What to think about when starting your own business

in #business7 years ago

Before you attempt to start a business I would be wise to keep a number of the following questions in mind.

These seem quite obvious and common sense but often we forget some of them in our urgency to get going. Keeping these in mind and planning solutions will help a lot not only in figuring out if the business will be viable but also further down the line once its up and running.

  1. What can be done to start or improve a business?
  2. What do people want to purchase?
  3. How do I purchase it and set the sales price?
  4. What will determine if I am making a profit?
  5. How is business separated from family money?
  6. How will progress be measured?
  7. How will the business grow?
  8. How much can one afford to invest in growth?
  9. Should a loan be used to grow the business?
  10. How will more customers be acquired and sales completed?
  11. Can and how will profits be increased?
  12. what can be done to continually improve?

No matter how big our how small our enterprise is it will benefit from this type of review. These questions should be reviewed regularly to maintain focus and remind us of areas that need improving.

These are the kinds of things we could also be reviewing with a mentor or a support group of entrepreneurs as it can stimulate discussion and idea sharing.

These questions can also be used to determine areas where goals can be set and commitments made for improvement.

Some questions are more relevant early on and other are more relevant once up and running. The early questions can be focused on again whenever a new product or line is envisaged.

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Businesses are always difficult to start up. I personally believe that's it's a lot easier to start a business when there's a system already in place. Similar to a franchise but without the extreme costs. I've gone down the road of bootstrapping and talking to VCs, but there's a lot less risk in starting a business with a system already in place and one where there's tons of leverage available.

Agreed! I started my own business from scratch (ecommerce). Took time to sort out all the small details as well as focus on marketing, promotions, and selling. Shopify would have been much easier to use in terms of getting a store up and running quickly, but the fees were too high... that being said, as a platform, Shopify makes sense if you have the cash and not the time or energy to build a website yourself. They also help with promotions!

I'm currently working on starting up my own dropshipping service too! My plan is to combine my network marketing business with a future dropshipping business to create a powerhouse of passive income. They're both based on leverage, so why not? Haha!

The next challenge once you're all set up will be getting the momentum to cover costs. Make sure you budget in some runway.

You can also divide a business like
Front end -
● Getting customers.
● Marketing etc...
[ Increases - sales/customers ]
Back end -
● Systems.
● Support etc...
[ Increases - efficiency ]

Good post.....today's technology has made it much easier and cheaper than ever before to start a business.....you can build a following and customer base before investing anything, and get solid data like demographics. You can pre qualify a product before bringing it to market, plus find out what your market or audience really want, not making the mistake of what we THINK they want, then failing....good post, keep up the work....😊😎

First thought...No risk No Gain!
And then gradually get into the act with thorough research and bluprint of the business

Benefits

yes very good list you have prepared @sme all must should follow all these list before starting any business.I will personally follow warren buffett rules If I have to start some business.thanks to share with us.upvoted and resteemed

Warren Buffett was much more focused on buying existing businesses than starting them from scratch. Besides solid finances, management/leadership was extremely important for him when buying/investing in businesses.

Highly suggest you read the book Snowball. Does a great job of telling his story, both as a professional and as a human being.

Very good post and thanks for sharing it!

Business analysis post. Good point you share. I like your job. Thanks for sharing such a good post @sme

I started my bussiness. I will travel the whole world with crypto and write about it. My income will be from steemit and when will be ready other similar platforms. I have saved for one year, so the main plan is to be financial indepentend after this period. How i am doing, you can check at @wnfdiary . All best

I think of making a businessplan and financing!