The First Steps to Starting a Successful Business

Only about 20% of businesses survive their first year. If you want to be included in that small percentage, you can’t afford to waste any more time deciding how to start a business.

You’ve been planning, stressing, and working hard on bringing your ideas to life. Taking a leap is scary, and you’re afraid of the fall. Don’t be afraid anymore and launch your business.

Starting a business is intimidating and seems nearly impossible, but it’s completely possible if you take the right steps. By carefully planning, putting in time and effort, and taking a risk, you’ll be on the way to success.

If you’re still unsure about starting a business, make sure to keep reading. We’ve provided the first big steps to help.

How to Start a Business:

Get into the Right Mindset

The first major step to starting a successful business is getting yourself in the right mindset to start it. You know it’s going to be a lot of work, but you need to mentally motivate yourself to get the work done.

Whether it’s listening to an inspiring podcast or grabbing the best cup of coffee, do what it takes to focus. Sit down and create a list of prioritized tasks. You might even have to cancel on your typical happy hour for the week.

Once you’re focused, start answering the question, “Why?”

You have the products and services you want to offer, but come up as to why you want to offer them? What are you improving in people’s lives? What void are you filling in someone’s daily life?

Before you sell your business to anyone, you need to sell your business to yourself. Develop the perfect elevator pitch in your head.

Who Are Your Customers?

Now that you know what you’re selling, determine who you’re selling it to! Are you catering towards affordable daycare for single mothers? Are you wanting to sell apparel to young people?

Understanding your targeted demographics will help you develop things like marketing strategies, prices, and location ideas. If you want to reach a certain audience, do things they want to see.

Location is also very important when reaching a certain audience. If you’re starting a business focusing on affordable daycare for single mothers, you don’t want to be in the high-class part of town.

Let’s Talk Money

It’s no surprise that it takes a bit of money to make money. Whenever you had your lemonade stand as a child, the ice, lemonade, and cups didn’t show up on their own. You had to invest before you launched your business.

Sit down, and create a spreadsheet for expenses. Label all initial costs such as branding, permits, leases, and anything to do with an opening event. Once you’ve figured out what you need off the bat, dive into things you’ll need to pay for over the next year, such as rent.

Once you have all of your expenses laid out, decide how you’re going to pay. Some people are lucky enough to be able to cover everything on their own, but others will need to look into things like crowdfunding or loans.

What’s the Plan?

A huge step to how to start a business is writing out a thorough business plan. Developing and typing out a plan seems like a giant to take on, but walk yourself slowly through it.

In your plan, you’ll need to first present the name of your business. As simple as it sounds, it may be the most difficult part. Make sure to consult other people as you figure out this part.

You’ll then want to present a summary including a short description of the business and solutions to any problem you might be facing. Once you have this down, go into marketing strategies, competition, and your development plan.

A well-written business plan will reflect all the work you’ve put into starting a business. Make sure it’s a good plan!

Consult Others Along the Way

No matter who you are or how much experience you have, it’s always wise to have mentors and other people you trust around you. They can provide feedback and criticism.

Most people run at the thought of criticism, but constructive criticism can help your business in ways you didn’t think possible. Be open to all suggestions, and allow yourself to truly take things into consideration.

Set up a dinner with your mentors and close friends. At this dinner, present a brief overview of the business you wish to launch. You can even dive into the targeted audience, location, and main goals.

Once you’ve presented your ideas, open up the time for questions and feedback. It’ll be great because you’ll have a handful of perspectives in the room to offer advice. Make sure to have a notebook handy during the discussion.

Build a Team

A great business runs better with an even greater team. It’s time to start building one!

Before you hire, set up some guidelines. Decide what levels of experience and education you’re looking for and how many people you’re able to hire. You can even create a list of qualities to be searching for when creating the team.

You’ll also want to develop a list of strong questions to ask in interviews. This way, you won’t be stuttering every time there’s a moment of silence.

After your team is hired, you’ll want to start establishing a strong work culture. Take time to have team building activities and create incentives to encourage them to work hard.

The happier the team, the smoother things will run.

Follow These Steps When Deciding How To Start a Business

Learning how to start a business is quite a task for just about anyone. Don’t worry, though. We’ve written down some crucial first steps above to help you along your journey.

From creating a business plan to creating a team, every step is just as important as the last. Once you’ve put yourself in a motivated mindset and environment, you’ll be unstoppable. It’s also perfectly okay to reach out to others when looking for guidance.

If you’re looking for simple solutions to difficult problems in your business, get in touch with us.