HOW TO START A BUSINESS
In this article we’ll be breaking down ten of the most important steps you need to take when starting your new business venture. Including Feasibility Study, SWOT Analysis, Business Planning and more.
If you are on this journey of starting your own business then make sure you visit our free tools and resources page to help you learn everything that you need to know.
Following the 10 Steps listed below, will help you stay focused and on track as you go through the process of starting a business.
WHY DO I WANT TO START THIS BUSINESS?
The very first thing that you need to do when you are considering starting a business is ask yourself why. Why do you want to start this business?
You may feel as though you know what you want to be doing with this business and why you want it but you need to do the inside work before you get started. Mainly because entrepreneurship is very demanding and starting your business can be a lot of work.
So, this business idea that you have will it be solving a problem and you genuinely want to provide a solution for a certain problem or are you also doing it for other reasons such as your own personal gain or financial success or maybe you want to be your own boss?
Whatever reason you have you just need to be very clear on what it is that you’re doing.
DECIDING WHAT BUSINESS TO START
Identify a business idea: Consider your interests, skills, and experience to come up with a business idea that meets a need or fulfills a desire in your selected market.
This step might seem obvious if you’ve already made the decision but if you haven’t decided yet then you will not be able to move forward.
If you have a number of ideas and you are experiencing a hard time narrowing down what business to choose, don’t try to start more than one business at once.
Remember that building a business can turn into a big project or even a full-time job. And by building multiple businesses at once you are running the risk of setting yourself up for failure.
So, in order to set yourself up for success many experts recommend to start by deciding on one business idea to pursue at the beginning.
You need to decide what business to start or you will not be able to move forward to any of the rest of the steps that follow until you have made that decision.
If you’d like some guidance on making this important decision then be sure to read: What Business Should I Start?
Important Definitions:
Feasibility is the possibility and ability for something to be done. In other words, a business feasibility study assesses if, and under what circumstances the business will work and how successful it could be.
Viability is that something’s ability to survive.
Sustainability is executing and maintaining that something so that it is not detrimental to the economy, to the environment nor society.
WRITE A BUSINESS PLAN
Once you’ve decided what business to start, you’re going to want to write a business plan. A business plan is a roadmap that outlines your goals, target market, and strategies for achieving success. It will also help you secure funding, if needed.
Choose a business structure: There are several types of business structures to choose from, including sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, and limited liability company (LLC). Each has its own benefits and drawbacks, so it’s important to choose the one that best fits your needs.
Register your business: You will need to register your business with the government and obtain any necessary licenses and permits.
Your business plan can be as short and simple or as long and detailed as you like. The aim of writing your business plan is to give you clarity about exactly what you’re trying to do.
The following article will show you step-by-step How To Write A Business Plan.
VALIDATE YOUR IDEA
The fourth step is to validate your idea. This step is normally skipped by many new entrepreneurs when they’re trying to start a business.
Many new entrepreneurs will have a business idea, write a business plan and then get to work just building their business. A lot of time and energy is invested without even knowing if people want their product or service.
So, many experienced entrepreneurs recommend to take the appropriate steps to validate your business idea. This process involves market research and also carry out some sort of beta launch.
Your beta launch can be a simple version of your product. The aim of doing this beta launch is to see if people are interested in buying your product. Once you start converting sales and you confirm that your customers are happy with your product, you will have completed the step of validating your business idea.
Later on you can go back and build the product out even further and sell it for a higher price point.
Here is a link to a quick guide on How To Validate Your Business Idea.
SETTING UP SHOP AND CREATING A WEBSITE
Begin business operations: This refers to the task of getting your business ready to receive customers.
Note that having a website to complement your physical or online business is not mandatory but, it can make running your business and building your business a lot easier.
So, it is highly recommended that you set up a website. This step really doesn’t have to be that complicated. You can do it yourself completely from scratch with something like wordpress or you can use one of platforms and tools Wix or Squarespace. These platforms can help you building a website really easily.
Here is a free guide on How To Create A Website.
SETTING UP YOUR BUSINESS FINANCES
You will need some way to keep your business money completely separate from your personal money and also to keep your business money organized.
Here you have mainly three options:
- You can use a software to do this like Quickbooks.
- You can just use a simple spreadsheet like a google sheet and do it completely for free.
- Hire the services of a bookkeeper or professional accountant
When you’re first starting out it is most probable that you will not need a big complex system to manage the few transactions that you’re going to have.
It will be much easier for you to maintain and also you will be able to really practically see where your money is going a lot more easily on a simple spreadsheet.
For more information read Bookkeeping For Small Business.
SCALING YOUR BUSINESS
The next step of the process is scaling your business or building a sales machine.
Once you have validated your business idea you’re then ready to start scaling your business. That is, you’re going to take your product to the masses and start generating a lot more sales.
Now, in order to do this step you’re going to need to figure out a good way to get traffic. This could be just ranking your website on Google or it could be making content like blog posts or YouTube videos or using social media marketing or even using paid advertising.
There are lots of different options available for you to use but you need some way to consistently get traffic and visibility. The aim is to become visible to the people in your niche. Then, you need a process that takes that visibility and turns it into sales.
So, this is sometimes called a sales funnel. You will need some sort of process to guide potential customers from first hearing about you to eventually making a purchase.
INCREASE YOUR MARKETING EFFORTS
For this step of the process you will be increasing your visibility significantly.
Up until this moment you’ve built a process that can turn your traffic into sales. But, in order to make more sales now you need to rev up your exposure. In other words, you have to increase your marketing efforts a lot more.
This step may entail increasing your budget for paid advertising. If your budget does not allow it then you will have to be creative.
For instance, do collaborations to team up with brands that already have audiences and get in front of a lot more people that way. Or increase your presence on different social media platforms.
You will need a marketing plan that is suited to your needs.
Recommended reading: How To Write a Marketing Plan.
DELEGATE SOME TASKS
The next step of the process of starting your business is to get some help. You need to hire some people so that you can delegate some tasks.
The aim is to be able to accomplish more without having to work more hours yourself.
There’s a limit on the number of hours that you have available to invest in your business. And if you want to grow your business beyond a certain point then you will need to get some help.
TAKING TIME TO EVALUATE YOUR PROGRESS
Your final step is to go through your business plan and update it as necessary.
Remember that a business plan is not static, it is merely a guide to starting and running your business. It is common to find that your projections need adjusting.
There will probably be new threats and opportunities and you need to adapt in order to survive and grow.
Recommended reading: How To Avoid Business Failure.
