How to start a startup

First of all, what is a startup?

A startup is a company typically in the early stages of its development.

“A startup is a company working to solve a problem where the solution is not obvious and success is not guaranteed”, said Neil Blumenthal, co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker.

Starting your own business, in other words, being an entrepreneur is really a great decision in your life. The most obvious advantage of having your own business is the possibility of becoming your own boss. The startup entrepreneurship mainly focuses on Entrepreneurship as well as innovation and creativity. It leads to the process of developing a startup from a small idea.

This article has explained 10 factors about how to start your own business.

1. Understand the Challenges and make a business plan

As an entrepreneur, you need to dedicate time, resources and energy to start and grow a business. Understanding the challenges is also an important thing. Let’s see what are the challenges for startup businesses.

• Coming up with a great business plan
• Select the best startup name
• Managing your time and resources efficiently
• Having enough capital and cash flow
• Coming up with unique and high quality products
• Find trustworthy employees
• Not getting discouraged by failures
• Retain happy and loyal customers and expand the new customer base

There will be more challenges other than these. You need the courage to overcome these challenges.

Another thing is to make a great business plan. You will be able to get significant benefits from a proper business plan. So, how to write a business plan? In simple words, a business plan is a description of your startup company’s future. It explains the things you want to do and how you are going to do.

Here are the startup business planning tips.

1. Research your target market thoroughly
2. Identify your competitors
3. Identify your audience
4. Get your financial information correctly
5. Have evidence to back up any claim that you make
6. Be realistic with the time and available resources
7. Be logical
8. Implement your business plan properly

Let your business plan be the first thing on launching your startup process because it will affect the whole future of your business.

2. Come up with a catchy business name

It will be more meaningful if you evaluate your startup name. It’s not compulsory to evaluate your name, but if you do, there will be more benefits. You can check whether your startup name is brandable or not according to brand name qualities.

Selecting the best startup name is one of the most important factors for startup companies. Your name is like the backbone of your business because it can either make you successful or make you fail. You should have a catchy business name which can attract customers easily.

A perfect startup/brand name always comes up with brand name qualities. If your brand name consists of brand name qualities you can easily attract customers’ attention. Sometimes your happy customers act as your clients. They spread good word of mouth of your business if you have a quality brand name. So that you can retain loyal customers and expand your new customer base.

Let’s look for what are the brand name qualities.

• Uniqueness – ownership of the .com domain
• Simplicity – high vocabulary score value
• Easily pronounceable – Can be spelled by Voice Assistant
• High memorization power
• Having the best fit character count (range of 4-6 )
• Exclude numbers or special characters
• Easy to spell and write
• Check the legal availability
• Don’t use dictionary words
• Don’t imitate other brands
• Avoid words which have negative connotations in other languages
• Use a single word

You must select a name that you love to use. Because if you are unhappy with your startup name you will regret it and it will affect your behavior and the way you run the business.

3. Protect Your Personal Assets

In order to start your own business, you need enough capital. Cost of startup varies from industry to industry and business to startup. So, you will need more or less capital depending on your startup ideas.

Roughly 80% of startup businesses fail because of cash flow problems. Your business plan should contain a financial plan which includes,

• Sales forecast
• Balance sheet
• Cash-flow statement
• Profit and loss statement

If you don’t have enough capital, you have other options. You can look for bank loans but banks are hardly likely to give large amounts of money to new businesses with no income or assets. So, I guess the best way to look for funds is, finding investors. Investors can be Friends, Family, Venture capitalists or Angel investors. But the thing is, you must proceed carefully.

If you assure the right funding, you can move to the next step of launching your startup company.

There is one more thing. If you are suffering from not having fantastic capital at the beginning, don’t worry. You are not the only one. There are 75% entrepreneurs who have launched their startups without having even a rented office. Some of them have started their journey from college dorms. But now they are the giants in the industry. Because “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.

