Mark Adams
Are you thinking about becoming an entrepreneur and starting your own business? This is something that many people are toying with right now during COVID-19, and there are certainly many good reasons to start your own business. Starting your own business and seeing it go on to find success is incredibly rewarding; it allows you to pursue your passions and can put you in control of your career. There are also many challenges to entrepreneurship, so keep reading for a few tips that should help you to overcome the challenges, find success and enjoy all of the rewards that it can bring to your life.
Build From a Position of Stability
One of the most important tips is to start building your business from a position of stability. Many people decide to start their own business because they have just lost their job, but this is dangerous because you are putting so much pressure on the company to hit the ground running. This is why you need to be in a good position in your personal life, which could mean building while you continue to earn or building up enough savings to live on.
Similarly, it might be best to put your business idea on ice if you have any major changes in your life on the horizon. If you plan on having a baby, you are getting married, or have anything else in your life that will require a lot of time and energy.
Choose a Safe Business Idea
Many people want to start a business related to their passions and hobbies in life, but unless there is demand for this idea, you will find that this is a mistake. For your first business venture, you should always play it safe and choose a business idea that has a high chance of success. Often, these are not the most exciting ideas, but you need to play it safe so that you can bring money in and learn the ropes. Once you find success and have some experience under your belt, you might want to try starting something a little bit more exciting and personal for you.
Start With Market Research
With so many businesses starting online in today’s day and age, new entrepreneurs sometimes skip some of the key stages in starting a new business. Market research is an essential step that you need to take no matter what industry you are starting in and whether or not it is an online business. Market research will help determine if there is a need for your product idea, who your competitors are, and your target market. All of this information will then help you to shape your business so that you can appeal to your target customer, stand out from the crowd, and hit the ground running.
Create a Business Plan
Following on from this, you must also always create a business plan no matter what kind of business you are starting. This will be a blueprint that you can refer to during the early stages of the business to guide the way and keep you on track at all times; plus, it is an essential document if you are looking to secure external funding. There is a lot of helpful information online that will help you to create a high-quality business plan.
Calculate Costs and Secure Funding
There are usually startup and ongoing costs that you will need to cover, and it is important to work out how much you need to get your business set up and running to a high standard. Once you have a figure, you can then look into funding options for your startup. The main options include:
- Bootstrapping
- Business loans
- Investors
- Crowdfunding
Choose an MBA With Experiential Learning
Running a business is not easy, especially when it is your first time. This is why it is a good idea for aspiring entrepreneurs to take an MBA, which would teach you the skills and knowledge needed to run a successful company and overcome many of the challenges that you are likely to face, and an MBA with experiential learning is best. What is experiential learning for MBA students and why is it important? This will provide real-world experience in your studies by immersing you in different business scenarios so that you can apply what you learn in practice – this is always the best way to learn and develop confidence.
Be Intelligent With Business Finances
You also need to make sure that you are sensible with your business finances. This will include using high-quality accounting software or outsourcing to an accountant to keep your financial affairs in order and for accurate records, as well as keeping your costs low. In the early stages of a new business, you need to keep the operation as basic as possible in order to maximize your bottom line. Once the money starts coming in, you can then start to make improvements and grow the business.
Keep Finances Separate
Following on from this, another common mistake that people make when starting their first company is not separating their personal and business accounts. This can make it difficult to keep track of your personal and business spending, create difficulties when it comes to completing your tax return, and also make it easy to use one for the other (never a good idea). Instead, open up separate accounts to make it much easier to manage and avoid falling into financial difficulties in both areas of your life.
Choose the Right Business Structure
When it comes to registering your business, it is important that you choose the right structure, and this will impact your tax requirements and liabilities. It will depend entirely on the type of business that you want to run, so it is important that you spend time researching the different options and choose the right option for your needs.
Choose Staff Carefully
When it comes to staffing your business, you need to be selective, as the people that you hire will have a huge impact on the success of the company. You should avoid hiring friends and family and instead identify exactly what roles need to be filled and then take your time to find the right people. If you want to keep costs down, you could look into outsourcing certain aspects of the business, which can be smart, particularly if you are running an online business.
Create a Strong Online Presence
No matter what type of business you are starting, you need to build and maintain a strong online presence. This can be complex and time-consuming, which is why it is worth outsourcing to a web design specialist and digital marketing agency. You can then run the social media profiles, which should involve creating and sharing high-quality content, keeping followers updated with the latest from the business, and engaging with your target customer online. It can be hard for a new, small business to compete online, but social media can be a powerful tool when you know how to use it effectively.
Be Patient
Many people want to become entrepreneurs because they see it as a glamorous lifestyle, but the reality is that it is a lot of hard work, and success does not happen overnight. This is why you need to be patient and give the business time to find its feet. Many new businesses fail within the first year, so you need to prepare for this and do all that you can to avoid falling into cash flow issues early on. If you can manage this, you will be in a strong position moving forward and will hopefully be able to find success and grow the company.
Avoid Burnout
The “grind culture” is something to be wary of in entrepreneurship as this can be incredibly dangerous and negatively impact both your business and personal life. While you certainly need to have a strong work ethic and put the hours in, you also need to make sure that you are taking enough time off, finding ways to relax, and enjoying your personal life. Working all hours 7 days a week can lead to serious issues, including burnout and key areas like relationships suffering. Therefore, it is sensible to stick to a schedule to make sure that you are making time for important things like hobbies, spending time with loved ones, exercise, and sleep (very important!).
Hopefully, you will find the information in this post useful and find success with your new business venture. It is an exciting time starting your first company, even if this is an online business, but it is also a difficult time, and there are sure to be bumps in the road. It is essential that you are well-prepared, know how to manage common issues, and have the necessary skills and knowledge to find success with your business. With all of this, you have every chance of success and will hopefully be able to hit the ground running and enjoy all of the benefits of being an entrepreneur.
