When planning to start your own business there are a number of things you’ll need to prepare for to give the business the best chance of success and to keep you from working 14 hours a day and burning out. Focusing on making pre-planning the most vital and essential part of your business operations will mean you’ll be able to take on anything you need to and be educated and prepared for the workload in advance.
Some skills and knowledge will only come from trial and error, and you’ll need to work on learning these things as you go; outlined below are a few top things you’ll have to know before starting your own business.
Planning over Money
One of the first things you’ll need to focus on is putting your business planning first, regardless of whether it’s finance related or to do with marketing or product development, planning is more important than money. You could have thousands or even tens of thousands in capital ready, but poor planning could lose all of that in just a few weeks or even days.
Take the time to heavily focus on developing full-scope plans for your marketing, budgets and all other business operations. This will give you a clear path to follow and go down as your business begins to grow and develop after launch day, and it’s going to give you a far greater chance of success in the long run. Minimise loss in the beginning and focus on the long term.
Cherish your customers
Even though most businesses respect their customers and focus on pleasing them, it’s important to take this further than simply good customer service or a loyalty program. Cherishing your customers is vital, and you need to develop a customer retention plan to make sure you respect your customers as a source of income, as well as a loyal part of your business.
This can go as far as listening to all customer complaints and requests and opening up hotlines or communication channels for your customers to voice their concerns as well as request new products or alterations to existing products and service. This will work out advantageous for your business in the long term as you’ll be able to develop a loyal customer base and be offering products and services that customers actually want.
Separate your business from your personal life
Another major thing you’ll need to know before you start your business is that finances can easily get jumbled and create concern, as well as hinder the development of the business — especially if you’re funding the business yourself. Do your best to create separate accounts or at least a separate budget that deals solely with all of your business finances to stop your merging the two. If you’re going to create a successful growing business you need to prevent your business growth or decline affect your personal income.
This is also connected to cutting out working on the business in your own time. A large majority of business owners struggle to the point of failure when they attempt to run both business and personal lives at the same time. You should take some time to make a daily or weekly planner that splits your schedule.
Raise capital with another business
There are countless ways to raise capital for your business launch, and it can come in the form of something simple like a family loan or a microloan, or an even bigger more complex bank investment loan, though there are other options too. The development of a business that is almost certainly going to be profitable, and grows in a stable market can work as the backbone of your business’s capital.
A number of popular options for these capital building exercises are SaaS businesses as they require little investment and run on almost pure profit if they’re developed that way. Vending machine companies are also a favourite for this as they operate in an economically stable and growing market. Companies like healthy vending have in-depth outlines to help investors start their own vending companies — a perfect opportunity to raise capital.
Make sure you like the business
A paramount piece of research you need to conduct is whether your planned business will suit you. If you’re really into flowers, then, of course, opening your own floral store and working as a florist will work for you. But, if you’re into flowers and the business you’re planning is a shoe store, you won’t be able to fully thrive in the space.
There’s nothing wrong with opening a business in a field you like, even if you liked it as a hobby. This will work out in your favour as you’ll be good at your job, and you’ll have fun doing it. So, taking the time to research and delve into the hobby’s and things you like prior to launching a business will help you create a fulfilling business for yourself.
Debt management is essential
This is where the business complexities start to come in. Debt, when launching a business, is fine, in fact, it’s expected. Though, when debt isn’t controlled and continues to grow, that’s a major red flag and you should do anything you can to slow it from growing.
Pre-planning for debt is vital, and can be enhanced by looking at current trends in the market as well as previous sales and consumer data from other businesses. Data collection and analysis are paramount here as they’re your best bet at getting a good look at the market’s projections and you’ll be able to pinpoint market gaps and market flaws to avoid, which will help prevent bad business decisions and debt growth.
It’s not as hard as you think
One of the most important and motivating factors you need to know when starting your business is that it really isn’t as difficult as it seems. Everyone loves to throw around statistics and quotes about how impossible it is to start a business and work for yourself, but it simply isn’t true. Some of the most socially successful business owners all say the same thing — it really isn’t that hard, you just do it.
Candice Neistat, the wife of hyper-famous YouTuber Casey Neistat, was interviewed by Anna Cinquina about her rise to success and her jewellery line’s major success prior to Casey’s fame and she simply said that starting your own business isn’t difficult, you just need to start and that the stigma around starting your own business is unfounded.
Takeaway
The takeaway from all of the above tips and information should be that although the development and launch of your first business might be difficult, you’ll still be able to succeed or have a good chance of succeeding if you plan well and prepare for the market you’re about to step into. Making sure you’re motivated and like the business type, and the field will also be greatly beneficial to you.
