The Essential Steps to Starting your Business

Starting a small business requires determination, motivation, and know-how. Here are the critical steps to provide you with the know-how to have a successful small business startup:

Identify Your Business Opportunity:

Choosing what kind of business to start can be an immobilizing task when confronted with the multitude of opportunities. It's important to determine where your passions lie and to understand your personality type. Yet, equally important is what skills you bring to the table and whether you are entering a dying industry or a fast growing emerging business.

Build a Business Plan:

For any start-ups, a business plan allows you to gain a better understanding of your industry structure, competitive landscape, and the capital requirements of starting a small business. A study mentioned in "Business Plans For Dummies" by Paul Tiffany states that companies with a business plan have 50% more profits and revenue than non-planning businesses. Writing a business plan just makes good business sense.

Find Start-up Money:

To start a business, you must invest in the business. The journey of finding start up funds will be different for each individual. Some start ups such as consulting, requires a few thousand to get a website and business cards whereas a retail store could need N 200,000 or more. Finding the money you need may come for a source you never thought of or may just end up being the frugal bootstrap method.

Name Your Business:

What's in a business name? Everything and nothing. The right business name will help distinguish you from a sea of bland competitors, provide your customers with a reason to hire you, and aid in the branding of your company. Learn what you need to know to find a name for your business.

Choose a Business Structure:

Deciding on the structure of your business is not a decision to be taken lightly. Whether you choose the popular LLC, a sole proprietorship or form a corporation; your choice will have an impact on your business liability, fund-ability as well as taxes due. Don't fret over your ultimate business structure, because as your business evolves, so too, may your structure.

Get Your Business License and Permits:

Starting a small business requires the mundane, yet necessary, paperwork and regulations. Depending on your chosen business structure, may need to register your business with the state authorities. Setting up your small business may require an business identification number given by C.A.C(Corporate Affairs Commission) which is also used by state taxing authorities to identify businesses. Additional paperwork can entail sales tax licenses (FIRS), zoning permits and more.

Set Up & Determine Your Business Location:

One of the multitude of tasks in starting a business is the setting up of your office. There are many steps in office set up including where to locate your office (home or office space), buying the necessary office equipment, designing your work space and getting supplies.

Get Business Insurance:

As a new small business owner, you have the responsibility to manage the risks associated with your business. Don't put your new start-up at risk without getting the proper small business insurance to protect your company in the event of disaster or litigation.

Create an Accounting System:

Unless you're a number person, the accounting and bookkeeping aspect of running your business can't be avoided. Setting up your accounting will help you understand the financials of running a business and help you advert failure.Bookkeeping is extremely important in every business endeavours.

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Top 5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Starting a Business

Starting a business is exciting ... and scary. One of the best ways to boost the excitement and shrink the fear is by being prepared.
While it's difficult to plan for every possibility and challenge that may occur, you can get yourself on the path to success by considering these five questions before jumping in with both feet.

1. Have I set goals and do I have a plan for reaching them?

As the proverb says, "He who fails to plan, plans to fail," and this is especially true when starting a business. Without a clear idea of where you want to go and how you plan to get there, you may find yourself stumbling through the stages of starting a business and facing unwanted stress and frustration.
One of the most important steps is setting goals that outline what you want to accomplish in the short term (1 month, 3 months, 6 months, etc.), as well as over the long term (2 years, 5 years, etc.). Once you have created your goals, it's time to make sure you have a plan for your business that will guide you along the way. It's also helpful to understand your motivation for starting a business in the first place.

2. Will I be able to follow my plan without breaking any laws or regulations?

There are a number of legalities that you should consider when starting a business. Here is a list of some of the legal areas you should explore:

• Deciding on the structure of your business (sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, limited liability company)
• Registering a business name
• Obtaining necessary licenses and permits
• Planning for business taxes

3. Have I fully considered the financial implications of starting a business?

Money is a major concern when you start a business, especially if you will be leaving behind a steady paycheck and if your business has significant start-up expenses.
Some business financing options to consider to ease the financial transition include starting your business on the side while continuing to work full time, working a part-time job until your business becomes established, waiting to start your business until you have saved up a financial reserve, and borrowing the necessary funds to bridge the gap.

4. Is my support network in place?

We accomplish very little in life completely autonomously, and the same is true in business. Even if you plan to be a sole proprietor, you can benefit tremendously from creating an external support system to keep you on track.
Your support network may include family, friends, colleagues, a mentor, a coach, and anyone else who can help you navigate roadblocks. When you have an effective support system in place, you will find that you have a cheerleader, consultant, moral support and even a devil's advocate when necessary.

5. Do I have what it takes to make it as a business owner?

Being a successful business owner requires a unique mix of personality and small business character traits. While there isn't a standard formula that makes one type of person more successful than another, some entrepreneur-friendly personality traits that can ease the process of getting started as a business owner include passion, drive, dedication and self-discipline. And it doesn't hurt to be an effective communicator and someone who is willing to take measured risks.


These five questions are likely to spur a few more specific to your situation. Now is the time to consider all of the possibilities ... then you can let your enthusiasm trump the fear.



Regards
Thanks to "About"

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Top Quotes Every Entrepreneur Should Live By

The nature of being an entrepreneur means that you fully embrace ambiguity and are comfortable with being challenged regularly. Choosing this career path is completely irrational because the odds of succeeding are dismal, but most succeed because of their unwavering belief, laser focus on delivering and persistence.
Starting a company is a riveting roller coaster of emotions with tremendous highs and at times, difficult lows, but one thing that always helps me through the ups and downs is to connect with some of the greatest minds. Below are just a few of my favorite quotes:

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” - Peter Drucker

“Winners never quit and quitters never win.” - Vince Lombardi

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” - Steve Jobs

“My biggest motivation? Just to keep challenging myself. I see life almost like one long University education that I never had — everyday I’m learning something new.” - Richard Branson

“Every time you state what you want or believe, you’re the first to hear it. It’s a message to both you and others about what you think is possible. Don’t put a ceiling on yourself.” - Oprah Winfrey

“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” - Bill Gates

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” - Warren Buffett

“One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don’t choose your passions; your passions choose you.” - Jeff Bezos

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” - Thomas Edison

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” - Albert Einstein

“As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.” - Donald Trump

“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” - Winston Churchill

”Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.” - Thomas Edison

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain

“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” - Vince Lombardi

“If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” - Napoleon Hill

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” - Bill Cosby

“Success is not what you have, but who you are.” - Bo Bennet

“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t so you can spend the rest of your life like most people cant.” - Warren G. Tracy’s student

“To win without risk is to triumph without glory.” - Corneille

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” - Mark Twain

“There is only one success- to be able to spend your life in your own way.” - Christopher Morley

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.” - Napoleon Hill

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” - Albert Schweitzer

“What is not started will never get finished” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“When you cease to dream you cease to live.” - Malcolm Forbes

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” - Jim Rohn

“The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake- you can’t learn anything from being perfect.” - Adam Osborne

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” - John C. Maxwell

“The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” - Ralph Nader

“Choose a job that you like, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” - Confucius

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” - Bill Gates


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