Best Practices to Launch Your Own Business from Scratch

16. Registering A Business
The structure you select for your business depends on your specific needs. In this section, we will take you through the various business structures, their advantages, disadvantages and how you can set them up.

Different Types Of Business Structure
There are several types of legal structures you can choose from when setting up a business, we have detailed them further below.

Sole Trader
A sole trader is a business-type where one person owns and runs the entire business. It is the simplest business structure you could adopt. It is very suitable for any one-person businesses; this includes independent accountants, web developers and gardeners among others.

15. Create A Business Plan
At this point you have chosen the business idea you are going to turn into a business and tested it, now it is time to put together a business plan to outline in detail the objectives of your business and how you are planning to achieve them.

A business plan is a great exercise for sorting out your thoughts and it allows you to plan your business in a structured way, for yourself and so outside parties such as investors or partners can understand what you are trying to achieve and how.

Great planning from the start can be the difference between a business that is successful and well executed and a business that fails. In this section, you will find guidance on how to create a great business plan.

14. Test Your Business Premise
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. Many entrepreneurs who skip this stage, end up wasting much time chasing ventures that would never work. So now that we have established it is a good move to test your ideas and research, this section explores the different routes to market for testing different ideas.

Be Precise When Measuring Performance
When testing a proposed business, you can assess the performance of any venture in different ways, so it is important to initially work out what you want to measure to gauge success or failure. Here are some suggested measures to get you started:

13. Research Your Business Ideas
This stage is all about researching your business idea as much as possible to decide if your idea or ideas could turn into a great business. To assess and compare each, you want to have a clear understanding of the points below.

Define & Analyse Your Target Market
Is there a market for the business, product or service and is it big enough to support your goals? You should also consider the competitive landscape and know who your main competitors are. Analyse what their and your weaknesses and strengths are, as well as market opportunities and threats. You want a clear idea of the overall market and how your business would fit into it.

12. Coming Up With Great Business Ideas
Coming up with a business idea is relatively easy, coming up with a great business idea is hard. It is critical to your success that when starting out you explore as many ideas as possible before deciding on the final one you will take forward.

ADVERTISEMENT

In this section, we will guide you through the process of finding a great business idea that you can turn into a successful, profitable and valuable business.

11. Know Yourself As An Entrepreneur Before You Start
Starting a business is a process that requires an enormous amount of thought and careful examination. First, you need to take a good look at your strengths, weaknesses and skills. This will allow you to start thinking about what you can do and what you cannot do. It is important to start here even if you already have world’s best business idea, because you might not have the skills or personality traits to enable you to make it into a successful business. You want to come up with business ideas where you are naturally best suited to be successful, for example

10.When do you forgo the high-paying jobs for passion projects?

Usually, it’s travel or food writing. Next month, I’m going overseas for 10 days. I won’t get paid very much, but I’m going to have incredible opportunities that I wouldn’t otherwise have. I just have to [plan to] have enough work to carry me through.

I just had an editor [reach out with] 10 stories to assign. I told her I could only take on two, but I could help find other writers.

It comes back to that confidence piece. I’m much better at saying to editors, “I can’t take this on,” or “I’m away, but I could take this on next month.”

9. Learn and adapt

In life, you should learn from your mistakes and use them as opportunities. When launching a new business, you might take some wrong turns along the way – don’t worry, we’ve all been there. There’s a major learning curve in understanding when something isn’t working, admitting your mistake and thinking about how to improve it for the future. Try to be as objective as possible, open for criticism and lastly, don’t be ashamed to ask for help. A fresh perspective might be the one thing that is missing from your biz to become a leading brand.

08. Organize your time & space


It’s highly likely that you will use your home as your headquarters in the beginning, so you should try make it as professional as possible. Working in your pajamas sounds like a dream come true, right? But in order to be efficient even in a home environment, you should consider the following

07. Build a network


In order to succeed, you must know and work with other companies and professionals in your field. One for all and all for one! Collaborating with others will help you expand your business, reach new customers and learn how to improve your working process. You can find a full guide on how to build a strong network here, but just in case, here are some main points you should address

06. Master delegation


They call it ‘small business’, but there is a lot to do in order to get your biz on the road. It’s obvious that you can’t be everywhere at the same time, right? As much as it can be difficult to share your dream with others, it might be necessary for your success. For instance, delegating legal or accounting tasks can save you a great deal of time, energy and money. If it’s something that you’re able to do in twelve hours, but a professional would accomplish for a cost that’s no more than what you usually profit in two hours – pay them. Time is money.

05. Check your expenses


Launching a biz can be a quite an expensive journey, so in order to avoid going bankrupt after a few months, you should make sure to pay attention to these financial steps:

Use a spreadsheet: Construct a spreadsheet to estimate the total dollar amount and percentage of your revenue that will need to be allocated towards raw materials and other costs.

04. Get the paperwork done


It’s important to get all the legal and formal paperwork done before you take your business out into the world. It can be a bit daunting, and you might think that you need a professional to help you register your business. But surprise! (well not really, as we mentioned it in the beginning of this blog), we are living in a digital world, which means that you have countless tutorials for any kind of paperwork (permits, licenses or other bureaucratic processes) you might need to clear. If you’re starting your business in the U.S., The US Small Business Administration website has a portal that leads you to all of the Federal and State websites for license requirements. Last but not least, sn**ch a domain that can easily be remembered and typed. Not sure how to choose your URL? Check out this great domain name guide.

03. Create a strong identity


‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ doesn’t really apply here. As mentioned before, the market is full of different companies and services, so you need to make sure that you stand out at first glance. Before you go and whip out your box of crayons, you should go back to your business plan and look at your target audience. Get familiar with their age, location and economic status as these factors will help you identify what’s the best way to approach them, both in terms of content and visual language.

02. Write a business plan


Even if you’re planning on starting a small doggy daycare in your backyard, you should write a business plan. This will help you organize all of the ideas you have in your head and set up a roadmap for the future of your biz.



Don’t ponder about if you should write one, think about how you’ll do it. There are plenty of examples and templates online you can get inspired from, but try to keep these few essential elements in mind:

01. Ask yourself the right questions


Starting your own business is a wonderful decision, but you should make sure that it’s worth investing your time and most likely some of your money too. Here is a small list of questions to help you evaluate if this in fact is the right move for you: