The pandemic is starting to slow down, but we’re still seeing just how big its impact was, both on our personal and professional lives as well. However, it seems that the pandemic hasn’t made people any less ambitious. The human spirit will always prosper, it seems.
While many people expected that the number of new businesses would decline, the opposite happened. Last year, roughly 4.4 million new businesses were launched in the United States alone. Something like this happened for the first time in modern history.
The number of new businesses usually declines during a crisis. But not this time. And from the look of things, this trend doesn’t show any signs of stopping. Are you one of those people looking to start a business? If you are, do we have a treat for you today…
Let’s see how you can successfully build your first business properly and make it strong.
What You Need to do Before Starting a Business
The first thing you need to realize is that starting a new business is a huge commitment. You need to understand that it’s going to take a lot of time, energy, and resources to cultivate a successful business. A few months won’t cut it.
It will probably take a couple of years to build a sustainable business. Here are some of the challenges you’re going to face:
- Coming up with a good product or service
- Having a strong vision and a good plan
- Finding the right employees for your company
- Managing your time efficiently
- Knowing when’s the right time to pivot
Another thing you need to think about from the very beginning is money management. Ensuring that you don’t run out of money before the launch is essential. That’s why you should hire an accountant for your business early in the process before money even starts pouring in.
A good accountant will be able to tell you about some unexpected expenses and help you manage your money the right way. With the right information, an accountant can interpret your financial data and assist you in making business decisions.
Investing in accounting and bookkeeping services might seem like needless expenses while you’re still building your business. However, by investing in them early, you won’t worry if the IRS knocks at your door at any point. Plus, there are a lot of cost-effective bookkeeping options out there that won’t make you empty out your wallet.
Also, don’t forget to come up with a catchy, original name for your business. Here’s what you need to think about when coming up with a name.
- Avoid choosing names that are hard to spell
- Search your name
- Make sure no one has copyrighted the name
- Get a domain name for your business
- Make sure you get a .com extension
With that, you can move on to the next part…
How to Handle All of the Legal Aspects of a Business
Once you have the right idea and the name figured out, it’s time to start taking things more seriously. That means that you need to handle the legal aspects of your business next. If you fail to do it in time, you can end up paying huge fines down the line.
Many businesses have failed because of this. You don’t want to end up as a victim of the IRS, don’t you? We didn’t think so.
For starters, you should pick the type of business you want to start. Our advice would be to skip starting a “sole proprietorship” because you’ll put your assets at risk if you fail. You should start your business as either:
- S corporation, which will give you favorable flow through tax treatment, or
- C corporation, which is what most capital investors want to see.
Even though establishing a corporation isn’t as hard as it looks, you should still look into consulting a professional. Not only will they help you with this, but also with the next step.
What should be your next step, you might be wondering? Well, you need to create a well-written business plan. One of the mistakes many entrepreneurs make is rushing into a venture without pondering many aspects of their business.
When picking a business consultant, just make sure to work with a law expert that has knowledge about your industry. For instance, if you need to write a restaurant business plan, you need a consultant that has worked with numerous clients in the food and hospitality industry.
The last big legal aspect we should talk about is that you should define the relationship you have with your partners early on. By failing to have a written agreement on the type of relationship, you risk getting into a huge legal battle at a certain point in the future.
Here are a few deal terms your written founder agreement must address before you move on:
- How will you split the business equity among the founders
- What’s the percentage of ownership
- What will be the role and responsibility of each founder
- What happens when one of the founders decide to leave
- How much time each founder will have to commit to the project
When you handle all of that, you’re ready to start thinking about…
Launching a Business and Maintaining Success
Once you have every technical aspect ready, you need to start thinking about building a brand out of your business. You need to attract the attention of the consumers, turn them into customers, and create a sustainable consumer base of loyal supporters.
Here are a couple of things you should pay special attention to:
- Logo and Visuals: Your brand needs a visual identity. That way, customers will be able to recognize your brand right away. Invest in a good, memorable logo, and carefully pick the colors that will represent your brand.
- Your Business Website: Build a website or a web app that will contain all of the information your potential customers would ever want. Make it visually appealing and easy to navigate. Don’t be afraid to spend some money on it, because it will pay off in a major way.
- Social Media Platforms: Establish a social media presence. See what are some of the more popular platforms among your target audience. Once you discover that, start investing time and money into campaigns on these specific social media networks.
- Customer Relation Management: Get a CRM solution that will allow you to collect, analyze, and use customer data for maintaining a good relationship. You can also use the CMR to market new products and services to your customers.
Speaking of planning, don’t forget to create a marketing plan that goes beyond your launch. Yes, you need to spread the word about the launch of your company, but you should think beyond that. Think about where you want your business to be in a few years and the customers you want to reach eventually.
Figuring out how to reach new markets and customers will make your job way easier down the stretch. Marketing is just as important as your business operation, service, and product. That’s why you should pay enough attention right from the get-go.
What to Keep in Mind
That’s what you need to do in order to successfully launch your first business venture. There are lots of moving parts, but we can boil it down to three main steps:
- Make calculated risks and think everything thoroughly before launching
- Handle all of the legal aspects with care and get some professional help
- Create a game plan and stick with it to have continuous success
Taking the proper steps will guarantee success. However, keep in mind that your launch and first sales are only the beginning.
You never know when another crisis will hit. If you want to stay afloat during hard times, you need to be focused on growing your business at all times. It’s not going to be quick or easy, but you always get out of your business what you put in it. Stay strong, persistent, and patient.
Sooner than later, your business will become bulletproof.
Interesting related article: “What is a Startup?“