Starting a business is the first thing that every entrepreneur needs. It can be very difficult, especially for people who are not very familiar with what it takes to run a business. Our website provides you with all of the valuable information you need to know about how to start a business plan. You’ll learn everything you need to know here, including tips on where to start, what sort of inventory you should have, and what licenses you need to start your own company.
With How To Start A Business, learn how to start a business plan with expert tips and information. You’ll learn how to set up a business from scratch, write a business plan, and much more.
Step 1. Ask Yourself if You’re Ready
There will never be a right time to start a business. If the stars couldn’t align for Romeo and Juliet, they probably won’t align for you either. But you can either look at that as the thing that holds you back from starting or use that to push you to start today.
When it comes down to deciding if you’re ready to start a business, it’s more about mindset than timing. Are you in the frame of mind right now to win? If you didn’t shout heck yeah at your computer screen, you might need to re-examine if entrepreneurship is the right path for you.
The reality is saying you’re going to start a business is easy. But doing it, turning nothing into something that makes money, that can be a whole lot tougher.
And you need to be mentally prepared to take something on. Why? Well, there are going to be challenges like creating ads that generate sales. And if your mindset isn’t in the right place, any failure could devastate you. But if you’re in the right mindset, you’ll KAPOW! failures until you finally start hitting your big wins.
Step 2. Determine What Type of Business to Start
The next step of starting a business is to figure out what type of business to start.
Is there a niche that you’re particular passionate about? Are you looking for a business that you actively work on or just own? Are you looking to turn your hobby into a business? These are just a few of the questions you need to ask yourself before starting a business.
You can start everything from a Shopify store like MVMT Watches did to a freelance business. You can choose to build a business by yourself by owning a consulting business or you can build a company with a team such as a manufacturing company or a restaurant.
To figure out what type of business you want to start, create a list of things you’re passionate about. For example, yoga, personal finance, dogs, movies, food, and clothing.
Next, use a tool like Keywords Everywhere to look up the search volume of your list in Google. This will help you understand how popular your list of ideas is. You can also use Google Trends to analyze whether the trend is trending upward or downward or if it’s stable to determine the niche’s long-term viability.
Then, look at the top three most popular keywords on your list and answer this question, “In five years from now, which niche would not only get me out of bed in the morning but would also excite me enough to continue creating content/products/tools for it?”
So, what’s your big business idea? Feel free to share in the comments.
Step 3. Choose a Business Model
After coming up with a business idea, think about how you’re going to execute it in your niche. This is where a business model comes into play.
The business model is a strategy for how you’re going to provide value with your idea and make money off of your customer base.
When learning how to start a business, it helps to know about some tried-and-tested business models.
Here are six types of business models to consider:
- Affiliate Marketing: Promote other business’s products and services online, and receive a commission for each sale you make with this passive income idea.
- Freelancing: Provide a service to other individuals and businesses using a skill that you have, such as advertising, writing, designing, or programming.
- Coaching and Consulting: Become a coach or a consultant and sell your expertise, advice, and guidance.
- Information Products: Package and sell your expertise in ebooks, worksheets, templates, and online courses.
- Software as a Service (SaaS): Create a piece of software or application, and charge users a recurring subscription fee.
- Ecommerce: Use a service like Shopify to set up a website and sell physical products online.
Step 4. Do Market Research
Once you decide on a business that fits your goals and lifestyle, it’s time to evaluate your idea. Who will buy your product or service? Who will your competitors be? This process will help you address your opportunity, value proposition, the market size, and competition sections of your Lean Plan.
There are a number of ways you can do this, including:
- Performing general Google searches,
- Speaking to people already working in your target industry
- Reading books by people from your industry
- Researching key people
- Reading relevant news sites and industry magazines
- Taking a class or two (if this is possible).
If you don’t have time to perform the research or would like a second opinion, there are people you can go to for help, like government departments and your local SBDC.
Evaluate your target audience
It’s not enough to just state the current market. You need to know what portion you’ll be able to claim and if it’s really possible. To determine how attractive your prospective market really is, we suggest doing a market analysis.
It will guide your research as you think about:
- How urgently do people need the thing you’re selling or offering right now?
- What’s the market size? Are there already a lot of people paying for products or services similar to yours? Have you honed in on who exactly your target market is? Being specific will help you focus your marketing message and investment.
- How easy is it (and how much will it cost you) to acquire a customer? If you’re selling enterprise software, this may require a significantly larger investment than a coffee shop.
- How much money and effort will it cost to deliver the value you would like to be offering?
- How long will it take to get to market? A month? A year? Three years?
- How much up-front investment will you need before you can begin?
- Will your business continue to be relevant as time passes? A business that repairs iPhone X screens will only remain relevant so long as the iPhone X sticks around. If your business is only relevant for a specific period of time, you will also want to consider your future plans.
Research the competition
If you like, you can even take things a step further and consider the consumer needs currently not being met by businesses in the industry. This is a good time to take a look at potential competitors. And remember, the presence of competitors is oftentimes a good sign! It means that the market for your product or service already exists, so you know that you have potential customers who are willing to spend money on your product or service.
While you’ve got the time, learn as much as you can about your competitors, about what they provide to their customers, how they attract attention, and whether or not their customers are happy. If you can figure out what’s missing before you even get started, your job will be made that much easier when you do finally set up shop.
Validate your idea
Lastly, it’s important to field test your idea, services, or products. As you conduct research, take the time to actually speak to your potential customers. Present them with the concept you intend to launch to gauge interest, as well as confirm which competitors they may already use and the price they’d be willing to pay. If you can, it may be worth developing a minimum viable product (MVP) to help showcase what you’ll be providing.
You don’t even need to do this process in-person. Instead, you can:
- Send out surveys
- Join forums and Facebook Groups
- Run ads
- Sell pre-orders
The important thing is to establish what success looks like. Know what threshold you need to hit and be willing to pivot your idea or target audience if it’s not panning out as you expect.
Step 5. Find a Problem to Solve
When learning how to start an online business, it’s important to note one key thing: all businesses solve a problem.
Plumbers fix leaking pipes. Hollywood movies fulfill people’s boredom, curiosity, interest, and the need to escape and relax. Clothing brands help people express themselves and feel attractive.
Here’s the golden rule: The bigger the problem you can solve – and the better you solve it – the more money people are willing to pay.
For example, take healthcare services. They solve a big problem, which is why almost everyone is willing to spend a lot of money on it.
On the other hand, not many people will pay you to stop their table from wobbling. It’s not a big problem, and they don’t need help solving it.
Bottom line: If you want to identify how to start an online business, you need to find a good problem to solve.
Here are three examples:
- Target market: Fashion-conscious teenage boys
- Problem: The fashion-conscious want to stand out from the crowd without spending too much money.
- Solution: Create a clothing line that’s flamboyant and budget-friendly.
- Target market: Marketing managers at multinational software companies.
- Problem: Businesses need to drive traffic to their websites.
- Solution: Write articles that rank on the first page of Google to drive traffic.
- Target market: Working Moms with young children.
- Problem: Many moms want to work out regularly, but they don’t have much time.
- Solution: Create a time-saving fitness program and schedule.
How can you find a problem to solve?
- Join Facebook groups and online forums and ask people what they need help with.
- Use Google Ads to find out what people are searching for.
- Find successful online businesses and identify the problem they solve, then look for ways to do it better.
Step 6. Set Realistic Goals and Expectations
One of the biggest reasons for failure in business comes from naive expectations. I constantly hear stories of people pouring thousands of dollars into ads thinking they’ll triple or quadruple their money only to end up with that big, fat zero.
So, let’s try to paint what a realistic scenario looks like. Your first year in business is all about failure. Why? Because it’s your first business.
Most people approach their first business with a sense of false optimism. If that guy can do it, so can I, you casually think to yourself. But what you casually ignore is the fact that that guy is on his fourth business or he’s been running it for seven years.
I love, love, love how excited people are as they begin learning how to start a business. But if you go into it thinking you’re going to dominate the world on day one, you’ll be failing in a matter of months due to drastic disappointment.
The difference between a successful business and a failed one is perseverance. Do you have what it takes to keep promoting your business even when you have no customers or website visitors after a month? Are you savvy enough to know when a strategy just isn’t going to work? And are you patient enough to play the slow and steady game (meaning that you might not see sales right away but will see bigger returns down the road)?
Now that you know that those first few months will take every ounce of hustle you’ve got, how will you approach your goals in the foundation stage of your business?
Maybe instead of focusing on your first sale, you might focus on creating content to drive relevant traffic. Or maybe before you start a business, you choose to build a following on Instagram so that you have an audience when the time to launch comes.
You can use SMART goals to guide your goal setting but ultimately the goals you set for yourself based on your experience and business type will be very personal to you.
Step 7. Create a One-Page Business Plan
Unless you’re going to the bank to get a loan, you don’t need to overspend time on your business plan. On a piece of paper, handwrite a plan for your business. While this may be a bit voodoo (sorry!), I find that whenever I handwrite goals, I’m always more likely to achieve them. I always carry my goals around with me which helps remind me of them so I can’t escape them.
Now back to real-world advice. On your one-page business plan, make sure to include the following:
- Problem your business solves
- A one-sentence elevator pitch (what does your business do)
- A list of your target audiences (e.g. people who own dogs, people who follow dog accounts on social media)
- SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats to your business)
- Marketing plan (list of ideas on how you’ll promote your business)
- Financial plan (list of business costs, how you’ll make money to pay for the business in the beginning and how your business will make money)
- Financial projections for each quarter (e.g. January to March, April to June, etc.)
Step 8. Get Feedback
So now that you’ve got the idea, you’ve set some goals, and you’ve created a plan, it’s time to get feedback on your idea. This stage has been known to kill many ideas (and sometimes even good ones).
The point of the feedback stage is to get a second opinion on how you can improve your idea. Instead of asking for feedback on the business idea, ask for feedback on a certain component of it. And whatever you do, don’t ask someone you love. Trust me.
