When you’re setting up a new business, it’s easy to focus solely on the making your product or service stand out from that of all your competitors. However, although what you’re selling has to be great – if you don’t have all the other necessary balls in the air, your start-up will not get off the ground like you want it to. Here’s a checklist to make sure that you’ve got everything covered…

Get your financing in place

Unless you have lots of cash lying around, you’re going to have to find a way to get the funds you need for developing your product, buying supplies, setting up a website and so on. There are several ways you can do this. Firstly, you can approach your bank for funding. Secondly, you can get help from charitable or government organisations that have been set up to encourage people to start their own businesses.

Thirdly, you can approach single investors, or groups of private investors. Whichever way you plan to get the cash you need to get started – you’re going to need a good business plan. If you’re in any doubt about how best to construct your business plan, get expert advice. After all, your plan could be the difference between your new company failing and soaring right from day one – so it’s vital to make sure that you get it right.

 Recruit the best suppliers
Good suppliers will sell you their products at the most competitive price, and they will get the goods to you within reasonable time frames. These are people that you should aim to establish great long-term working relationships with, so take your time researching to find the best fit for you and your business. Ask other people in your industry about their experiences, and you’ll be able to find out who to avoid and who is going to be the efficient supplier that you need to succeed.

Get online

Get a website set up, and write a blog to draw visitors to your site. Make sure that you include easy ways for your customers to contact you and/or order your product or service, otherwise you’ll be wasting your time! Set up pages on social media sites to promote your business and get your name out there. The power of marketing tools like Facebook advertising is not to be underestimated, and can be the difference between just breaking even and making a profit within a relatively short period of time.

Your business is your baby, so you owe it to yourself to give it the best possible start – and every opportunity to soar. If you are a little lacking when it comes to writing a great business plan, finding the best suppliers, or marketing like a pro – get advice from professionals. You might have to spend a little of your precious budget on making sure that you get everything right – but the costs are huge if you don’t. Find out here how to avoid disaster with your start-up – and you’ll hit the ground running!