Have you ever dreamed of being your own boss, setting your salary, and designating your work hours? You’re not alone! Many people find themselves interested in owning their own business but are unsure how to get started.
Starting a successful business requires a great deal of preparation. There are many important decisions to make and many rules and procedures that must be addressed. With an informed and educated approach, your business can be fulfilling and profitable, but it is essential to make key financial decisions and complete a series of legal activities.
We invite you to spend some invaluable with BizCentral USA and listen to critical information that will help you plan, prepare, and manage the startup of your small business.
Topics of Interest:
Registration & Licensing
Legal Formation
Financing
Learn how to prepare your small business for success by attending either our seminar or webinar on Tuesday, April 13, 2010.
For all of you Florida residents near the Orlando area, a seminar will be hosted in our office from 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Our office is located at 2151 Consulate Dr. suite 5, Orlando, FL 32837
For the rest of you out there, we have a webinar version available that will run from 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. (EST)
After you have gone through all of the steps of starting your new small business (from deciding on your business name, finding a location & selecting your business structure) you are finally open for business. The first 90 days of being in business sets the foundation for your business’ future success. In the first 90 days of operation,your business must implement a series of small business solutions and steps to ensure success:
Obtain your First Customer:
You aren’t in business until you have a sale and you can’t have a sale with out a customer. If you didn’t have a customer at the beginning of startup, make this your first priority. Network with your contacts and reach out to people who know you, will want to see you succeed and who will give you the necessary business or referrals.
Become a Master Salesperson:
Selling is essential to any business’ success. This is often under focused in startup business that lack real sales experience. Set a regular time weekly to learn and apply new selling skills in your business. Forget the hype that marketing will do the selling. Marketing is a separate function from sales. Marketing will create the interest to contact your company. Once you have contact, use your selling skills to close the deal.
Make a Profit:
Your business’ sales revenue’s are highlighted on the top line of your balance sheet. Your business’ profit is shown on the bottom line of the sheet. You may have sales, but without profits your business will fail. You must completely understand the operating costs associated with your business and ensure you are focused on making profit.
Re-Evaluate Your Pricing:
When you decided to start your business, you made certain assumptions about what prices to charge customers in order to make a profit. During the first 90 days of your business’ operation, the assumptions that you had originally made will be challenged with the realities of the market place conditions. Take a second close look at your price strategy. Don’t make the common error of trying to be the lowest price provider. If your competitors are established businesses they can undercut your prices longer than you can undercut theirs.
Set Quarterly Goals:
Running a new small business is extremely time consuming and stressful. You will have to master several small business services, skills, and have numerous systems to setup. It’s easy to get caught up in your businesses day-to-day activities. Successful entrepreneurs know that seeing the horizon and having a 90 day plan with objectives and milestones can mean the difference between failure and survival.
Discover Your Entrepreneurial Type:
Your business personality type is the traits and characteristics of your personality that blend with the needs of your business. If you better understand your business personality, then you can give your company the best part of you.
Take Time Off:
Recognize the energy you have expended to start your business and take the time out to reward yourself. The time off will recharge your motivation and ensure success for the next 90 days.
By following these tips, you should be able to evaluate your business’ successes and opportunities of the first 90 days of operation.
A recent report suggests that approximately 70% of home-based businesses will last over a three-year period, compared to 29% of other business ventures. With estimates of the total number of home-based business ranging from 34 to 36 million, it’s clear that home-based businesses offer a less expensive alternative to traditional businesses. Here are some of the primary advantages of home-based businesses:
Lower Starting Cost- Forty to 44 % of all home-based businesses require less than $5,000 for business startup. Most traditional startups have a lot of deposits required to begin operations, from rent to insurance. Home-based businesses can often limit costs to that of creating a website or purchasing the stock they plan to sell.
Personal freedom – The average American spends 348 hours each year commuting, according to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration. These hours are now free to use for business strategy or personal use as you see fit. Home-based businesses give owners the freedom to choose the hours they work and the pace of operations. Spare time turns into full-time for 50% of home based business owners. Home-based businesses don’t have special dress codes, office politics, or bosses to be accountable to. The businesses success is a direct reflection of the business owner’s personal drive, discipline, and time-management skills.
Equal Opportunities for All- Female-owned business startup is running at about twice the rate of male-owned business. Many women choose to create home-based businesses to allow them time for dual roles of mother and entrepreneur. This allows them the time to spend with their children while allowing them a supplemental source of income. A recent IDC survey indicates that the average income for income-generating home office households is $63,000 a year. Entrepreneur magazine estimates that $427 billion is generated each year by home-based businesses.
Low cost, personal freedom, and equal opportunities are only three of the numerous advantages of a home-based business startup. Now is the perfect time to start your own home-base business and become the successful entrepreneur you always wanted to be.
When people always ask me, “why should I have a business plan?” I tell them that having a well written business plan is very important to a business at any stage of their growth process.
• Helping you to make your vision clear and decide whether or not to move forward with the idea.
• Determining if your product or service has a sufficient market to support it and whether or not it will be profitable.
• Providing an estimate of your start-up costs and how much you’ll need to invest or finance.
• Convincing investors and lenders to fund your business.
• Defining your target market and how to best reach them.
• Establishing or reevaluating your competitive position within the market.
• Defining corporate objectives and programs to achieve those objectives.
• Helping your business make money from the start by developing effective operational strategies.
• Understanding the risks involved and anticipating potential problems so you that can solve them before they become disasters.
• Setting a value on a business for sale or for legal purposes.
A business plan should be an evolving document. It should be adjusted as the marketplace changes, not written and left on the shelf. In some cases, it may be best to work with a professional business plan consultant on the development of your business plan. A business plan consultant will be able to help guide you along the way and ensure that your finalized plan meets SBA standards and that it is presented in a professional format.
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