Category: Starting Up

Article Contributed by Jack Harding

Owning your own business can be very profitable for some. However, not all businesses will succeed and in today’s economy many individuals are fearful of taking the leap and starting a new business of their own. If you are thinking about starting your own business, but have some reservations, there are ways that you can lower the risk of your business failing.

Do Your Research

Before starting a business, research should be done to see if there is a need for the particular product or service that you want to offer. It’s a good idea to see if there are any similar businesses within close proximity. If there is, then you will need to make your business stand out from theirs. You can do this by offering a slightly different product or service or having lower prices than the other businesses. This aspect of starting a company may take months to complete, but it will be worth the time spent because it will help you increase the chances of your business succeeding. The key is to figuring out how to make others want to choose your product or service over the competition’s.

Target Specific Demographics

You should figure out who your target demographic is and make sure that your business will specifically focus on them. Before starting your business think about who would be interested in purchasing what you have to offer. For example, if you are starting a company that specializes in gourmet dog biscuits you should target dog owners instead of the general population. Many businesses fail because they try to target too many demographics at once, instead of focusing on one or two specific demographics who will be the most likely to purchase the product or service.

Successful Marketing

One of the biggest factors that can make or break a business is successful marketing. It doesn’t matter how great your product or service is if no one knows about it. When you are starting your business you should set a significant amount of money aside for marketing. An easy way to market that is budget friendly is the use of promotional postcards. How these work is that you have postcards printed that have pertinent business information on them, including the specific product or service you offer as well as contact information. You should also have an incentive printed on the postcard for potential customers to contact you, such as offering a discount for mentioning a specific word when they visit or contact you. Once these postcards are printed you should send them to those within a 2 mile radius of your business. Also, don’t forget to utilize newspaper ads and social media to spread the word about your business.

Starting a business can be scary for anyone. No matter how knowledgeable you are or how much money you have to start it, there is still a chance it will fail. By utilizing the above tips, you can start your business the right way and increase your chances for your business to become successful.

About the Author

Jack Harding is an independent business researcher. He has recently been focusing on how the rise of new technologies has changed the way people now do business. Visit Wish.co.uk to learn more about their business model.

For those who have never owned or operated a business, taking the plunge and becoming an entrepreneur can be an anxiety-producing experience. No one is immune to the stress that comes along with starting a business, although it’s fair to say that there are ways for people to make things easier on themselves. One of the main things to take into consideration is just how important it is to have a strong business plan when venturing into the business world. In order for a business plan to truly be solid, however, one needs to study as many business plans as possible.

The following are just a few reasons why studying business plans can help you to get ahead, all of which are worth taking the time to focus on:

Studying Business Plans Allows You to Pinpoint Mistakes 

Sometimes the most important reason to study a business plan is not to learn what to do, but what not to do. There are a variety of examples of companies that have perhaps once had a very good run in business, yet a mistake or two caused everything to fall apart. Studying a business plan from such a company will help you to keep an eye on similar mistakes that could cause issues for your company. Since many business plans are available online, there are more examples to take a look at than you’ll ever truly need.

Studying Business Plans Can Improve Your Marketing Efforts

Everyone in the business world knows just how important it is for a company to have solid marketing on their side. Without the right marketing plan, your chances of succeeding will be extremely low. Fortunately, you can learn a lot about how to market your business by reading business plans from companies that are in a similar discipline as your own. Let’s say, for example, that you want to create a free website. Studying a business plan from another company can help you to understand which way to go about doing so, and can help you to avoid making a costly mistake.

Studying Business Plans Can Make You a Better Entrepreneur

If you want to get better at business, you have to do what it takes to internalize the right knowledge. Much of this knowledge is actually learned the hard way by many people, although you can avoid letting this happen to you by simply reading as many business plan examples and case studies as you can get your hands on. Many of these are available online for free, and can serve as excellent material for learning which methods and techniques are likely to work for your business. The more you can read, the better your chances of succeeding in business will be.

Studying business plans is one of the least expensive, yet most beneficial things you can do for your business. While it can indeed be time-consuming, it will dramatically increase the chances of your business succeeding, and doesn’t have to cost you a dime if you take the right route.

Article contributed by Jenna Smith

Most serious entrepreneurs do their homework, so it’s not a surprise that many start-ups are aware of issues that they need to look out for. Taking the steps needed to find adequate long-term funding, establishing good hiring practices, and keeping up with evaluative metrics are all concepts that responsible CEOs must attend to regardless of what business they’re starting. Yet there are still common mistakes that get made over and over again. The most serious of these is a lack of flexibility.

When most start-ups begin to make plans, they tend to focus on what will happen once things go right, or, if they’re somewhat prescient, on when things go poorly. However, the honest truth for every start-up is that while some things will go your way, other things will actively go against you. That’s why you need to plan not just for your successes, but also for your failures. Be flexible. Make sure that you can adapt to most any situation that comes your way. Maintain the capacity to pivot on business or personal goals as needed. This will make it simple to adjust to a changing business environment, or if the economy experiences a downturn, you will be prepared, and not lose as much business as your competitors.

