7 Steps to Starting a Small Business
Category: Business Planning
Tags: business steps, small business startup steps, small business steps
Did you know that most small business startups don’t survive past their fifth year?
But don’t let that set you back.
Starting a small business and successful operating it are no easy tasks, but there are many techniques to help you improve your overall odds of becoming a success. Most of these techniques are as simple as following a guide of tested methods.
Running a small business is all about doing exactly what you’re supposed to and at the right time. If you simply follow the fundamentals, your chances of being a successful startup are much higher.
Without further delays, here are the 7 steps to starting a small business and putting you on the path to success:
Step 1: Proceed in Order
One of the first steps to starting a small business is following the order of things and being determined about it. Don’t take too many excessive risks! In fact, most successful entrepreneurs are like lions in the wild, they move cautiously, minimize the risk of being noticed and carefully select the moments when they are able to make their move.
Step 2: Plan, Plan and Plan Some More
Planing is the key to a successful business. No matter how annoying, time consuming and difficult it may be to create a business plan, it is highly recommended by those who have succeeded.
In your business plan you actually take the time to show that your business model works on paper before you go out and invest your time and money into a product/service that may not. Prove the model before hand with a well developed business plan. Think about the key tasks, study your target market, define your marketing/advertising strategy and figure out the money.
Step 3: Offering Value
Every single person who ever had a business idea always though that their business product and services are like no other, and that they are they very best and it’s exactly what people need. But is it really? How do you know?
Along with your business plan and the study of your market, audience and competition you would be able to get a better understanding of how effective your product/service may be once it is out in the public eye.
Step 4: Make the Team
As a small business owner you may think that you are doing yourself a favor by doing everything yourself. You’re not!
The most successful entrepreneurs always outsource the tasks that they don’t know to those who know how to do it. Think about it this way, when it is time to do taxes, do you do it yourself or do you take it to an accountant or a tax professional? When you have car issues, do you try to figure it out yourself or take it to a mechanic? Sure you could try yourself, and a lot of time be good at it, however when doing your own business – time is money.
Step 5: Get the Funding
Funding is the next key to success. Not having enough money to startup or run your small business is simply the end of it all. No matter how good your idea for your business is, not having the money to back up everything, it will just die out. Prepare funding for your business before you need it. Consider money from personal savings, family and friends, banks, private investors and even the Canadian government in the form of grants and loans.
Step 6: Get Help
Very much like step 4, getting help is always what you need to be thinking about. There are a lot of resources out there available to help you get your business of the ground. In fact, our very own Small Business Startup Portal is one of these great resources to guide you through the startup process, through the business plan creation steps and through the funding search. Try it out now.
Step 7: Thin Long-Term
Most small business owners when starting up focus simply on the first few weeks or the first few months of starting. This is natural of us to think this way, but what you need to do is to break out of it and focus long-term.
Everyone has a different long-term vision and for some long-term is 1 year, while others think 5, 10 or even more.
Many small business owners spend the first 2 or 3 years simply “setting everything up” before they see any success. While others are successful within the first few weeks. This depends on your product, your service, your industry…etc But always plan and think long term.
SEARCHES RELATED TO BUSINESS STEPS
business steps
small business startup steps
small business steps
I WANT START A BUSINESS IN...
IS THERE HELP IN MY INDUSTRY?
- Expansion Capital
- Funding For Equipment
- Business Acquisition Funding
- Consulting Services
- Hiring & Training Staff
- Management Support Services
- Manufacturing
- Mining
- Professional and IT Services
- Transportation and Warehousing
- Accommodation and Food Services
- Agriculture
- Construction
- Culture and Recreation
- Finance and Real Estate
- Forestry, Hunting and Fishing
- Health and Social Assistance