Very often, people mail me asking for a list of steps that they can use for their own startup business. So many variables to adapt, from the business type to the business model to the physical location! There are things, however, that any company has to do to get off the ground. Today I’m writing a quick guide on this. Remember, make yourself flexible. Each business is different, unique and this list will need to be refined as you go.
Step 1: Conduct a personal evaluation
- Start by taking stock of your situation and yourself:
- Why want to start a business? Is it money, freedom, flexibility, or some other motivation to solve a problem?
- What are your skills and experience?
- Which industries do you know about?
- Would you want to have a good or a service?
- What do you mind doing?
- How much money does it take you to risk?
- Would it be a part-time or full-time venture?
Your responses to questions like these will help you narrow your attention. Not just you, run an evaluation of the people you plan to work with. Get some templates here.
That move should not dissuade you from starting your own startup business. Instead, this is here to get you to think and prepare. Passion alone isn’t enough to start a successful venture.
Step 2: Conduct market research
Once you’ve done personal evaluation, you might have finalized your idea. It’s time for your martek research. Market research will tell you whether your idea will turn into a successful startup business. It is a way of collecting information about potential clients and companies that are already operating in your field. Using the knowledge to get your company a competitive advantage.
Step 3: Write your startup business plan
There is no right or wrong way of writing a business plan. What counts is that your strategy meets your needs. Most business plans come under one of two specific categories: conventional or lean start-ups. Traditional business plans are more popular, use a standard structure, and allow each segment to go into detail. These seem to need more front-end work and can be tens of pages long. There is no right or wrong way of writing a business plan. What counts is that your strategy meets your needs. Most business plans come under one of two specific categories: conventional or lean start-ups.
Traditional startup business plans are more popular, use a standard structure and allow each segment to go into detail. These seem to need more front-end work and can be tens of pages long. Nevertheless, lean startup business plans are less common but are still using a basic framework. They focus on summing up only the most important aspects of your plan’s main elements. They can take as little as an hour to make, and are typically one page only.
How to Write a Business Plan
- Write an executive summary.
- Describe your company and business model.
- Analyze your market’s conditions.
- Explain your product and/or service.
- Outline all operations & management roles.
- Design a marketing & sales strategy.
- Detail a financial plan with business costs, funding, and revenue projections.
- Summarize the above with an appendix.
Step 4: Name your Startup Business
You must pick a business name that represents your brand identity and does not clash with the types of products and services you are planning to provide. When you have decided on a name that you like, you need to protect it. There are four different ways to get your business name registered. Each way of registering your name has a different purpose and depending on your business structure and location some may be legally required.
- Make sure that the name you want is in your business area.
- Conduct a request for trademarks.
- If you are a new company or LLC, when you register your business, your business name will automatically be registered with your State.
- Register a name “Doing Business As” whether you are a sole proprietorship, company, or established organization, or LLC.
- If you have chosen an original name, apply for a trademark.
Step 5: Legal Requirements to Start Your Business
Once the business plan and name are in motion, you can move on to the most troublesome part — the paperwork and legal action. The legal structure you choose for your business will impact your business registration requirements, how much you pay in taxes, and your personal liability. It covers stuff like deciding your business’ legal framework, nailing your business name down, registering with the government, and — depending on the company structure and sector — having a tax code or TIN, a business license, and/or a seller ‘s license. Here’s a good read if you’re planning to operate in Bangladesh.
Step 6: Open a Business bank account
You should open a business bank account as soon as you start accepting or spending money as your business. However, this is a very important step of ruling your startup business. Typical business accounts include a check account, a savings account, a credit card account and an account for retail services. Merchant service accounts require your customers to accept credit and debit card transactions. You can open a business bank account once you’ve gotten your TIN number. Most business bank accounts offer perks that don’t come with a standard personal bank account.
Step 7: Get insurance for your startup business
Business insurance protects you against the unforeseen costs of running a business. Accidents, natural disasters, and lawsuits could drive you out of business if you don’t have the right insurance cover. Though, from our country’s perspective startup businesses don’t go for insurance that often. But you have to make sure your business is running in full swing. For that, insurance is the first thing you need.
Step 8: Marketing your Startup Business
Once it is ready to ship, a new business has to start drumming up interest for its product or service. Yet there are one million different platforms and ways that you can use to make people aware of.
Narrow down your target customer
All comes down to your targeted consumers. You would not be able to put what you offer to meet the needs of the consumers without understanding who they are. One of the very first questions that you will ask yourself is: Who wants what I sell? How would you make them think this would be useful? Who’d love this?Once you’ve selected a buyer persona or two, print them out, tackle them into your wall and think about their desires and needs before making any business decision.
Develop your brand identity
Apart from studying your target customer, you will need to create the framework for a good brand identity when you work on startup business first. Your brand identity is about your beliefs, the way you express ideas, and the feelings you concentrate on. To promote your company, having a clear brand identity will make you look more professional and will help you attract new customers.
Online presence
With your target customer and brand identity under your belt, you can start developing your startup business’ core marketing elements, which include your website, blog, email tool, conversion tool, and social media accounts. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok are very helpful media to attain customers. If your posts can have an impact on your customers, you got the game right.
Generate business leads
Once you’ve started developing an online presence and generating visibility for your startup business, you’ll need to generate the leads that will close into clients. Lead generation is the process of attracting and converting aliens and prospects into leads, and if you create a good lead generation system, you’ll be able to keep your funnel full of sales prospects while you’re sleeping. Click and check my other blog on sales leads.
The journey of a startup business to a successful one is not that easy. All you have to do is to work hard and keep patience. Here I’ve tried to help you with some useful steps. If you need any further suggestions, Contact me here.