4. Surround yourself with the right people

If you are going to start your company with co-founders, at the first you should agree to details of your business relationship. Roles and responsibilities of the founders, How is the equity split among the founders, How much time commitment to the business is expected of each founder, What is the overall goal and vision for the business, are some deals that should be in the agreement.

Also, you need some staff and managers to run your startup company. Hiring for startups can be harder because of the limited cash flow of the startup. If you hire the wrong employee it will be an additional cost. Trustworthy employees are the most important factor for a successful business. So, you must be careful when hiring employees.

Let’s look into some tips to find the best employees.

• Consider about hiring remote employees
• Build your company with a great mission and vision so that best talented employees will come to you
• Hire people who can be supporters
• Make  great place to work
• Hold onto your existing talent

5. Find the best location

Finding the right location is another important factor which will be critical to your success. Most new businesses fail as a result of the wrong location. It’s better if you think about the location of your startup business from your customers’ point of view.

Let’s look for some tips to select the best location for your startup.

• Know your business well
• Identify and understand your customers well
• Investigate the community
• Do a competitive analysis
• Assess the building
• Balance the cost

6. Determine your legal business structure

When registering your startup, first of all, you need to decide what type of entity it is. In case something goes wrong, your business structure legally affects everything from how you file your taxes to your personal responsibility.

The simplest form of business entity is sole proprietorship. That is one person is responsible for all company’s profits and debts. If you want to be responsible for all debts you can register for a sole proprietorship. But this can affect your personal credit directly.

Another entity type is Partnership, that is, owned by two or more individuals. Partners held personally liable as business owners. Here, you need a partnership agreement. Usually it’s a smart idea to bring someone in the mix to help the company prosper.

If you form a corporation you will be able to separate your personal liability from your company’s liability. Corporations can own property, assume liability, pay taxes, enter contracts, sue and be sued like any other individual.

Most common structure for small business ideas is LLC (Limited Liability Corporation). It is a hybrid structure that enables owners to limit their personal liabilities while allowing for the tax benefits.

You should decide the best legal entity for your startup business.

7. Build a great website and brand yourself and advertise

Your startup company needs a web address as well. With the technological revolution, dealing with the virtual world has now become the usual habit of people. When it comes to finding information about something automatically we start surfing throughout the internet. It’s a better idea if you develop a website at the beginning. If users search your business through the web, you should show them that you exist.

Let’s see why you need a website.

• People are searching for you online. You should show them your existence.
• Currently, consumers don’t consider businesses without websites.
• Most of the users try to engage with the business online
• 75 percent of people tend to judging the reputation of a business based on the design of a website
• You need to answer the questions like , Who are you?, What do you do/offer? How do I contact you?, quickly.
• Showcasing your brand to your prospective customers.
• Once you’re online and have an SEO-optimized website, you have a chance of showing up in Google search results.
• Saving You Time + Customer Service
• Since your website is on 24/7, it’s easy to post updates and announcements to your customers
• Digital Marketing

8. Build a customer base

Once you open the business to the world, the first thing is you need your customers to purchase things. But it is not the only thing. You should make loyal customers as well as you need to expand your new customer base. To do that you need to satisfy your customers and make your customers come back. Without any obligations, the principal to satisfy your customers is providing the best customer service.

And your startup name also affects how to build the customer base. You need a simple name for your business which can attract customers’ minds. Sometimes your happy customers act as your clients. They spread good word of mouth of your business. If your startup name is a tongue twister it will directly affect the budding customer base.

9. Prepare for anything

Your path to success will not be easy at all times. Have faith in the process, take risks, rediscover your challenges, and improvise to get results. It’s not like you can’t be successful, of course you can. But the thing is you need to have the courage. You will have to commit time and other things. And the main thing is  don’t step down by mistakes and failures. Try to learn from your own mistakes. Have trust in yourself. Get yourself prepared for anything. Expect the unexpected. If You Do Not Believe in You, Who Else Will?

10. Grow your business

As an entrepreneur, the first sale is the beginning of your journey. In order to make profit you need to be growing your business. You have to commit your time and effort, but at the end you will take out from your business what you put into it.

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