What to think about when you start a business.

What to think about when you start a business.

So you’ve come across a great business idea but have you really thought about how to start a business? Before for you leap forward, here are some thing you need to seriously consider.

Read over the following guidelines to make sure you can cover all the basics and still feel as optimistic about your business idea.

1. When starting your business, decide exactly what your business products and or services will be.

    What makes you superior to your competitors?
    What makes your qualified in providing these services or products?
    Know if you are meeting a need/demand?
    Is it seasonal or can you provide this year round? If not, will it be enough to support you or will you need to figure out another way to supplement your income?
    How passionate are you about doing this as a full time career?
    How much growth potential is there?

2. Know your market – Research what the going rate is.

Do you have a lot of competitors or is your niche a brand new service you will be providing? If it’s brand new to your area, is there reason for this? Could it be that it’s not been embarked on because there’s not enough need for it? To help determine such factors ask yourself:

    Who your targeted audience is?
    Who are you selling or servicing to?
    Are you marketing to other businesses or people? Or both?
    Really determine if your services is oversaturated or filling a void.
    Can you estimate and predetermine what you will need to sell or produce in order to make a comfortable profit?
    How comfortable do you feel that you can meet this requirement?

3. Make sure you able to cover all aspects of a job and if not do you have to working capital to be able to hire it out?

Things such as:

    Setting Appointments
    Order supplies
    Bookkeeping/Invoicing
    Marketing/Selling
    Filling and Answering Phone
    Customer Service
    Inventory Tracking
    Shipping

Go over all you can do and see if it feasible to hire out what you aren’t able to manage yourself.

A great idea is to get the family involved if possible in helping you cover some of these tasks and help take off some of the work load.

4. Make a list of start-up cost and supplies that you will need to get your business going.

This means to also determine what type of working space and equipment? Are you able to work out of you home? Do you have enough required space out of your home that can be designated for a work area? Consider all your immediate expenses you will encounter. Such as:

    Legal and Attorney Services
    Office supplies
    Start-up Inventory
    Electronics: printer/computer/fax/copier           
    Software
    Licenses
    Insurance
    Website/Hosting/Domain

5. Know all your legal aspects of starting:

    Check Zoning Laws
    License Requirements
    Permits
    Service/Products that may require patents, trademarks and or copyrights.

6. Legal Forms of Business Organization.

When you start a business, you will need to determine which is the best structure to form your business as. Then determine if you can set this up yourself or if you need to hire it done by an attorney or accountant.

    Sole Proprietorship
    Limited Liability
    S Corporation
    Partnership
    C Corporation

Along with these you will need to have a Tax EIN for filling your taxes and to determine if you need a Sale Permit all which can be done online.

7. You will need to determine if your services require Insurance and what kinds.

Depending on the type of business it can require specific insurance to cover and avoid any type of financial hardship or lost. Some examples would be:

    Personal Health Insurance
    Liability Insurance
    Auto/Car insurance for equipment and or machinery or business car/truck


8. You will need to try to determine a starting point of when you will break even.

Once expenses of start-up are considered you will also need to determine what type of extra funding will be needed and how to go about it.

9. Make sure your family/spouse are onboard before you start your business venture.

Get their support. This is important. Make sure they understand that you starting this new business venture is going to lead to lots of extra hours and time on your part. Encourage them to participate in ways and get them involved so they don’t feel left out. Not having the support of loved ones will only make it that much harder to get to your goal of being a success.

Now ask yourself...do you feel as optimistic going through the how to start a business list, as you first did coming up with the idea? Are you ready to put forth the effort and long hours? If so CONGRATULATIONS! You're well on your way to being your own boss.