Most cities have business centers where you can speak with an in-house entrepreneur who will give you feedback on how to start a business. Some cities even have programs for younger adults that allow you to be mentored by an entrepreneur in your field. Whether you’re planning to work on tried-and-tested or unusual business ideas, be sure to get feedback from the right people to help you inch closer to business success.
Step 9. Find a Way to Pay for Your Business
The most common way people pay for their business is through their 9 to 5 job. Avoid quitting your day gig until you’ve generated enough to pay your costs, taxes, and yourself with a six months runway. In the beginning, you likely won’t be able to pay yourself, as you’ll need to reinvest your earnings back into your business so you can scale the business faster.
However, some businesses have very minimal costs such as freelance businesses which might require some software or a computer which you might already own or have access to.
Step 10. Pair Up With a Partner
Solopreneurship is on the rise and so this won’t apply to all. But success in business sometimes comes in pairs. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was any successful business. There’s going to be a lot of time and resources that’ll go into your business. And having someone you trust to build alongside you can allow you to break up the workload so you progress faster. It’s also great for holding you accountable.
The important thing to stress about a partnership is that you really need to know how well you work with someone. Is this person trustworthy? Have you worked together before? How have the two of you managed conflicts in the past? Do your skillsets balance each other out? Will a business relationship ruin your current relationship/friendship? Make sure to ask all the tough questions because choosing the wrong partner, if you even decide to have one at all, can have negative consequences.
Step 11. Name Your Business
Coming up with the perfect business name can be hard, especially if you want a .com domain to go along with it. You can use a free business name generator to help you come up with a name.
Most brands try to include their keyword in the brand name, such as Fashion Nova. However, some brands create a unique name, such as Oberlo.
The business name you choose should be catchy, memorable, easy to spell when heard, have available usernames and a domain, and be concise.
Sometimes the best naming ideas come after bouncing names with a friend as a second opinion helps give you a different perspective. So feel free to get a second opinion if you feel stuck when choosing the right brand name.
Step 12. Register Your Business
In some cities or states, you don’t need to register your business until you’ve earned a set amount of income or profit from it, so you’ll need to do your due diligence to see what laws apply for you.
However, some entrepreneurs register their businesses on day one to prevent liability. For example, if you’re incorporated on day one and you get sued in the early stages of your business, your business takes the hit instead of you. So, the sooner you incorporate your business, the safer you (personally) are from a legal perspective.
Of course, incorporation isn’t the only type of business venture available at your disposal. You can also choose to become a sole proprietor or create a partnership business. You’ll need to do some research prior to starting a business to determine which business structure is best for your situation.
Step 13. Create Your First Product or Service
There are a number of products or services you can create to sell to your audience when starting a business.
In e-commerce, you can use Oberlo to choose from millions of products that you can sell from any popular niche such as fashion, jewelry, home decor, automotive, beauty, electronics, and more.
If you’re an industry expert, you can create digital products such as ebooks, courses, music, or other digital content to sell to others. You can monetize your expertise with products and upsell with services.
As for software businesses, you can create a SAAS product that helps other businesses. Or if you’re a consultant, you can offer speaking gigs, coaching, or your skillset.
The products you create for your business will depend heavily on your skillset and business type. However, there are countless products that can be ordered or created that you can sell to an audience.
Pro tip: If you plan to start freelancing, coaching, or consulting, Shopify has the option of plugging in many popular tools like Digital Downloads to sell digital products online, ReCharge to sell subscriptions online, and SendOwl to sell videos online.
Step 14. Promote Your Business
The most important part of starting a business is the promotion stage. Getting your business in front of people will help you generate sales so that your idea turns into a business. Here are a few ways you can promote your business idea:
- Facebook: You can run Facebook Ads by going after “broad” interests and including relevant brands as an interest to capture their audience. You can also post in Facebook groups as your fan page which is great for businesses with niche audiences.
- Instagram: Grow your Instagram followers so you can make sales with each Instagram post. You can also add direct links in Instagram Stories to capture more sales.
- Pinterest: Group boards are a great way to get visibility on your posts when you’re starting out. You can also create your own boards to promote your content on. Be sure to promote other brand’s content to avoid triggering your account as spam.
- LinkedIn: Build your personal brand by creating posts and sharing thoughts on articles on LinkedIn. Invite relevant users to follow you to increase your reach.
- SEO: By optimizing your website for search and creating blog content you can generate more leads, email subscribers, and website traffic.
- Quora: Answer niche questions on Quora to promote your website. You can use SEO tools to find high-ranked Quora keywords to help increase your visibility on the platform.
- Clubhouse: Start a room where to spark discussions around your brand. You can also join other rooms related to your niche and communicate with other business owners. Try to build relationships so that people follow your profile and recommend your business to others.
Conclusion
Get the fire started to starting your own business with this helpful guide. It’ll show you how to build a business plan when you’re trying to start a business when starting a business when it comes to making your business plan when searching for grants when starting a business when it comes to making your dreams into reality.