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Starting a successful business often requires careful planning, determination and hard work. Although the specific actions you take when starting your business will definitely vary from business to business, there are some basic steps that you can follow to ensure you’re on the right path. Today, we explore the 10 basic steps to starting a successful business.
To start a business, you’ll first need to identify the purpose of your business. What problem is it intending to solve?
It’s much easier to start from a broader view and then narrow in, for example, start by picking a niche or market that peaks your interest the most, then identify common issues faced within that market. Once you’ve got your issue, you’ll then be able to develop various business ideas as to how you can go about solving those issues.
This ties in very closely with the step above. You’ll want to ensure you’ve done thorough market research to really identify if the problem you've found is universal, and if the solution you’re providing is useful. You’ll also want to consider potential competitors for your business as well as some strengths and limitations you may have. This allows you to be better prepared when moving forward with your business as you’ll better understand your idea inside and out.
After all that research and ideating, it’s good to get it down on paper – or in the notes app on your phone. A business plan essentially outlines your business goals, its purpose, target market, business strategies and so on. You should go properly in depth with the planning – and you shouldn’t be afraid to go as far as to consider financial routes or operational functions of your business, as these pre-planned steps will serve you well as you begin to build it up.
Whilst not every business requires large amounts of funding, some do, and if your business is one of those, you’ll want to ensure you have a good funding source. There are multiple ways a business can be funded, ranging from bootstrapping to venture capitalism. You should read up and fully understand each and every method there is out there for funding your business and carefully consider how each of them works along with the pros and cons before diving headfirst.
Funding can help a business tremendously, but it can also break a business if not chosen carefully. Do approach our team over at INTERLUNAR if you’d like some advice on this!
This is also another crucial step for your business, and that is determining the legalities of running your business. This means, business names and domains, copyright checks to ensure you’re not violating any rules, as well as understanding your business’s tax responsibilities.
If your country requires you to do so, register your business and ensure that all information and activities conducted within your business are legal and do not violate any laws in your area.
Whether you’re a sole proprietorship or not, almost all businesses will need a hand or two, especially once they’ve started growing. For this, you’ll want to properly assemble a group of efficient individuals who will be able to help you achieve your goals. You can read more here on the 5 employees every start-up should seek to first hire.
Believe it or not, this is one of the most crucial steps when running a business. Upon launching your business, chances are, not many people are going to know about it. This is where efficient and effective marketing strategies come into play.
It’s not just about pushing your business out there, but also seeking to shape the impressions of your business to your audience. You want customers to associate your business with your intended solution and thus, draw customers to utilise your service.
It should be understood that not every business is perfect. Even large corporations who may seem insanely successful also have to tweak and adjust their business to do better. The world is always changing and so are your consumers, so with that, you’ll always want to ensure you’re listening to and paying attention to your business’s reception amongst your target audience.
It’s completely fine and normal to change your business direction or approach, so long as you’re still serving the same purpose. This is the only way a business can grow and improve with the rest of the market.
We know starting a business can be scary, but, the team here at INTERLUNAR would be more than happy to assist new business owners should they have any inquiries or concerns regarding their start-up. Reach out to us to schedule an e-coffee!
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