How to start a business
Creating a Successful Start-up, How to start your business venture with low investment
In this article you will learn - the following
- 12 reasons Why any business needs money – at least some minimum amount
- 31 PLANNING TIPS for Starting a Business- Steps Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know
- 15 immutable laws of business and life
- 35 Tips on Starting a business with least capital
Irrespective of how powerful, how disruptive and how unique your business ideas sound to you – you have to go through a natural cycle of doing the basics.
If you do not follow these fundamentals, and try to cut corners, for fast-tracking and accelerating your business to get your desired dreams and objectives, short term there you may see success but in long term, there could be many issues.
Before we go to the entire gamut of starting, running and sustaining a business till your start feeling successful, let us understand and accept
15 immutable laws of business and life
1.No idea can make you overnight success
2.Unless you have a specific sellable and en-cashable skill or talent, don't jump on the start-up wagon – just because you have a brilliant idea. It never works out that way – unless off-course you have sufficient funds to hire all the experts
3.If you have not tested your idea, real-time on actual end-users – you may end up spending lots of your time, efforts, money and energies on a project, and you may have to restart again, because of predictable challenges cropping up in addition to the unforeseen ones
4.If your idea, does not addresses a specifically needed niche, which is unique to yourself – the business would be difficult to sustain. Even the Global Giants when they go for me-too ideas/projects fail
5.Your idea must solve an irritating, annoying and or time-wasting problem or challenge for a decent size of your target audience
6.If you have not made a profile of your ideal paid consumer and it is not big enough, then do not start thinking that you can sell to everyone
7.If you have not done the enough research, preparations & testing - you would face obstacles and waste your valuable and scarce resources on avoidable problems
8.Even if your idea is great and there is need for it among your target masses, if you don't learn how to market using all the channels available to you like Digital, Personal etc, you would be beaten by the competitors, who have an edge in these
9.Sometimes, if you feel that for your idea, there is not competitors, think again, as the competition may not be from same product/services line, but could be from totally unrelated fields [like the current age mobile cameras, have almost killed the camera manufacturing or the lightweight tabs reducing laptops usage and laptops killing PCs ]
10.If you feel that with your idea, you can make money fast, think again, as this is almost improbable and impossible to have such thing
11.If the only motivation that you have for starting a business to have glamorous and luxurious life, then rethink as you may be in for a rude shock
12.One of the biggest reason, the businesses wind up, is managing cash-flow effectively till you start breaking-even – than raising the initial seed or start-up capital
13.In spite of robust planning, resources and credibility – the businesses fail
14.If you have planned extensively, and now feel that, nothing can go wrong, please read murphy's law carefully
15.If you believe, that you know, what all is needed to start your venture, get a mentor in the your field or from any field, who has accomplished long term success – otherwise you may lose a lot
1.Registering Businesses
2.Obtaining Licenses and Permits
3.Basics of business, if you can operate fully by yourself – like Laptop, Internet Connections, Table Chair etc
4.Minimum Basic Raw Materials
5.Domain Name
6.Website creation
7.Operating expenses, till you start earning
8.Marketing expenses
9.Accounting and Legal Outsourcing
10.Paying to freelancers, if need to engage
11.Paid social profile registration like LinkedIn Premium
12.Advertisement, like pay by click, Google adwords, Facebook advt etc
35 Tips on Starting a business with least capital
1. If you can come up with a business model which uses other's money+efforts+ideas+networks+time+ resources – then it is good, otherwise
2. Ideally, if you are working, don't leave your job to start business – but continue to develop your business, till it starts giving yield which becomes equivalent to your current earning, then you may switch over
3. Reduce your needs and expenses
4. Un-till absolutely essential work as doorman to chairman
5. Start on a small scale
6. Outsource some work to your friends and family members
7. Raise seed capital and operating capitals through various crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding sites online
8. Get virtual assistants
9. In case you have frequent business meetings then lease a shared working space
10. Ideally if possible work from home
11. If there are few other start-ups, share the common services
12. If yours is an people intensive work, then engage the services of school, college students
