Tired of the 9 to 5 grind at the office and want to start a new business? You are right to do so. It’s a great time for businesses these days. But if you don’t have any experience of starting a business or running one, you are bound to make several mistakes. For a small business, just starting off, you wouldn’t want to make mistakes that would cost you dearly.
Of course, assuming you have enough capital to start your business, you should be able to take off very soon. Regardless of the nature of your business, you should know that unlike a 9 to 5 job, entrepreneurship entails working endlessly and tirelessly. It’s your baby and you need to nurture it right from its inception.
In this article, we’ll talk about how you can start a new business from the ground off, so there are minimum risks and mistakes. When you are passionate about what you want to do, it’s easy to lose sight and get carried away. Always remember that when you start something new, the basics are the most important to take care of. Here are a few things, which are the basics of starting and sustaining a business.
1. Ask yourself why
Even before you get into the process of setting your business, ask yourself why you want your own business. The answer must always be to the effect of you being passionate about creating and offering a particular product or service.
If you aren’t sure of why you want to start a new business, it’s best to wait till you are. If you can’t convince yourself, how will you convince other people about your business?
2. Do your research
You might have a bright idea but are you sure no one else has thought of it? Or if you want to start a new business with products or services that are already floating about in the market, yours must be better than those.
With in-depth market research, you can find out if there’s demand for your product. You can also learn about your competitors. With all this information, you can plan your business better and have an edge over your competitors.
3. Know your target audience
Once you know what your product or service will be and you have done sufficient research on them, it’s time for you to learn about whom you want to cater to. Segregate your target audience in age groups, genders, income range, and other important categories so you can focus on whom to offer your products to.
By understanding your audience better, you will be able to fine-tune the product and fit them in a specific price range. If you want, you could reverse this entire step too. First, understand the audience you want to cater to and then build a product they need. Simple.
4. How much will you invest
With the audience and product on board, you now need to know how much money are you going to invest in your business. Once you determine that, you must decide whether you will get the money from family and friends or a financial institution.
The best way forward is to talk to young business people and learn more about investments and returns on small businesses. When you are comfortable with the information, talk to multiple investors and financial institutions to understand which one would be a safe option for you.
5. Create a business plan
This point can come before you meet with potential investors and financial institutions. A business plan consists of a summary of your idea, the company overview, analysis of the market, marketing plan, costing, cash flow, and a roadmap for what your business would be like.
Instead of having to talk about your plans endlessly to a number of people, having a business plan will reduce your talking and give potential investors a clear idea of what you have in mind.
6. Sales channels
Now you’re ready to learn and set up your sales channels. When you know what product or service you are going to sell, you need to find different ways of selling it. Not just ways, you must find platforms to sell it on.
Online platforms and offline ones are a given, but narrowing down to specific ones and showcasing your products for sale on them is what you need to do.
7. Marketing plan
Marketing for a new and a small business is highly underrated. You don’t necessarily need to spend a fortune on marketing. With cost-effective tricks, you will be able to pull off a great and effective marketing plan. You need to make some noise for people to hear you in the business and consumer world.
If you don’t let others know you have arrived, your business will take a long time to take off. There are plenty of online platforms that allow you to market your products for free, like social media for instance. Use these platforms to your advantage.
8. Tracking everything
Even before your business takes off, it’s important for you to track everything. From small expenses to big chunks of purchases, from an idea to a customer base, they all need to be tracked so you can go back to them when you need to. Don’t get carried away with many ideas and all the investment money. Track every penny and every idea from the get-go for easy operations in the future.
It’s not the biggest challenge in the world to start a small business. The challenge is to execute a perfectly good idea and sustain it through its initial years. You will find many obstacles but at the same time, you will find a lot of support from peers and friends. Instead of slogging for another organization, you can work just as hard to set up your own business and reap its benefits soon enough. There are many outlets that help in setting up all kinds of businesses these days. So, you essentially need a great business plan to take off.
