Starting a business is exciting and at the time, it is scary too. In actual, the facts reveal that three quarters of startups fail within the first three years, and the other after six months. To get the best chance and to survive this teething period, here are the top-most things to consider and research before taking the plunge.
- Sole trader or limited company: What type of company to start you choose will impact directly on the tax you pay and how much legal as well as financial responsibility is laid at your door. As a sole trader, you can take all the post-tax profits, but you are also liable solely for all of your business’ financial dealings.
- Size up the competition: Secondly, you need to study the competition around you and learn from others mistakes and also what sort of things do the potential customers appreciate. In addition to this, you also need to learn how much people are willing to pay for your product or service and alongside the techniques on how you could enhance the current offerings.
- Define your target audience: You need to focus on your target audience from your website to your marketing campaigns. Make sure that you target the right people, speak to your customers through social media and even hold focus groups. You can also strive to involve your target customer in the development of your business and consulting from them will make them feel like they have a voice, thereby breeding loyalty.
- Paying yourself and your business name: You need to think about the payment upfront with the best intentions to plough profits to your business. Cut the irrelevant part of luxuries and figure out what you need to live on and include it in your outgoings. Not only this, think long and hard about your business name. Most importantly, consider what your name needs to say about your business.
- Marketing your business idea and your web presence: Without a big marketing budget, you can start small and focus on building relationships with your customers. Start building reputation with not just customers, but also suppliers, retailers and local businesses. Start thinking about how much more your business could be doing by embracing an online market.
- Funding, business plan and route to the market: In order to launch your new business, in an ideal world you may require enough money to self-fund the launch. You should look into what business grants are available and manage to get one. If you can’t secure the funding, then you need to launch your master plan, start small and prove the business works. Later on; you can go back to the bank or investors with more evidence for funds.
- Finding the best business bank account: Don’t just go straight to the bank, find one that understands your business and who you feel comfortable with. Most banks also offer incentives for new sign-ups and also audit your business plan to figure out what technology will enable you to save time, money, stay in control, increase sales and deliver the best results.
- Take help from professionals: Starting a business should not be an independent journey, no matter how tempting it is. Taking help along the journey will set you up for success. Hire a coach or mentor to help you in providing training and development programs so that you learn what is important for growth. The next person to hire is an accountant as it is nearly impossible for one person to handle every aspect of the company and most important your finances should not be put at risk and a legal advisor as it is important to have assistance on the legal aspects of the business so that you are protected and going about the process in the right way.
Certainly, Adam Radly Robert Bates created the RBI- RADLY BATES INDEX in order to track entrepreneurial activity in the United States. RBI is a part of S7 Group, which is a private investment company and this index measures the percentage self-employed workforce and it is updated every month as the monthly jobs data is released. Furthermore, it is based on the data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Author’s Bio
Adam Radly, co-founder of Radly Bates Index is passionate about what he does and apart from inventing the index, he also has invented the world’s first open source philosophy while setting up a health center for a village in Mali (West Africa). He also created an event known as World Recognition Day and has donated $1 million to Nelson Mandela’s charity.
