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Starting a Small Business

Learn the Steps to Build Your Business from the Ground Up

by
Frank Jenkins Jr
on
5/8/2018
Learn the Steps to Build Your Business from the Ground Up

Owning your own business is a dream that many people share. But if you’re interested in moving beyond wishes and taking real action, you need to follow the proper steps – otherwise, you’ll join the vast ranks of the ~90% of startups that crash and burn. What are those steps?

There are a lot of them, but the basics are: 

  • Making sure that you’re selling something that people need
  • Making sure that you have the money you need to keep the business running
  • Making sure that you’re moving forward with a real plan for operating and promoting your business 

Let’s look at each one of those three stepping stones.

What’s Your Idea?

This is the most basic, yet most essential aspect of starting a new business. Not only do you need to have a clear understanding of what you want to sell, but you want to make sure that providing it is something that you know how to do, and preferably something that you do well and enjoy doing. After all, it would make no sense for somebody who hates cooking or is bad at customer service to open a restaurant, or for a person who hates to be outdoors to open a camping supply company.

If you want to start your own company, you need to take the time to find a way to combine what you do best and what you love best with a need that exists. 

What do You Need to Get it Done? 

Once you’ve identified your idea and what you want to do, you have to create an inventory of what you’ll need to get it done. If you're going to be a freelance writer, you’ll probably need little more than a laptop and access to WIFI, but if it’s your idea to help people create their e-commerce sites, then you’ll need web designers and people with technical skills too. If you’re going to open a brick and mortar hardware store, you need retail space, fixtures, and inventory, and you’ll probably need knowledgeable sales help too. All these things require money, so when you’re making a list of what you need, you should also be calculating what each item will cost.

It’s only after you have all that information that you can move forward and see whether what you want to accomplish is doable. Do you have the cash on hand to finance your dream, or do you need to find people to invest? Is your vision a product that can be crowdsourced, or are there other people who might want to join you in your venture and act as partners?  If the costs are too high or you don’t want to invite anybody else in, you also have the option of reevaluating your vision and seeing whether downsizing your initial idea would be a more viable option. After all, there’s nothing wrong with starting small and expanding.

Moving Forward

You have the idea, and you have the money. Now you need to make sure that you’re going about it the right way. That means doing market research into your competition, understanding who your target audience is, and knowing how best to reach them. If you don’t take the time to investigate these aspects of the business, you’re likely to miss out on valuable opportunities to leverage what’s working and improve upon what isn’t. The more you know about what others are doing and what your potential customers want, the better able you are to come up with creative solutions for added value and an improved service or product. After all, you’re not in business to serve your dreams – you’re in business because you believe you have something better to offer customers.

Establish an Identity 

When you’re ready to move your business dream into a reality is when the real planning begins. Your vision needs its own identity, then create a marketing and branding strategy that will tell its story and attract customers. Though that may sound like the fun part, there are real-world concerns that need to be addressed, including ensuring that you are protected from accusations of trademark violations and that you’re following all local business regulations. If developing your marketing message, remember that is about your customer and the pain point you are solving, not all about you.

One of the most critical aspects of creating a start-up is the actual nuts and bolts of writing up a business plan, choosing a legal structure, and taking care of all licensing and compliance issues that need to be addressed. A business attorney or tax accounting specialist can help you solve many of these issues. Likewise, you may want to seek help from an advertising agency or marketing or SEO experts to help you build a social media presence and a website to help promote your business. Using local social media resources is a great way to help keep your promotional budget in check while reaching your target audience. 

Keep The Faith

Nobody thinks it is easy to build your own business – if it were easy, more people would be doing it. Be forgiving to yourself when you make mistakes along the way, and be patient. These things take time, especially when you’re doing them the right way.

Frank Jenkins, CPA writes for TaxBuzz, a tax news and advice website. Reach him at [email protected].

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Frank Jenkins Jr

Frank Jenkins Jr

Frank Jenkins Jr. is the managing partner of Adams, Jenkins & Cheatham, a CPA practice based in Midlothian, VA. Frank specializes in Consulting services, tax planning, accounting, audit & assurances. "I genuinely care about our clients because I have a personal connection with them. This job requires me to multi-task and work under tight deadlines. I get great professional satisfaction from balancing firm and client commitments while building a strong team here at AJC."

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