funding is a great way to secure some money for start-ups who need a substantial amount to have a successful company launch. It allows you to meet with investors who believe in your business and get financed to make it all happen. Remember, investors know how to handle money. They can be mentors and active members of the business, providing you with security and opportunities to learn.
However, finding the best investors for your business can be hard and this is where companies with experience that do the “heavy lifting” for you come in. For more information on how to look for companies who could connect you with investors and get the needed amount of capital for you, visit Challenge Advisory’s funding article that will familiarize you with the process.
Focusing on Business Growth
After you’ve accomplished decent traction with your venture, it is now time to triple down and focus on the growth of your company. You will get out of the business what you invest in it, so in order to grow your numbers, capture your target audience and be sustainable. You need to not only work hard, but smart. Many start-ups fail because of their lack of money and confusion in how to make their business grow. Be sure to really do your research before starting your business and come up with a solid business plan you want your customers to believe in, just as much as you.
