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How to Start a Small Business
Are you one of those who dream of
owning your own business? You'll be
your own boss, and the captain of
your destiny—–maybe even a captain
of industry. Is it hard? Without a
doubt. Is it challenging? Absolutely.
Do you have to be wealthy and well-
educated with a lengthy resumé? Not
at all! Can you do it? As the magic 8-
ball says, "All signs point to yes!" So
how do you do it, and make it work?
Plan, plan, plan! There are some tried
and true ways head down the path of
creating your own business, and
there is no time like the present to
get started!
Pinpointing your business
purpose
Have an idea. It might be a
product you've always wanted
to make, or a service you feel
people need. It might even be
something people don't know
they need yet, because it
hasn't been invented!
It can be helpful—–and fun
—–to have people who are
bright and creative join you
for a casual brainstorming
session. Start with a simple
question like: "what shall we
build?". The idea is not to
create a business plan, just
to generate some ideas.
Many of the ideas will be
duds, and there will be quite
a few ordinary ones, but a
few will emerge that have
real potential.
Define your goals. Do you
want financial independence,
eventually selling your
business to the highest bidder?
Do you want something small
and sustainable, that you love
doing and want to derive a
steady income from? These are
the things that are good to
know very early on.
Create a business plan. A
business plan helps to define
what you think you need to
launch your business, large or
small. It summarizes the sense
of your business in a single
document. It also creates a
map for investors, bankers,
and other interested parties to
use when determining how
they can best help you and to
help them decide whether or
not your business is viable.
There are seriously good books
available on writing business
plans that cover many
chapters, and you should avail
yourself of at least one of these
as a guide (bookshops,
libraries and online are good
places to find these). In a
nutshell, your business plan
should consist of the following
elements:
Executive summary.
Describe the overall
business concept, how it will
be monetized, how much
funding you will need, where
it stands currently, including
its legal standing, people
involved and a brief history,
and anything else that
makes your business look
like a winning proposition.
Business description.
Describe your business more
specifically, and how it fits
into the market in general.
Who will you be selling to,
and how will you deliver your
product? If you are a
corporation, LLC, or sole
proprietor ship, state that,
and why you chose to go
that route. Describe your
product, it's big features,
and why people will want it.
Marketing strategies. You
must know your market if
you are to be successful, so
spend a great deal of time
analyzing just who it is that
will want your product, and
how you plan on appealing
to them to take cash out of
their bank account and give
it to you. What is the size of
your market, will there be
opportunities to expand the
initial market, and what are
your sales potentials? When
you understand these
variables, you want to sell
them to the person reading
your business plan.
Competitive analysis. As
you develop the above
sections, you will learn who
your key competitors are.
Find out who is doing
something similar to what
you are planning, and how
have they been successful.
Just as important is to find
the failures, and what made
their venture fall apart.
Development plan. How
will you create your product?
Is it a service that you are
offering, or if it's more
complex—software, a
physical product like a toy or
a toaster—whatever it is,
how will it get built? Define
the process, from sourcing
raw materials to assembly to
completion, packaging,
warehousing, and shipping.
Will you need additional
people? Will there be unions
involved? All of these things
must be taken into account.
Operations. Who will lead,
and who will follow? Define
your organization, from the
receptionist up to the CEO,
and what part each plays in
both function and financials.
Knowing your organizational
structure will better help you
plan your operating costs,
and fine-tune how much
capital you will need to
function effectively. Keep in
mind that your business will
continue to evolve and that
this will be a rough idea of
who is needed to keep
things functioning; as the
business grows, you'll likely
make changes to the hiring
plans to fit what is
happening at the time. Also,
in a number of cases, the
"staff" is you and whomever
you can consult, such as
your lawyer and accountant.
This is fine, as long as you
show that you're prepared to
pay for external advice and
help until your business is
ready to take on staff.
Financials. Succinctly, this
describes how much are you
plan on spending, and how
much you're making. Since
this is the most dynamic
part of your plan, and
perhaps the most important
for long-term stability, you
should update this monthly
for the first year, quarterly
for the second year, and
then annually after that.
Naming your business and
team-building
Create a working name. You
could even do this before you
have an idea for the business,
and if the name is good, you
may find it helps you define
your business idea. As your
plan grows, and things begin
to take shape, the perfect
name may come to you, but
don't let that hinder you in the
early phases—–create a name
that you can use while you
plan, and don't mind changing
later.
