The startup life is tough – it’s a grind, and the challenges are often insurmountable. But there are ways to get ahead of potential pitfalls so you can keep moving forward with your project. Here’s our five-step strategy for starting up that will hopefully make things easier on you!
The “5 steps to starting a business” is a detailed blog post that offers five steps on how to start a business. The blog post also includes links to resources and websites where you can find more information.
I just accepted a challenge: five stages to startup. Here are my responses:
1. Take a look at yourself in the mirror. Get to know who you are, what you know, where you’ve been, what you like doing, and what you’re good at. If you’re a one-person startup, that’s one of you; if you’re a team, that’s a bunch of you. Starting a company is similar to marrying someone: you want to stay together for a long time, therefore you should be compatible. Sometimes strategy is as straightforward as the classic SWOT analysis–strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Make the most of your skills, minimize your shortcomings, and position yourself to take advantage of opportunities while avoiding dangers. It’s not the kind of company that counts, but how well it fits into your life.
2. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Put yourself in the shoes of your consumer (or client, or buyer) and gaze out the window at the world and the company you want to create. Make sure you understand what you’re offering from the customer’s perspective, why they desire it, what advantages they get, and what motivates them to spend their money with you. Build a better mousetrap, and the world will only beat a path to your door if the world has a lot of mice, doesn’t like them, knows you’re there, and doesn’t care how much better your mousetrap is. Too many individuals believe they can market what they like doing. However, it is up to the customers, not you, to determine whether or not they wish to purchase it. What if no one wants a coffee table made out of wagon wheels? You should either be certain there is a “there” there or do market research; and be honest with yourself–if you aren’t certain, do yourself a favor and double-check.
3. Make a strategy. Don’t be alarmed; I’m not talking about a full-fledged business plan, though I think it’s a good idea if you can accomplish it. Give yourself a break even if you don’t require a complete formal plan: Plan ahead of time, whether it’s short or not, to help you think through the big picture, steps, and specifics. In my new book (http://planasyougo.com), I advise individuals to get started right away, using just the parts they need. Don’t put off starting up because you need to finish a formal plan; instead, use the time to minimize uncertainty by creating the basic strategy as the plan’s heart, and then the essential steps–dates, deadlines, budgets, tasks, and responsibilities–as the plan’s meat and bones. You’ll need some basic statistics, a sales estimate, an expenditure budget, and starting expenses to complete the plan. And don’t put it off until it’s all done; get started right now, wherever you choose.
4. Assemble a group. Trying to accomplish too much on my own was one of the errors I made along the road. Even if you’re the lone ranger, don’t attempt to handle all of the legal, accounting, administration, selling, marketing, and… my, I need to catch my breath. Too many individuals fail because they don’t realize that no one is really skilled in all areas. They are too close and too tight in their play. Seek assistance. At the absolute least, be sure you have an attorney and an accountant you can trust. It takes a community to establish a company in the real world.
5. Spread the word. Marketing to a certain audience is crucial. Concentrate on the most important target client and determine what that individual will say, think, and do about you. Everything comes at you at once, so you must remain focused on the most essential aspects. Don’t mistake urgent with important; make certain that the most essential tasks are completed. Consider the displacement principle: whatever you do rules out anything you don’t do. Finding out who isn’t in your market is a great exercise. Carve your market into your memory, one piece at a time, as if you were carving a wood figure from a stick.
The “steps to start a small business” is a five-step plan that can help you get started. It includes tips on how to find the right location, how to choose your employees, and what type of business insurance you need.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the 5 steps to starting a business?
A: 1) Decide what type of business you want to start and how much money you want to make. 2) Identify your target audience. 3) Come up with a product or service that will help solve their problems 4) Set the price for your product or service 5) Offer an incentive in order to create demand
How do you write a 5 step plan?
A: The first step is to think of a goal. Then, you have to break the task down into small steps that will lead towards achieving your goal.
What are the steps of the startup process?
A: The startup process is the first step of loading a program in its entirety. It consists of four steps that must be performed in order before any further tasks can take place. These four steps are booting, init, early setup and core initialization.
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