7 Things You Should Know When Starting A Business

Are you looking to start your own business? If so, starting a new business is not a walk in the park, but it’s great to be your own boss. You don’t have to answer to no one and you can make your own schedule. Even though those two things sound great, you have to put in hard work in order to make your business successful. Anybody can wake up one day and say they want to start a business, but not everyone know what to do in order to start a business and make it successful. We are going to talk about the main things you need to do and have when starting a new company.

1.Research – You need to know exactly what type of business you want to start. Once you decide on the type of company you want to start, do some research. Take a look at your future competitors and see what they are doing. I like to call my competitors as a “consumer” to see how they answer the phone, how much they charge for their services and what all I get with the services. This will give you an idea of where you need to be. You also need to know the following when doing research:

■Do you need retail space? If you’re starting a business selling tangible goods like clothes, food, etc – you might need retail space. If you’re business is 100% base on online sales then you don’t need retail space.
■Where will you get your product and how much it will cost? This is important. You want be able to get quality products you are looking to sell at the cheapest price. The more money you save on wholesale products the more money you can make.
■How would you fund your business from the start? Some small business doesn’t need a lot of money to get it started, but some do. Even if your business doesn’t require a lot of money to get started, you still need to give yourself some cushion by having 3 times the amount of money on the side that it took to start your business. No business is successful making money within there first year.

2.Business Plan – This is important if your looking to get financial backing. If you’re going to an investor or through a bank, they will ask you for a business plan. A business plan shows organization and well give investors and idea of what your business is about and how you plan to earn income.

3.Website – If you don’t know you need a website, then you should rethink starting a business. In 2005, I wrote an article titled, ” If You The Business Owner Don’t Have A Website In 5 Years, Fire Yourself” . This is 2013. Look around and see how many businesses have shutdown in between those years. Most people blame it on the economy. That’s not true. More people go online to search what they are looking for. Last year alone, online shoppers had double from 55 million during Christmas time. People are now buying groceries online. My point is, you have to have some online presence if you want to keep up or surpass your competitor.

4.Business License – In order to start a new business to offer your services to a consumer, you need a business license. Every state require you have one.

5.Marketing Plan – What is the use of starting a business if you don’t know how consumers are going to find you. Marketing is the key to making your business successful. There are free to advertise your business and of course advertising that cost money. You have to spend money to make money. At the same time, take advantage of free marketing like putting ads on Craigslist and Backpage.

6.Patience – Don’t expect to make a profit immediately. As I said before, the average business doesn’t see a profit until after the first year. Don’t get discourage if you see yourself with less money that you started with, even if you are making sales. Make sure you analyze how much sales you need to make in order to break even every month. Then figure out what do you need to do in order to double that.

7.Insurance- You will need business insurance if your business requires a physical location. This type of insurance will protect your company against liability from your customers and your assets. You don’t want your business to fold after all the hard work you put in to build it. Getting business insurance will be smart. You can find companies that offer business insurance for cheap. The best way is to shop and compare rates and go from there.

Keep in mind, you can’t satisfy every customer. You will always get customers who are not happy for some reason. So, don’t think you have to make every customer happy. Good luck with your business!