Tips for starting a new business

Here’s a quick list of tips to consider before starting your business and in the early stages

Know your customer

The more you know, the easier it will be to find and market to your customer. Even if you don’t want to do the “hard” sell, you still need to know who your customer is and no, it is NOT everyone.

I am bald, I have no need for a barber. I am male, I do not need maternity clothes (oh, but I’m married and my wife is pregnant… then you should be marketing to HER), I never smoked in my life, do not send me info on quitting smoking.

I do like new tech, so let me know about your new gadget. I collect coins, comics and other collectibles so, let me know about your new comic/coin store.

Do your homework before you launch

You do not want to be wasting time and losing money while you figure out your business.

Know your customers, your competitors, what do they charge? What will you charge? Why?

There are thousands upon thousands of books & websites out there full of details about this. Go find them and remember, Google IS your friend.

Start with as clean a financial slate as possible before you launch

Try to not start your business in any kind of debt. Remember, initially your debts will be your businesses debts if you start out as a solo entrepreneur.

If you start owing a lot of money to outside sources, taxes, credit card debt, you may slip into the place of cooking the books to get by. Even stealing from your own company. It happens.

Try to pay off all debts if possible.

Spreadsheets are your friends

People are afraid of spreadsheets, but they are pretty easy to figure out and can be far more helpful than accounting software to do “What-if” scenarios. Sounds scary, but pretty easy to do.

There are many free templates out there for everything from start-up costs to break-even analysis and from profit & loss statements to monthly cash flow analysis.

If you are scared of spreadsheets, contact Guy for classes or one on one tutoring.

Know when you need help

We all want to run a business, if you didn’t you would not be here reading this post, but at some point your business will become larger than you can handle. At least, that’s the plan.

You may even need to start earlier than that because you may not have the skills to do certain jobs within your company. As an example, all companies must track their expenses and such and file tax forms, if you’re not a numbers person, you need a CPA. If you sell a product, you may need a photographer and the list goes on. Get help as soon as you can so that you don’t get in too deep and realize you’re in trouble.

The end of this article has a list of some services you may need.

Be lean for a s long as you can

The longer you can work using external employees, aka, sub contractors, the better… in general.

Using a sub to get work done for you when needed is better than having an employee on the payroll and not really working to their fullest.

The goal is to get where you need help all day every week, but until then, keep it lean.

NOTES:

• CPA: Megan Gerhart, CPA
• Photography: G. Stewart Hoops Companies
• Ghostwriting: G. Stewart Hoops Companies
• Organizational Development: Nurture Culture, LLC
• Office/Working Space: SoBeCoWorks

---

So, do you have any tips to add? Let us know in the comments.

---