STARTING
A NEW BUSINESS?
Bringing Your Vision to Life is
Worth the Effort
WHEN DO YOU THINK IT IS TIME TO
ASK FOR HELP?
 It
begins with a vision, an idea. Whether it's the idea you
had late one night in bed or something that came to you
over dinner, you have a thought that the world needs something;
the people in your town or your area are missing something
that you know how to provide. It's frightening at first
to think of yourself as a business owner, but the more you
think about your vision, the more passionate you become
about it until you're sure that your idea is the one that
will make a difference. It's not about riches, but about
wealth: those intangible qualities that come with owning
a successful business like respect, new knowledge, and the
surety that you're contributing a necessary product or service
to people.
So you start working up a business
plan in your head. This is not easy, and you spend a
lot of time doing research in the field. You read everything
you can about the industry you want to get into, figure
out exactly how much capital
you'll need, try to anticipate situations and develop solutions
before they even happen, and then take all of that and try
to put it in a format that will help others see your vision.
You run it by a couple of friends and family, people you
can trust, and what they don't understand you consider re-writing,
knowing that a potential investor might not take the time
to ask for clarification if they aren't immediately impressed.
This is your chance to ask yourself the really hard questions
about your idea. How do you want to structure
it? The way that you organize your people, your sales,
your production, and you realize that even your day today
could vastly impact your success tomorrow. And thinking
about how you want to change your structure in the future
is something that you need to start considering now.
How about long term strategies?
Its one thing to know how you want to start, but is it what's
going to be good for you in the future? Now, before you've
written down a single thing about your business, is the
time for you to think about what you want and how you want
to get there. You have a vision, but does it include the
strategies you'll need to continue to be successful? You
know who your competitors might be, but do you really understand
the nature of that competition, how they relate to you,
how you're the same and/or different, and what their competition
means to your company? What about other companies you'll
have to work with?
How do you want to present
yourself to the world? Are you a stable hand in the industry?
An innovative new voice? Should your clients and/or customers
expect a relaxed, friendly attitude or a professional, steady
guide? Or a combination of both? Even before starting to
put together your business plan, figure out what you want
your presence to be like. This is the time to think about
how you appear to the world at large, where you want your
business to be seen, what sort of image you want people
to think of when they think of you. This will also affect
your future marketing strategies.
Knowing who you are and how you want to be seen is vitally
important to getting your business started right the first
time.
The next step is writing that business
plan and then finding people to invest in your vision.
This is the first act of salesmanship that you'll be expected
to do in your new company: selling the company itself to
other people. Do you know where to look for financing?
Can you tell who will be the best fit for your idea? There's
a lot of research you'll have to do just to figure out who
you should be pitching your idea to. Knowing your own finances
certainly does help, and understanding how much you'll need
is good too, but you also have to be willing and ready to
negotiate for the best possible deal. You'll have to be
prepared with all of the information you might need, understand
the current state of multiple levels of economic data, and
have the knowledge to explain why your idea will succeed.
You've been to the IRS Business Resource page so you know
what sort of business structure you want to claim, what
forms you need to fill out, how to get an Employer Identification
Number (EIN), and even how to keep your records for tax
purposes. Does that structure fit with what a potential
investor wants to invest in for his tax or investment security
reasons? You want to have a nice new website that somebody
could build for you and possibly a storefront or at least
a corporate address. But where do you go from there? How
do you get your website to
come up on search engines? Where should you buy advertisements?
Are there trends that you're not understanding? How does
your sales force communicate with
your customers? How do you communicate with them?
There are undoubtedly a number of questions anyone starting
a new business needs to ask themselves. However, by taking
the questions one at a time and making sure that you plan
ahead, you could be able to answer all of those questions,
find the solutions to the situations you’ve identified,
as well as the ones you haven't.
When do you think it is the right time to ask for
a little help? Contact
us now before your vision clouds. Then you can finish
your success story with the pride and conviction you began
with .......
That passion brought you through so many bumps in the road,
and your tenacity and humility helped you succeed to this
point when others might not have. That feeling is the essence
of owning a business, it's yours! Knowing that your hard
work has paid off, not only in income, but in the intangibles,
the wealth that includes more than just money.
|