Yet it’s not enough to just focus on the big picture; it’s also important to look at how flexibility is important in your day-to-day routine. For example, the flexibility mantra applies most specifically to IT staffing. More than anything else, technology will tend to fail at a higher rate than you expect. It’s imperative that you understand the basics of every technology your business depends upon, and it’s even more important that you have experts available to help in case something goes wrong. There is perhaps no better single boost to overall productivity in the long term than maintaining access to competent IT professionals. The IT department handles some of the most essential aspects of business, and it’s important that you find the right people for the job.

Depending on the size of your business, it might make sense to have professional IT people on staff, or you might be better off having a proper IT department on call through a separate agency. Either way, it’s necessary to have a team ready to troubleshoot through any problem you might have when one of your technologies eventually does fail. This single step will help you to maintain a level of flexibility that the vast majority of start-ups don’t have.

As your business grows, this reliance on a good IT department will only increase. Keep good metrics on how often and how severe technology failures occur, and use this data to judge how best to scale up what IT specialties you hire for over time. You might think it’s too early to think about what you’ll do in the future about scaling up services like this, but remember that good decisions come from good data. Begin keeping good IT metrics on day one. You’ll be glad of it later.

Article contributed by Jenna Smith

Start-ups have been on the rise in recent years, especially as the economy has begun its slow recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. Several promising new start-ups have arrived on the scene, from Lumos, which brings power to isolated areas in the developing world, to Truthmarket, a place where people can put their money where their mouth is on debated claims. These companies have already passed the difficult stage of getting initial financing, which is generally considered to be the biggest initial hurdle of any start-up. Thankfully, the process doesn’t have to be as difficult as this implies. Here are a few short tips on how to launch a start-up of your own.

The Three Essentials

First, you need to have a really good idea. It not only has to solve a problem, but must also be potentially marketable.

Next, create a business plan. If your idea really is good, then creating a business plan should logically follow from what you intend to do.

Third on the list is definitely putting together a solid team. Start-up employees must be highly driven and highly competent. Specialization can be very useful as your business grows, but when you’re just starting out, it’s far more important that your team can work together on everything and double-check each others’ contributions.

Unfortunately, the next step is a big one: acquiring start-up capital. This is definitely one of the hardest steps in any new business. Yet a little creativity on your part will go a long way toward ensuring you can find small business investors or other sources of funding that can get you started. Create a good elevator pitch; try presenting to investors like Y Combinator or TechStars; and submit your ideas to press events like Global Entrepreneurship Week. If all else fails, consider the old standard of borrowing from your local credit union or bank.

Get to Work

Once you have capital, it’s time to get to work. Your business plan should specify exactly what you intend to have accomplished by the end of this process; achieving that goal on time and on budget will go a long way toward attracting future funding before you actually move on to monetization. Just remember that the success of your start-up depends a great deal on your ability to use already existing investments to get to the next step in your business plan. Be flexible, but always stay within budget. Following this simple rule will greatly increase your chance of success.

Article contributed by Jenna Smith

Writing a business plan for your Solo Entrepreneur business doesn’t have to be a daunting project. If you can answer 10 straightforward questions about your business, you can be ready to go.

The key to success is to answer all of the questions in enough depth that if a friend asked you to invest in this business, you’d say yes. Most importantly, make sure you record your business plan somehow…whether you write it by hand, type it into your computer, or put it on stickie notes on your wall. Keep it someplace handy where you can refer to it when you are making important business decisions. And, make sure you review it monthly–or, even better, weekly–and update it at least annually.

1. Your Dreams: What do you want your business to provide for you? (think time, money, freedom, who you work with) Be specific–how much money, how many hours, when do you want to “retire”.
2. Customers: Who are your customers and what do they want/need?
3. Your Products and Services: What products/services will you provide to meet customer’s needs?
4. Markets: Where are your customers and what do you know about them as a group? “Where” might be geographic, it might be what kind of places they hang out, or where they go to find products or services like yours. What is their age, income, gender, hobbies, family structure, etc.
5. Your Style: How will you reach customers and what will you say? Your methods of reaching customers needs to match with where your customers are–and with a message that they can relate to.
6. Competitors: Where else are your customers likely to get this need met? Find out all you can about how your competitors price, market, and provide service.
7. Your Uniqueness: How will your product/service meet customer’s needs differently than your competitors? Consider how your personal uniqueness impacts that.
8. Your Abilities: Of the skills necessary to run your business, what do you do well, and what do you need help with?
9. External Resources: What people/technology/services will support you in the skills you need help with?
10. Fulfilling your Dreams: How will your business provide the kind of working environment you desire, both in how much time you spend, how you perform your work, and how much money you make? Here’s where the rubber meets the road–make sure you can show how you will sell X amount of product or service at Y price, cover your expenses, and reach the goals you set in 1. above.

Once you can answer all these questions, have it reviewed by some trusted, experienced professionals who will give you objective feedback. Consider a business coach, as one such resource