Research Your Business Idea
Your first step in starting your own business is to make sure that your business idea is a viable one. You’ll need to conduct extensive market research on all aspects of the industry you’re interested in, identify and study your competition, and decide on the best structure for your business.
Commit To Your Business
Once you’re confident that your business concept will work, you must be absolutely certain that you’re ready to totally commit your efforts to your new business. It’s vital that you have the full support of your family in your venture. Many new business people don’t realise how much time and energy they will have to devote to their business to get it up and running. The start-up period for any business is a very trying time, as you will need to build the business from the ground up, learning from your mistakes as you go.
The Business Plan
The next and most important stage is to create a business plan. A business plan is a way of documenting the planning process. It helps you identify areas of strength and weakness, highlighting items that might otherwise be overlooked and wiping out problems before they arise. Some examples of the information you’ll need to provide in your business plan include:
The type of business you want to operate
The type of customers you’ll be dealing with
The size of the market for your product or service
How you’ll go about producing your product or service
Your marketing strategies
The level of sales you expect to achieve
How you’ll manage your business
How you’ll finance your business
A finished business plan becomes an operating tool that will help you manage your business and work towards its success. The completed plan is your chief instrument for communicating your ideas to others – business people, bankers and partners. If you need finance for your business, the plan becomes the basis for your loan application.
Raise Capital
You also need to make sure that you have a substantial amount of capital on hand before you start. This is needed to run your business until you’ve reached a break-even point. As mentioned above, your business plan will be your main tool in arranging finance for your new venture. There are various sources of finance available to new businesses. These include using your own funds, banks, and finance companies.
