No matter if you are just starting out in the world of business with your start up, or you’ve been running a steady ship for months – the long-term goal is always going to be the same.

You want to own and run a great business.

Think of the biggest structures known to mankind – the skyscrapers that steal portions of the sky from Mother Nature. The Empire State Building, Taipei 101, One World Trade Center, the Burj Khalifa. These impressive structures soar high into the sky and stand around to be admired by all, from afar or up close.

What, apart from their height, links these buildings? They were all built a brick or section at a time upon a strong foundation. From the Burj Khalifa to the Empire State Building – all tall buildings are similar in their structure and need a robust and solid foundation to hold them up.

It’s the same with businesses. You need a foundation and solid structure to succeed. This is your idea and the tenants of your business. It’s your brand and products. Get all of this planned before you even start and you’ll have a foundation upon which you can build the most successful business.

Let’s take a closer look at our foundation.

Firstly, you need a good idea, or you need to build on your solid idea. Nobody can help you here, unfortunately, but it’s here where you get to be truly creative and move forward with your original idea. Your idea shouldn’t just improve on something, though; it should aim to radically better something according to Forbes:

“Yes — in today’s society we collectively create amazing products, services, and companies through entrepreneurship. World changing at times and Honest Tea was radically different when first introduced. But, if you look around, we also live in the land of ‘me-too’ businesses. Don’t fall for it. Dig deep and decide right now to build something radically different and radically better.”

If you are genuinely stuck, then Entrepreneur dot com has 55 ideas for you – but you should seriously consult your original thoughts here – it’s what is going to make you stand out from the crowd.

Next up, your brand – we won’t talk about the product as you should have that nailed down with your idea. Branding is a different ball game, though. Wurkhouse detail the importance of a brand below:

“A common misconception is that branding is simply a logo or graphic. However, it goes far beyond this. Branding involves every aspect of a customer’s experience, from your logo to your website, your social media posts, staff uniforms and advertising; it even encompasses the way in which you answer the phone to how you interact with customers. In a nutshell, a brand is the way in which your customer perceives you. This includes everything they think they know about your brand- both factual info, such as the bright yellow packaging, and emotional info, for example, it’s luxurious. A good brand won’t manifest overnight- it’s a result of a meticulous planning and development, which is why many start-ups and small businesses neglect it without realizing the impact it has.”

All of this? It blends together. Your idea and brand go hand in hand. If you can focus on all of this before you begin, you’ll have an amazingly strong foundation to build your business open.

Let’s talk construction. You don’t need to get a digger or crane in; you just need to slowly build your business up to take advantage of the excellent foundation you’ve made. Do your idea justice and don’t slack off here.

The fundamental building blocks of your business are as follows; customer service, employees, workspace, promotion, and systems. Depending on how well you use these, your business could be a real success. There’s no law on what you need to work on first – but you should do right by your business. Customer service is a good starting point, but do you need a place to work? Do you need employees? Should you promote yourself?

That’s up to you – you need to decide at this point the building block you’re going to place down first.

No matter the first step, you need to make sure it’s solid. A weak approach to customer service is going to ensure that that particular building block crumbles. A crumbling block in a skyscraper? That’s an utter disaster. Don’t neglect these steps at all in any way, shape or form.

For customer service, treat your customers with they respect they deserve – their relationship benefits you more as you’re making money. Treat every complaint with validity and address each and every concern. Don’t insult your customers and clients.

Employees? Build the right team and treat them right. Assess areas of need in your business and hire efficiently. Be the best manager you can be and allow your employees independence. If you want to cherry pick the best candidates for a role, use an agency like rewards recruitment agency so you don’t have to do all the hard work with hiring.

Your workspace needs to be kept accessible and clean – nobody wants to work in a dirty business environment. Clean up after yourself or hire people who can. If your workspace is a great place to work, it’s going to boost the morale of all your employees. Don’t neglect your office!

Promotion? People can’t buy your products if they don’t know about them. Market yourself and your products smartly to the target audience who will actually care about them. Hire help from third parties if you need to.

Four simple steps that you can do right now to improve your business and thanks to the internet, they are all right here! You can do everything you need to with basic equipment, so there’s no excuse at all not to build your business to be great – the building blocks are right in front of you.