13. Get trained first, listen to the people who have been there, done than to avoid costly mistakes
14. Enroll few of them as mentors
15. Get connected and benefit from various business incubators and accelerators
16. Create such a Customer Value Proposition that your customers would be willing to pay you upfront 17. Research and learn to use free technology apps to reduce your time cost and also to promote your business
18. Don't spend a single cent, till you know how that amount is going to add value to your business
19. Live like a college student in hostel, absolutely on tight budget
20. Train your mind to identify the waste and then kill it – Gemba walk while planning, while operating and while delivering – to identify and remove the 8 lean wastages
21. Learn the 6 sigma techniques to tweak it to your mind set and culture to get is right the first time, to avoid the cost of rework
22. Never compromise on Quality
23. Always over deliver on your commitment to customer
24. For the first few years of your business, be the lowest paid employee
25. Don't buy if you can lease
26. Before buying any software or equipment, research if there are any low cost or no-cost alternatives 27. Become good in figures, numbers and always be on the top of them by learning basic accounting principles
28. Don't just hire, hire only when you need, then hire only the best
29. Unless it is impossible, choose quality customers, who pay on time
30. Always have customers, who are demanding – if you deliver quality, they would be your spokesperson or selling reference
31. Learn to be a blogger, start small, but put useful content and then promote it through YouTube videos and on your website
32. Before jumping into business, validate your idea for market demand and potential. Before working on your product or service, make sure there's a market for it. Reach out to your potential customers and ask, "Do you need this? If not, what do you need?
33. Also use the crowd-sourcing platforms to check your ideas for test marketing
34. Promote always, start promoting from the day you get the idea
35. Secure a Small Business Loan if Necessary from government scheme, there are plenty in every country/state BUSINESS
31 PLANNING TIPS for Starting a Business- Steps Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know- Get Help and Training
- Choose Your Business Location
- Calculate your total capital needs, till the time you expect to be in profit. Then break them into milestones – that is what you will need when
- Explore Understand your Financing Options
- Decide on a Business Structure - Going it alone or forming a partnership? Thinking of incorporating? What about an LLC? How to structure your business can reduce your personal liability for business losses and debts.
- Register Your Business Name – if necessary under the law
- Register with Tax Authorities and Apply for Permits and Licenses
- Identify number of employees that you must have, then create profile for each separate role Employees
- Creating Your Business Plan
- Create your business value proposition
- Create your customer value proposition
- Create your employee value proposition
- Create your marketing plan
- Create your price vs value proposition
- Creating your Feature-Advantage-Benefit and Positioning Niche[this has to be done on the basis of thorough competitor's study]
- Create a cash-flow plan to meet all expenses till the business becomes totally self-supporting
- Create your own website, use the services of freelancers who are good and thoroughly professional
- Go for right types on insurances, to off-set, unforeseen happening
- Take help of a professional tax consultant and accountant to help you set-up easily your business entity
- Do Your Research - the need for your proposed products/services/Who needs it/Are there other companies offering similar products/services/ How will your business fit into the market/the opportunities for your ideas
- Then attack your own idea – till you find that you would buy and do the same demolishing exercise with few objective and knowledgeable experts
- Identify the size of total available market/the size of your targeted market/the size of the market you would be able to convert
- Write a your sales pitch using the problems it is solving
- Learn and Make yourself familiar with reading and understanding the Financial terms like Sales forecast, Personnel plan, Profit loss statement, Cost of goods sold (COGS), Gross margin , Operating income [also known as EBITDA, or Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization], operating expenses, Cash flow statement, Balance sheet
- Creating an Exit strategy
- Understand these numbers and ratios, Gross margin, Return on sales, Return on assets, Return on investment, Debt-to-equity, Current ratio, Working capital, break-even analysis
- Explore your funding options
- Figure out how you're going to get paid
- Create a credit policy
- Brand your business
- Establish your online presence
My answers on Quora on Love, Business, professional, Entrepreneurship, Dating, Self Development, Life-Skills, Sex etc
