How to Start a Business?
The first step to becoming an entrepreneur is that you need to be honest about your strengths and weaknesses no matter what business you start. Plus it helps to be resourceful and has strong networking skills.
Deciding on the right business idea can be difficult even for the most motivated women. Ideas flow freely for some budding entrepreneurs but never get off the ground. To get an amazing business idea you must create a business plan first. Moreover, do feasibility study as it does some soul searching. If you want to become a successful entrepreneur and not sure what type of business you want to start, consider the following question:
- What do you like to do?
- What are you good at doing?
- What do you need to get out of the business?
- What you would want to learn to do?
Get Business Ideas from Figuring out What You Like to Do
Explore yourself. Choose something you are passionate about. At first, your business will require time, sacrifice and enthusiasm. If you choose something that you don’t have interest for you will find it harder to succeed. So for this purpose question yourself how do you spend your free time? Have you read any book of business? Do you like to do volunteer work?
Discover What You Are Good at Doing
Before going in detail, keep one thing in your mind that what are your hidden talents and skills. If you are not aware of that then ask family or your best friend. Your talents might be your first priority if you are a musician, artist, or photographer. If you already have an amazing profession, you might want to start your private practice in law, medicine, or an accounting firm.
Explore What You Want or Need to Get out of the Business
Hey? Are you really looking for a second income? One might think to sell other company items, like cosmetics, insurance, timeshares, etc. In this, you will not have to write a business plan or invest much to get started and can work your own hours. This makes you feel satisfied too. Are you leaving a job to stay at home with your children? If your main motivation is to spend more time with your kids go for the business that will allow you to work around their schedules. It’s really difficult to work a 9-5 job from home while raising children.
Determine what you would want to learn to do
Mostly things that interest us most are things we have yet to learn. If you love numbers, take a bookkeeping course and turn your new skill into income by helping others with their books.
There are a lot of new careers you can enter into with a certificate instead of a degree. Certificates often take less than a year to earn, however in some cases, it takes only a few semesters.
From Idea to Starting Your Own Business in 9 Steps
1. Think of the Business Idea
Many people believe starting a business is a puzzling process. They know they want to start a business but they don’t know the first steps to take. The most common reason why people on the side have not started a business is that they “just don’t have a good business idea.”
Consider four points to find a solid business idea:
- Ask yourself what’s next.
- Fix something you don’t want.
- Apply your skills to an entirely new field.
- Use the better, cheaper, faster approach.
For inspiration, check out some of the inspiring stories from our female entrepreneurs.
2. Do Market Research and Analyze Competition
Use this guide to start researching your potential rivals or partners in the market. It actually breaks down the objectives you need to complete with your research and the methods you can use to do just that. Just as crucially, it explains three of the most common mistakes people make while starting their market research, which are:
- Using only secondary research.
- Using only online resources.
- Surveying only the people you know.
To analyze let people interact and see what their take is on your product or service. A new set of eyes will help highlight a question you may have overlooked. Plus, these people will become your first advocates for the brand, especially if you listen to their input and like the product.
3. Make it Official
A quick checklist of things to make your plan official might include:
- Business structure (LLC, corporation or a partnership, to name a few.)
- Business name
- Register your business
- Obtain necessary Permits
- Open bank account
- Think of Trademarks, copyrights or patents
4. Write a Business Plan
A business plan is a written document of how your business will evolve. Write your plan from when it starts to end. Approx. 20 to 30 pages of text and 10 another page of appendices for management resumes, monthly projections. Check out this great article outlining 7 steps to create a perfect business plan.
5. Finance your Business
There’s a ton of different ways to get the resources you need to get started. Take a look at your own resources, circumstances, and state of life to figure out which one works best for you.
If you need help with your business finances, read on How I Help Small Businesses Manage Their Finances.
6. Develop Service or a Product
It’s going to feel awesome after all the work you’ve put into starting your business to actually see your idea come to life. When you decide to do product development and outsource some of the tasks make sure you do the following:
- Keep your product under control, and learn constantly.
- Implement checks and balances to minimize risk.
- Hire experts, not generalists.
- Don’t bring the eggs in one basket.
- Manage product development by keeping the costs under control.
7. Get Clients and Make Sales
No matter what your product or industry is, the success of your business depends on revenue and sales. Check out tips for growing successful business from one of the female entrepreneurs who has successfully turned her hobby into a business.
8. Build your Team and Outsource
You’ll need to hand out responsibilities to other people to scale up your business. Start hiring or outsourcing. Look for a resourceful and talented team to help you build your idea into a business within your budget.
9. Grow your Business
There are many different ways to grow business just continue to research the market, hire good and talented people and make a superior product and you’ll be on your way to build the empire you’ve always dreamed of.
Finally, if you want some invaluable advice from the female entrepreneurs who have already started their successful businesses read on 10 Female Entrepreneurs Share Their Best Advice On Starting A Business
Read our interviews with successful women entrepreneurs sharing how they started their own business. Find inspiration and guidance for you to do the same.