Some Key Steps To Starting Your Own Business
There are many reasons people start their own business, and the reasons are as diverse and unique as the millions of businesses out there. The reasons include the desire to control your own destiny, build something all your own, have skills or expertise in a particular market, a unique product or service, financial independence, and many more.
Before you start down the path of starting your own business, it is essential to understand the why for yourself. Taking the time to really understand your why will help you understand the direction you want to go, develop a goal and a plan to achieve it. So once you have an idea for a business, what are some of the first fundamental steps you should take?
Conduct market research
This can be a very formal process or an informal one depending on the industry’s complexity and the time and money you have to spend conducting the research. Simply put, conducting market research is a method of gathering information about other similar businesses, market supply, and demand and gives you a way to identify what competitive advantages you may be able to bring to the market.
Write a business plan and secure funding
Writing a business plan provides you with a map that will serve as the foundation of your business. Developing a business plan will force you to create a very detailed roadmap for how you plan to finance, structure, run, market, and grow your business. It will also be an essential tool for you to use if you need to secure outside funding to start your business. It is the core document you will use to convince investors or a bank to invest in your idea.
Choose a Business Name and Create a Brand
When selecting a name and logo for your business, you will want one that reflects your brand, is unique, and will be a positive representation of what you do and how you do it. Before you get too far with a name, you will want to make sure another business is not already using it. You don’t want to invest time and money in your brand, then have to change it if another business is already using it and requires you to stop.
In today’s digital world, you will also want to check and see if your business’s domain name is available and secure the rights to it even if you don’t plan to use it immediately. This can be done very inexpensively through many online domain name services.
Develop a Marketing Plan
No matter what kind of business you start developing a solid sales and marketing plan is critical for success. It does not have to be expensive but identifying the channels you will use to market your business is critical. Whether it is an informal word of mouth strategy, utilizing the many digital channels available, professional networking, community-based marketing, or traditional direct mail, TV, or radio, you not only need a plan but a way to measure your success.
Register Your Business – LLC Formation Companies
When it’s time to actually form your business as an LLC, S-Corp, Partnership, or Non-Profit, you might want to consider working with a company such as IncFile or ZenBusiness to take care of the paperwork. Instead of heading down to city hall and potentially catching the Rona while you stand in line, why not work with one of these reliable and experienced companies to take care of it for you.
These are some of the key steps you want to consider when starting your own business and forming an LLC. Check out my blog and resources pages for additional posts, software, and tools, that may benefit you as you venture into this new journey.
These suggestions on starting your own business essentially come from the SBA and can be seen here. And feel free to book a consulting session with Ace if you want additional guidance on starting and growing your business.
