Small businesses play a huge role in the US economy as they constitute 99.7% of all businesses. Small business owners have the ability to take full control of their careers and the opportunity to scale them to whatever size they want.
Owning a business is not easy, though and that is why many eventually get closed in two to five years. However, building your business on a strong foundation can help and that’s why we will share some tips that’ll enable you to attain it.
Do your homework
The first thing that you want to take care of when starting a small business of your own is that you go beyond just formulating your business idea. No matter how great your idea might be, there is one important question that you will have to answer, will this business be profitable?
To answer the previous question, you need to ensure that your small business fills a tangible need or solves a problem in the market. To ensure that your business fills gaps in the market, you must research and gauge factors like competition and how many people want your offers.
Create a website
Now, all the businesses have gone digital. Almost everyone uses a smartphone and can now access almost anything on the internet. So, if your business doesn’t have a website or an app, you are missing out. The biggest opportunity you will lose out on is reaching more clients by employing digital marketing strategies that you can learn from some of the best SEO courses available. For the full list of the courses, visit the SEO for Growth website.
These days, people even see having a business website as a sign of being a legitimate entrepreneur as they can use it to know your business better. Consumers even use websites to make purchases/purchasing decisions as they can get a product’s information from the site to ensure that it is what they want.
Create a business plan
After ensuring that your business idea will be profitable and creating a website, you need to draft a plan that’ll help your business grow. Creating a business plan is not always that complex as you only have to articulate what you will have to do to make it grow and become successful.
Making business plans can be easy for some industries but if you hope to get financial assistance from a bank or an investor, it will get difficult. The types of business plans that investors/banks want are long and painstakingly detailed as these people/institutions have specific sections they want extra info on.
Sort out the finances
Establishing a small business should not cost you a lot but you must prepare to make an initial investment and cover running costs until you break-even. To prepare yourself for these costs, you will have to make a spreadsheet that will list startup costs like equipment and ongoing expenses like rent.
An in-depth understanding of your finances can broaden the funding options available to you as people/organizations are more likely to lend you money if they know where it’s going. Bootstrapping can also be easier if you know how much your venture might cost you and allow you to prepare your resources accordingly.
Complete the paperwork diligently
To avoid legal trouble, you have to know all the paperwork you need to fill in, such as registering a name for your business with the local authorities. If you’ll have employees or operate in a partnership/corporation, you will need to get an EIN (Employer Identification Number) number from the IRS.
To help prepare you for all legal/tax obligations, the US Small Business Administration has listed everything you’ll have to fill in and pay for. Also, depending on the industry you will enter, find out if there aren’t any permits or licenses required for operating in your area of choice.
