How To Start A Business: Step by Step
In today’s day and age, our economy is filled with uncertainty. You may have questions like, will I ever succeed or why is everyone else doing better than I? You may be filled with these types of questions, but just remember, we’re all in this struggle together.
There are quite a few reasons as to why I believe it’s good for people to start their own businesses. First, like I said, today’s economy is a struggle and you are probably looking for a way to diversify your income. Working a single job might just barely get you by and stress you out. Second, big corporations are getting worse and people are going to want to support small and local businesses instead and try to push these corporations out. Lastly, you probably want to have an impact on your community or even society. When you start a business you can scale it up as much as you want.
Conception
The first step into starting a business is conception. Think about what you want to do and what the world needs more of? How can you fill the gaps that the world needs? Having a strong idea with a lot of potential is key and you’re going to want to do something to make your business stand out.
Planning
Next, you're going to want to develop a business plan. You don’t have to have everything figured out right away, but if you’re not starting with a business plan early on and refining your concept, you will struggle. Some elements of your business plan should include your:
Executive Summary
Entity Type (Individual/Sole Proprietor, LLC, S-Corp)
Business Model(s)
Market Analysis (TAM, SAM, SOM)
Competition Analysis (SWOT)
Marketing Strategy
Team Members
Projections
There are plenty of good templates online to download from as well. I personally recommend doing so because then it will be more likely formatted correctly when applying for funding for example.
File
You will want to then file for your entity type. If your business doesn’t require you to do any filing, you will be considered an individual. If you are required to do filing, you can file for sole proprietor, LLC, S-Corp, etc. You will then want to get your EIN and open your business bank account.
Backoffice
In the meanwhile, you should work on the more fun stuff about owning a business including creating your website and setting up your social media platforms. You can either design a website with HTML, CSS and Java, use a hosting service, or hire a developer to help you. Using a hosting service will save you a lot of time. This blog uses Squarespace, but for professional brands, I recommend using Shopify as it has a lot of functionality and really does make your business look so. My brand Zarcone Cocoa uses Shopify, check it out. They will also recommend your store to others, so that will help with exposure. Also, depending on whether or not your business is retail, you will need a decent amount of inventory .
Employees
Finally, you will want help with your business. You will want to identify which hires are the most important and find people who offer a reasonably priced service with good reviews. I won’t get into marketing right now as that will be in my sequel blog, How To Stay In Business: Helpful Tips.
Mission
For People of the Faith, don’t just start a business, start a ministry. This doesn’t mean that your business has to be a non-profit or that you have to start one. Use your business as a platform to evangelize and share the Gospel. When you stand before your Savior He will ask, “what have you ever done for me with what you had?”
