don't make it worse by running out of money just before you hit the big time.
Step 3:
Get your business legal from the start. I'd highly suggest engaging an attorney for this, but even before you do that, you should know the laws and regulations, fees, permits and licenses required for doing business in your state. You can visit our comliance portal and select your state from the map. The top line on almost every state is a link to starting a business. Click here to go directly to the state map for small business startup laws and regulations.
Step 4:
Develop a flexible marketing plan. I say flexible because your first attempt is probably not going to work. But you need a starting point. As part of your marketing plan make sure you can track your results.
You marketing plan must consist of a web site, marketing slicks and brochures, and usually a mass mailing to potential customers. For information on marketing your web site click here. Sales will be a part of your marketing plan and that's fine, it is not your marketing plan! Marketing is building awareness of your product or service and generating interest. Sales is closing the deal and getting the check. If all of this sales lingo, and closing the deal talk is causing you anxiety, either get over it, or don't go in to business. The operational factors of starting a business are hard enough, you will not succeed without sales.
Step 5:
Buy and learn Quickbooks or some other very popular, affordable accounting package and find an accountant. Keeping the books clean from the start will save you hours of headaches and thousands of dollars in clean up down the road. If you are going to have employees find a payroll service to take care of payroll and payroll taxes. For companies with as many as ten employees the cost is usually less than $200 per month. Starting a business without a decent operational plan can quickly stall your growth.
Step 6:
Make it as easy as is humanly possible for your potential customers to do business with you . This means you need to thoroughly review your delivery process to the customer. Don't get caught up in creating a twenty page legal document that the customer must sign every time they want to use your services. You will also need to make sure you have some inventory of whatever it is you want to sell, or that your supply chain is redundant. Starting a business always begins with getting business.
Step 7:
Now you're in business So what do you do your first week? You sell. Even if you have customers lined up practice getting more. Visit at least ten perspective clients and drop off your marketing materials and try to meet someone face to face. If you get that meeting, be honest. Tell them this is your first week in business and you're trying to get it off the ground. My experience has been that most people will be excited for you and want to help. I'm not advocating cold-calling as your end all solution. You may in fact never use it again, but for the first couple of months you need to get out amongst them and develop your interpersonal sales skills.
Step 8:
After your first week re-evaluate your marketing and sales effort. You'll probably find that you need to write down, and rehearse a couple of opening lines. You also may have noticed you'll need to come up with some quick answers to objections that may be raised. Unless you've invented a new product your potential customers already purchase from someone else. You need to knock them out of that comfort zone and entice them to buy from you.
Starting a business may be one of the most rewarding things you ever do. Patience, planning, hard work and thinking are the things you'll need to be successful. Thinking is your biggest asset. You'd be surprised at how many businesses fail because the owner didn't sit down and think. What do I want to accomplish? How can I grow this business? Take a look at what your competitors are doing and copy the successful ones, or pickup the remnants of the businesses that aren't doing well.
