Almost everyone dreams of starting his own business at some point in his life. After all, the allure of owning your business is tremendous. You are not answerable to anyone; you can set your own time; and the return you get from the business is all yours. What can be better than this? Well, before you get too far in your dream remember that half of the businesses fail in the first 5 years of their existence. There are many challenges and nuances in running a small business than many people realized.
However, that doesn’t mean that no one can succeed in starting a small business. There are number of successful entrepreneurs who have gone on to grow their small business into multi-billion-dollar businesses. So, what do you need to do to take that first step and start your own business? Preparation is the key. Here are the things you need to prepare before opening the door.
- Do Research – The first thing you need to do before taking that first step is to do extensive research on your strength and weaknesses, type of business you want to start, your competitors, location, etc. You should plan to spend good 2-3 months on performing the research to make sure you have thought through all aspects of managing a business. It also helps to talk to other business owners who have gone through similar process. Their experience will help you understand your own challenges and plan ahead.
- Identify Target Customers – Once you have made yourself comfortable with the idea of starting and owning a business you can start looking at the target market you want to serve. Sure, you know what products and services you plan to sell. But do you know what types of customers will be interested in buying them? If you fail to identify the target customers you can end up spending lot of money chasing the wrong customers and never succeed at making the sale.
- Determine Type of Business – It is important to decide what type of business you will register. There are number of options you can choose from – LLC, S Corporation, C Corporation and so on. If you don’t know what they are and how they affect the management of your business you should consult with the tax advisor.
- Register Your Business – Only after you have done research, identified target customers and prepared action plan to get going you should take the crucial step to register a limited company. You will need to figure out what forms you need to fill in and the documents are required depending on the type of business you are registering. Again, the business consultant can help you in this step.
Doing research and making appropriate plan before opening the door of your business will ensure that you will not run into any issues afterwards.
