Essential Things To Do Before Starting A Business Of Your Own
On : November 28th, 2014By : Taskr.in
Thinking about starting a business of your own? Well, You’re not alone. Every year, many a soul catches hold of the entrepreneurial spirit, initiating their businesses and ventures to sell their products or services. Some businesses flourish; some do not make the grade.
The more you know about the must do’s of starting a business, you can easily structure an organization that widens into a permanent source of income and fulfillment. For guidance regarding the beginning stages of operating a company, the following checklist is a great place to let you know what all things to do before starting a business.
Appraise And Build Your Business Idea
You must determine whether the type of business suits you or not. Do a break even analysis to know if your idea can make money for you. Write a business plan and find sources to start financing. More or less, set up a basic marketing plan as well.
Settle On A Legal Structure For Your Business
You must identify the number of owners and stakeholders of your business. Depending on your business risks, you need to know how much protection you would need from your personal liabilities. You must also research the various types of ownership structures. If, at any time you are unsure, have a talk with an esteemed lawyer you are well acquainted with.
Choosing A Suitable Name For Your Business
You can think of multiple business names that might suit your company and its products and services. If you wish to do your business online, you should check whether your proposed business names are available as domain names. For corporations and LLCs, you can check the availability of your proposed names with the Secretary of State or other corporate filing office.
Before Starting Your Business, Register Your Business
Register your business name as a federal or state trademark if you’ll do business regionally or nationally and will use your business name to identify a product or service. Register your domain name for your website for online branding.
Get The Right People On Board
One of the first few things you need to do in hiring is finding an accountant. Assess your skill set and start thinking about what other help would you need. Bring in a trustworthy business partner, if necessary. Although, don’t start employing people until you really need to. Understand that you need to keep costs as low as possible.
Getting The Right Suppliers And Distributors
This stage might come earlier in the process, depending on the type of business you’re starting. Build and initiate relationships with main suppliers and distributors, but also keep a list of back-up as plan B in case something goes wrong. Get credit from as many suppliers as possible to cut your costs. Do a pilot run for trial and error of your supply chains and distribution processes with small batches first. Talk to suppliers and distributors about their capacity to scale up if you plan to grow quickly.
Get The Fundamentals Right
Make sure that you get some sound business insurance done. Get some legal advice for sure. Find out about what business rates and taxes you need to deal with. Find out what regulations and restrictions you might encounter, and any licenses that you need to obtain before you can start. Such things are usually taken for granted, but are one of the most important and basic things to do before starting your business.
Set Up Your Website
Buy relevant domains for your business name. Hire a developer and designer to create your website as per requirements. Optimize your website for SEO i.e. search engine optimization.
Almost Ready
Set up your pricing strategies. Learn about PR, social media, advertising, etc. and plan your strategies accordingly. As the last part of things to do before starting your business, network like crazy to let people know you have arrived.
We hope these points will help you check off those essentials from your to do list before you take the plunge.