Take a cue from the Beatles,
who often use fun names for
a song before it is finalized,
like Yesterday, which had
the working title of
"Scrambled Eggs."
Define your team. Will you do
this alone, or will you bring in
one or two trusted friends to
join you. This brings a lot of
synergy to the table, as people
bounce ideas off each other.
Two people together can often
create something that is
greater than the sum of the
two separate parts.
Think of some of the biggest
success stories in recent
times include John Lennon
and Paul McCartney; Bill
Gates and Paul Allen; Steve
Jobs and Steve Wozniak; and
Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
In every case, the
partnership brought out the
best in both sides of the
equation, and every one of
them became billionaires. Is
a partnership a guarantee of
being a bazillionaire? No, but
it doesn't hurt!
Choose wisely. When
choosing the person or people
you're going to build the
business with, be careful. Even
if someone is your best friend,
it doesn't mean that you will
partner well in a business
operation. Things to consider
when choosing your co-leaders
and support cast include:
Does the other person
complement your
weaknesses? Or do both of
you bring only one set of the
same skills to the table? If
the latter, be wary as you
can have too many cooks
doing the same thing while
other things are left
unattended.
Do you see eye to eye on
the big picture? Arguments
about the details are a
given, and are important for
getting things right. But not
seeing eye to eye on the big
picture, the real purpose of
your business can cause a
split that may be irreparable.
Be sure your team cares
about the and buys into the
purpose as much as you do.
If interviewing people, do
some reading on how to spot
real talent beyond the
certifications, degrees or lack
thereof. People's innate
talents can often be
somewhat different from the
conventional education
streams they've pursued (or
failed to) and it's important
to look for "click" (you get
along with them) and latent
talents as much as paper
credentials.
Sorting out the law and the
money
Find an attorney. Choose
someone with whom you
"click" and who shows that he
or she understands your
business. There will be many
hurdles to leap as you go from
working stiff to overworked and
underpaid small business
owner. Some of those hurdles
will be composed of stacks of
documents with rules and
regulations, ranging from
building covenants to city
ordinances, county permits,
state requirements, taxes,
fees, contracts, shares,
partnerships, and more.
Having somebody you can call
when the need arises will not
only give you peace of mind, it
will give you a much-needed
resource who can help you
plan for success.
Form a business entity.
Decide what type of business
you would like to be—–a
corporation, LLC, sole
proprietorship, co-op, etc. This
is important for tax purposes
and for attracting investors.
This decision can be complex,
so read widely on the
advantages and drawbacks of
each entity, and also give
consideration to the newly
evolving social enterprise style
entities that some jurisdictions
are allowing to form. If you're of
a social entrepreneur bent,
more socially-minded business
structures may be just the
ticket for your business.
Think money. How are you
going to finance your business
initially? The bank, venture
capitalists, angel investors,
Small Business Administration
(SBA), your own savings: these
are all viable options.
Remember the four F's for
investment: founders (people
who share your idea), family,
friends and fools.
When you start a business,
be realistic. You will probably
not roll out of the gate
making 100 percent of
whatever you project, so you
need to have enough ready
reserve to fund things until
you are really up and
running. One of the surest
roads to failure is under-
capitalization.
You may determine it will
take $50,000 to start your
business, and that's fine.
You get your $50,000, buy
your desks and printers and
raw materials, and then then
the second month arrives,
and you're still in
production, and the rent is
due, and your employees
want to be paid, and all the
bills hit at once. When this
happens, your only likely
recourse will be to pack it in.
If you can, try to have the
reserves for a year of no
income.
Plan to keep purchases of
office equipment and
overheads to a minimum
when starting up. You do not
need amazing office
premises, the latest in office
chairs and pricey artwork on
the walls. A broom cupboard
in the best address can be
sufficient if you can artfully
steer clients to the local
coffee shop for meetings
every time (meet them in
the foyer). Many a business
start-up has failed by
purchasing the expensive
gizmos instead of focusing
on the business itself.
Chart your way to financial
success . What price do you
intend to sell your product or
service for? How much will it
cost you to produce? Work out
a rough estimate for net profit
—factoring in fixed costs like
rent, energy, employees, etc.
Check out your competitors.
Know how much are they
selling a similar product for.
