Starting a business involves planning, making key financial decisions, and completing a series of legal activities as well as courage, determination and creativity. Coming up with a business idea and starting a business can seem overwhelming and complicated. Let's simplify it into easy steps...
1. Why are you doing it? Are you 100% sure?!!
Before you look at how to start a business, you should be absolutely clear about why you are doing it. That may sound obvious, but there are actually many reasons why someone should choose to turn their back on the security of a job and career for the uncertainty of starting a business. So the clearer you are about what exactly you are trying to achieve, the better chance you have of achieving it. It's not easy though and there will be a lot of hard work and hurdles along the way to your success so you need to be 100% sure before giving up your day job!
2. Failing To Plan, is Planning To Fail...
Brainstorm Ideas: Coming up with a new business idea is relatively easy, coming up with a great business idea is very hard. It is critical to your success that you explore as many ideas as you can before deciding on the final one you will choose. Here you should think about solving a problem that prospective customers care about and coming up with better solutions than those that currently exist in the market. Yes, you can copy other business ideas and try to do it better! But also, try to think into the future, what will the world look like in 5 or 10 years and what solutions might be needed?
Market research: Research will tell you if there’s an opportunity to turn your idea into a successful business. Research the validity of your ideas first as there must be demand for what you're offering for it to be successful. Research is also a way to gather information about potential customers and businesses already operating in your area. Then you can use that information to find a competitive advantage for your business if you do start it up. Think about researching:
- Competitors
- Demographics
- Potential Customers
3. Test & Validate Your Idea
So many people miss this stage. Once you have a few thoroughly researched business ideas it’s time to test quickly and validate if the premise of your proposed business works in the real world. You've done the research now so here's your chance to see it in the real world. Many entrepreneurs who skip this stage, end up wasting so much money and time chasing ventures that were never really going to work. Here you could try market stalls, exhibitions, landing pages, social media ads, leaflets through doors, small pop-up shops or websites. This way you can trial it out before going all in.
4. Business Plans...
Once you have an idea and you decide to go ahead with it you need to come up with a more formal plan. This could be an in depth business plan. A good business plan guides you through each stage of starting and managing your business. You’ll use your business plan as a roadmap for how to structure, run, and grow your new business.
For more support, contact us at Moon Digital and we can get your new business up and running!
Moon Digital
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