Starting your own business can seem like a fun and even adventurous idea, until you come face to face with the steep costs and mental toughness requirements for starting a business.
The truth is most of today’s big companies are a small percentage of businesses whose leaders had what it took to persevere through hardship and stayed at it while making sacrifices to stay in business.
But if you want to take on the big risks for business starting, here’s six things to keep in mind.
1. Consider Attending an Entrepreneurship Seminar or Webinar
Before pounding the pavement and deciding to jump into starting a business blind, it can be worth your time to pick up information on laying the framework for it. You don’t need to go to college and get a 4-year business administration degree, but you might want to read books or
attend workshops or webinars hosted by other successful entrepreneurs. They have already been through the rigors of business starting, learned from mistakes they made, and could provide great advice for new entrepreneurs. You shouldn’t spend too much money on these workshops, but a little bit spent could be well worth it.
2. Learn How to Write A Real Business Plan
Every business owner needs to have a real business plan for how things will be run. This isn’t just an abstract writing of your idea and what you want to sell, but a complete writing on how your business is run including everyone and charge, and how your registration and accounting procedures work. As your business grows, it can evolve and have changes made, but at some point when you’re going to need financing, this business plan will be an important thing to have. There are tutorials online that you can use to learn how to form a business plan.
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3. Research the Market for What You’re Going to Sell
Every business success depends on selling products in markets where demand for them is high. You want to make sure your business is actually meeting a real need that customers have and finding out their needs requires some market research. You don’t necessarily need to hire the most prestigious market research firm to find out customer needs, but you should be ready to conduct some of your own research by learning a little about potential customers.
4. Try and Keep Personal Debt Low and Have A Plan to Pay It Off
Due to the expenses of acquiring business assets, having debt with your business is usually a given. But keeping your own personal debt paid down as much as possible can help lessen this burden. There may be occasions when you need to address unexpected personal emergencies with a little assistance, such as using online direct lender installment loans for bad credit. But you should commit to setting aside savings and business income to paying off these debts as soon as possible. Always live as frugally as possible while starting up a business and have an exit plan just in case worse comes to worse.
5. Be Prepared to Buy Insurance
A small but important thing to remember is that most businesses including home-based ones will need to have at least one business insurance policy. Many renter’s and homeowner’s insurance policies do not have carveouts for running a business in a home, so be prepared to get a separate business property insurance policy. If you have employees working for you, you’ll likely need worker’s compensation.
6. Be Ready to Consult with A CPA For Registration and Tax Issues
As with every business, you will always have to pay taxes. Every business, depending on their structure and registration will have different federal and state taxes they’ll have to file, and this is where you cannot go wrong. To that end, you should be prepared to hire or consult a CPA to make sure you are registering your business correctly, and not paying more taxes than you need to.
In conclusion, just always remember starting a business sounds much simpler than all the hard work it actually entails. It is possible to start out with your own business while working for another employer, and if things are going well, you can commit full time to it. But you can’t be afraid to take the risk.