Can you add something to it
(add value) to make yours
different and hence make it a
more enticing price? For
example, perhaps your
company would like to provide
an additional year of guarantee
at no cost, or a repair part free-
of-charge or an additional
gadget with the initial item.
Competition isn't just about
the goods or services
themselves. It is also about
your social and
environmental credibility.
Consumers are increasingly
conscious of the need to
show that your business is
concerned with labor
conditions and isn't
damaging the environment.
Certification endorsements
from reputable
organizations, such as labels
and stars, can reassure
customers that your product
or service is more aligned
with their values than one
lacking the certification.
Keep a close eye on your
running costs and keep
them in line with your
projections . Whether you're a
$100 a year company, or a
$100,000,000 company, you
always need to know where
your money is being spent.
It may be that you're
running a bit more electricity
than you had budgeted:
take care of business, and
turn off some lights.
Whenever you see
something spent wastefully
—like electricity, phone
plans, stationery, packaging
—look around, and estimate
how much really need, and
minimize or remove the cost
in every way possible. Think
frugally when you start up,
including hiring items
instead of purchasing them
and using pre-paid plans for
services it needs instead of
locking your business into
long-term contracts.
Get a merchant account. A
merchant account is a contract
under which an acquiring bank
extends a line of credit to a
merchant, who wishes to
accept payment card
transactions of a particular card
association brand. Without
such a contract, one cannot
accept payments by any of the
major credit card brands.
Get a website. If you're selling
online, get your ecommerce in
gear and either build a
website, or have one built for
you. It's your storefront, so
anything and everything you
can do to make people want to
visit, and want to stay, do it.
Hire professional designers.
They may cost more initially,
but a well presented and
trustworthy site is essential.
It needs to look professional
and work with ease. If you
are including money
transactions, invest in
security encryption and
check that your money
transfer companies are
sound and reliable.
Secure space. Whether it's an
office, or a warehouse, if you
need more space than your
garage or your spare bedroom,
now's the time to get that.
If you don't generally need
an office beyond your home,
but may occasionally need
meeting space, there are
often places downtown that
can address those needs. A
quick Google search on
"business meeting rentals
[your city/state]" will deliver
plenty of rental options in
your area.
Launching your business
Build your product or
develop your service . Once
you have the business all
planned, financed, and have
your basic level of staffing, get
going. Whether that's sitting
down with the engineers and
getting the software coded and
tested, or getting materials
sourced and shipped to your
fabrication room (aka
"garage"), or purchasing in
bulk and marking up the price,
the building process is the time
during which you prepare for
market. During this time, you
may discover things such as:
Needing to tweak the ideas.
Perhaps the product needs
to be a different color,
texture or size. Maybe your
services need to be broader,
narrower or more detailed.
This is the time to attend to
anything that crops up
during your testing and
development phases. You'll
know innately when
something needs tweaking
to make it better or to make
it less like a competitor's
stale offerings.
Getting feedback. Friends
and family make great
resources for asking
questions and getting
feedback––don't hesitate to
use them as your sounding
board.
Needing to increase the size
of your premises. This
happens more often than
expected. Once the stock
starts piling up, you may
find it ends up in your living
room, bedroom and the
garden shed. Think rental of
storage premises if needed.
Discover your inner
publicist . You might truly
believe in your product or
service but it won't fly unless
everyone else believes in it too.
If you're new to advertising and
marketing or you dislike doing
the sales pitch, now is the time
to overcome such feelings and
put on the publicist persona.
You need to develop an
excellent short pitch to
convince people they need
your product or service, one
that reflects the value, purpose
and potential of what your
business is offering. Write
down this pitch in many ways
until you find one that you feel
satisfied says it all and is
something you can say readily.
Then practice it like crazy!
Have interesting, eye-
catching business cards
printed.
Spend time developing an
excellent social media
presence. This can be done
well before the business is
ready, increasing
anticipation. Use Facebook,
Google+ and Twitter, and
any other social media you
participate in to build
excitement and spread the
word. You want to build a
buzz so that people will
begin following your
progress. (Be sure to choose
business accounts for your
business and keep your
personal accounts separate.
The messages you send
should be tailored
differently, depending on
which account you're
sending from.)
Implement your marketing
and distribution plans . With
your product being built or
services developed, and a
reasonable expectation on
when either is ready
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