Deciding to start your own venture is probably one of the biggest decisions you have taken in your life. You simply need unabated enthusiasm, hard work and the drive to achieve your dreams. In fact, having a well-equipped degree or earning accolades academically is not even necessary though it could be a plus point in some cases. We have rounded up the most significant steps to starting a business. This will help you transform your innovative idea into a successful business. 

 Conducting Market Research

Market Research is the most vital step while considering starting a business. Conducting a thorough market research will help you convert that bright ideas into a real business.

This step will also help you in gathering detailed information about businesses already operating within the territory. This will enable you to chalk out a clear-cut take on your competitors and the people who will play the role of an audience for the business.

It is very much necessary that the product or service you are offering should have a certain demand in the market and it must be able to fulfill the requirements or needs of your audience.

Explore your existing market through research methods or focus groups which will help to eventually determine whether your business idea has a strong potential to succeed in the long run.

Selecting a Name for Your Business & Registration

Pick an adequate name for your business while being be creative and something that identifies with the nature of your business at the same time.  You should also consider simultaneously whether the .com domain name is available.

After you are done with the name of your business, it’s time to decide upon your branding which includes a well-designed logo which should be consistently used across all the social media platforms. As a startup, you could use some of the reasonably priced online services available including Fiverr and others.

After deciding upon the name, you need to get your business name registered to protect your brand. This has to be done with both state and local governments. Registering your business becomes all the more important otherwise you could miss out on personal liability protection and tax benefits as well.

The next step after registering a business is to get an employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS and might also require filing some forms for fulfilling your state and federal obligations.

Selecting Type of Structure

Selecting the type of structure your small business is again a vital factor while starting off with your venture. As the names imply, a proprietorship means that you are the sole owner of the business. Partnership involves two or more people who share the ownership.

A business acquires the status of a corporation when it becomes a single legal entity that is spate from its owners. Shareholders of a corporation are also the owners. 

A corporation comes along with its own benefits such as owning property, making profits, acquiring loans and paying taxes.  A Limited Liability Company has the tax benefits of a partnership along with the benefits of a corporation. This is the reason small businesses opt for a LLC structure.

A small business can be a sole proprietorship, LLC, partnership or corporation. Each type of structure has its own advantages and disadvantages. Honestly, people have been seen to change their structure after a certain time period as per their growth.

Selecting a structure which is just right for you, fulfills your requirements as per your goals and that which gives you the right balance of legal protection and benefits is the wise thing to do.

Create a Business Plan

Your dreams and aspirations regarding your business may be quite enthusiastic, however to make your dreams a reality you need a rock-solid plan for making your business a reality. In fact, a business plan is the foundation of any business.

A business plan serves as a blue print and a road map of your entire business from the start-up phase, structuring to establishing it and is the fundamental step for starting off with your venture.

There are various types of plans as per your requirements. In case you are seeking financial support from any investor, usually a traditional business plan plays the role of your road map.

This type of business plan is quite detailed oriented and contains details which investors look at while making a decision to invest or not in your venture. The other type is a one page business plan which can have details regarding details that how, what and when you would want to achieve your objectives.

Financing your Business

Starting a business costs money and working out the details regarding the financial aspect of your startup is crucial. By using your business plan the amount of money you need can be calculated. Obviously the first choice is self-funding.

This can be used in various ways such as your 401k, saving accounts or turning to family for funding. If you in case you don’t have enough capital you will have to raise the capital or else borrow it. The way you choose funding your business will affect the ways you operate the business.

The second way is turning to investors for capital. Investors can certainly provide your funding for starting your business in the form of venture capital investments. Most of the times venture capitalists desire to have a seat among the board of directors.

This also means that you will have to give up a bit of ownership of your company for the investment they will do in your venture.

The other ways to raise funding for your business is to use crowdfunding wherein the owner does not need to give up on the ownership or control and lastly but not the least applying for a small business loan is the most traditional way to raise money for the new business.

Determine your Business Location

What more can be for a business than its location? Whether you have a private office or a home-office, location is indeed important. Giving it a good deal of thought is always advisable.

A brick-mortar store location factors are completely different as it has an impact on your taxes as well as the revenue. You have to make sure that the location of your business works for your business.

Next, you have to decide whether you would want to lease or buy the space. Consider all factors revolving around it and then take a decision.

For retail and brick/mortar stores some of the factors which play a very important part is the demographics and the distance from your business to other competitors around your area. Other factors include accessibility to the store and of course the ordinances or the regulations implied in that specific area.

Get Business Insurance

Getting Insurance from a reliable source is always a wise decision for survival in case of any type of a business. You can be faced with any kind of a serious situation or your employee can face that while at work.

In case of a fire or a burglary and even rare cases of lawsuits, business insurance is something which will help you along the way.

So without wasting any time getting covered your company for general liability (GL) is a must. In fact some industries have specific type of insurance requirements.

There is a need to look also into any other government or state requirements in case of employees. In fact, you will require purchasing workers compensation as well as unemployment insurance.

Starting to build a Team

To step up your business you definitely need people to whom you can hand off crucial responsibilities and tasks. Before hiring employees, you must keep some things in mind.

Let the potential employees know your vision and business goals very clearly right from the beginning so that they can align themselves with them in the long run.

While hiring, care should be taken to recruit talented and enthusiastic employees who will help in making their contribution to the growth of your company. Maintaining a great company culture is vital.

Finding ways to keep the team together, facilitating empowerment of employees for seeking their opinions and mentoring them for making further improvements in their skills provides that additional impetus to every growing business.

Promoting & Advertising your Business

Once you have started off your business with a bang, the next step for you is to make sure that your product or service being offered in the market gets a boost by means of advertising. Creating a Marketing Plan, therefore becomes essential which will serve as a road map for your promotional strategies.  

A marketing plan will help in crafting strategies to get the word out about your business. This will help you explore various alternatives before deciding upon the ones which work most effectively for you.

Create an aesthetic and well planned website and a company logo to carve an identity of your own. Remember that creating the website will not drive customers, rather things like a good domain name and meaningful plus relevant content which brings value to the customers will do the trick.

Start using social media to attract new customers and to convert leads into buyers. Using popular social media platforms is essential and if required, you can also make use of free tools available out there, such as Weebly for website building and an efficient social media management tool as HootSuite to take care of scheduling your regular online posts. Besides these, there are an array of tools out there which can take care of promoting your business website.

Growing Your Business

 

Having done all the steps above is a great beginning to a growing career as an entrepreneur. However, this being just the beginning you would need to always continue growing your business. Undoubtedly, it is going to take a lot of effort but at the end of it all it’s worth all the effort.

You will have to continue trying out various strategies for the business to grow and prosper. Collaborating with more and more brands in the industry is a great way for achieving sustained and continuous growth. Searching for trustworthy vendors will definitely help you run the business in a better way.

Looking for a variety of marketing tools for your business? Check out this informative video!