When there’s a lot at stake, starting up a business could be pretty challenging especially if you’re about to take the first step.
Through this mini guidebook, let us unfold seven key strategies to kick off your new business.
1. Conduct market research
People often forget to perform market research whenever they’re starting up a new business and this might be their first mistake. Your business might be doing very well at the moment, but for how long?
Conducting market research will help your business become more sustainable and manageable in the long run. It is an important process to go through in order to evaluate your business idea, collect information about your potential customers, find your edge against your possible competitors, and identify the most effective marketing strategies for your product or service.
Market research allows you to discover what people perceive of your business and how to get them to become your regular customer. Getting to know your target market and their feedback on your business will also help you in deciding what to improve, maintain, and take out of the picture.
If you’re thinking of doing market research by yourself, here are some of the most convenient and easiest ways to do that:
- Conducting online polls and surveys
- One-on-one quick interview
- Getting opinions from people who are working in the same industry
- Reading relevant books, news, and magazines
2. Draft a business plan
If someone told you that they’re building a house without a blueprint, then you will most probably think that it seems terrifying and unworthy of your trust. Similarly, without an intact and strong business play, you’ll have a hard time achieving success in your business.
One of the main purposes of creating a business plan is to let others understand what you do, your goals, and the methods you’ve put in place to attain them.
Some of the most important things that you should ask yourself when starting a business are “Why am I doing this?” and “What are the things that I should do to succeed?” After discerning the answers to these questions, then you are ready to draft a business plan.
It’s upon your own discretion if you’re going to create a formal or informal business plan. Here are the possible contents of your business plan regardless if you want to do it formally or not:
- Executive summary
- Vision and mission
- Business description
- Target market
- Market research
- Products and services
- Brand development
- Marketing plan
- Management and personnel
- Financial plan
For your convenience, you can use business plan templates that are widely accessible online. You can find one of these on PDFRun.
You must keep in mind that you also have to consider the long-term goals and future of your company. It may still be a long way to go, but it’s essential that you already secure a plan in place for the future and that you are going through the right path.
3. Build your team
If you have a business partner or the means to hire employees or both, then it’s important that you don’t just create a team, you have to build it.
As a start-up business, it is recommended to begin building a team consisting of a few but trustworthy people. Building a team doesn’t mean hiring anyone who applied for the position. You have to carefully pick out who you will entrust running your business to. Keep an eye on their most redeeming quality and use it as an asset to the company.
Upon building a small team, you should recognize their strengths in order to identify the most suitable role for them. Then, let them know your vision with your company and explain how you want to carry it out with their help. You should also consider their thoughts, opinions, and criticisms since they are part of the team now. It wouldn’t hurt to see things through someone else’s perspective every once in a while.
4. Launch your business online
Nowadays, people expect to find everything online. It’s become an unspoken rule to always have an online counterpart of whatever you’re working on in real life.
Due to the ever-growing number of online customers, to be on-trend or become socially relevant, you have to launch your business online. It’s imperative to have a decent and enticing website or social media profiles for potential customers who might check the authenticity of your business.
The easiest way to boost your online presence is through social media. Thus, you might want to consider hiring a social media manager to build your business’s social media profiles.
5. Go through the legal process
The best way to make your business legal is by registering it and following all federal, state, and local laws and guidelines.
To maintain order in the community, there are mandatory rules we need to abide by. Going through the legal process and consulting an attorney might be costly, but it’s way better than facing any law violations or incurring penalties.
Another legal process that you need to go through is taking care of your business tax forms. For convenience, you can now digitize and edit your tax forms through various online document editing software, such as PDFRun.
6. Get a business insurance
Now that you’ve invested a lot of time, effort, hard work, and money in your startup, it’s now time to get it insured.
Life is very unpredictable and there might come a time when your business will be vulnerable to property damages, liability claims, and other accidents. Who wouldn’t want to get bankrupt to cover up these expenses?
Insuring your business will protect your company, employees, and customers.
7. Develop a business network
Developing a business network means creating a formal or personal relationship with other business owners and potential clients or customers.
Since you’re still establishing your new business, you have to put yourself out there and let potential clients know about it. Forming a business network will help you expand your business and find the right and new customers.
Even with all the efforts that you’ve made, you have to remember that success is not something that you can achieve overnight. It’s inevitable and completely acceptable to make mistakes and fail at times, especially if it’s your first time as a business owner. Just make sure that you have the courage to get back up and learn from your setbacks.
