
18 Oct Starting A New Business?
Starting A New Business?
Bringing Your Vision to Life is Worth the Effort
WHEN DO YOU THINK IT IS TIME TO ASK FOR HELP?
It begins with a vision, an idea. Whether it’s the idea you had late one night in bed or something that came to you over dinner, you have a thought that the world needs something; the people in your town or your area are missing something that you know how to provide. It’s frightening at first to think of yourself as a business owner, but the more you think about your vision, the more passionate you become about it until you’re sure that your idea is the one that will make a difference. It’s not about riches, but about wealth: those intangible qualities that come with owning a successful business like respect, new knowledge, and the surety that you’re contributing a necessary product or service to people.
So you start working up a business plan in your head. This is not easy, and you spend a lot of time doing research in the field. You read everything you can about the industry you want to get into, figure out exactly how much capital you’ll need, try to anticipate situations and develop solutions before they even happen, and then take all of that and try to put it in a format that will help others see your vision.
You run it by a couple of friends and family, people you can trust, and what they don’t understand you consider re-writing, knowing that a potential investor might not take the time to ask for clarification if they aren’t immediately impressed.
This is your chance to ask yourself the really hard questions about your idea. How do you want to structure it? The way that you organize your people, your sales, your production, and you realize that even your day today could vastly impact your success tomorrow. And thinking about how you want to change your structure in the future is something that you need to start considering now.
How about long term strategies? It’s one thing to know how you want to start, but is it what’s going to be good for you in the future? Now, before you’ve written down a single thing about your business, is the time for you to think about what you want and how you want to get there. You have a vision, but does it include the strategies you’ll need to continue to be successful? You know who your competitors might be, but do you really understand the nature of that competition, how they relate to you, how you’re the same and/or different, and what their competition means to your company? What about other companies you’ll have to work with?
How do you want to present yourself to the world? Are you a stable hand in the industry? An innovative new voice? Should your clients and/or customers expect a relaxed, friendly attitude or a professional, steady guide? Or a combination of both? Even before starting to put together your business plan, figure out what you want your presence to be like. This is the time to think about how you appear to the world at large, where you want your business to be seen, what sort of image you want people to think of when they think of you. This will also affect your future marketing strategies. Knowing who you are and how you want to be seen is vitally important to getting your business started right the first time.
The next step is writing that business plan and then finding people to invest in your vision. This is the first act of salesmanship that you’ll be expected to do in your new company: selling the company itself to other people. Do you know where to look for financing? Can you tell who will be the best fit for your idea? There’s a lot of research you’ll have to do just to figure out who you should be pitching your idea to. Knowing your own finances certainly does help, and understanding how much you’ll need is good too, but you also have to be willing and ready to negotiate for the best possible deal. You’ll have to be prepared with all of the information you might need, understand the current state of multiple levels of economic data, and have the knowledge to explain why your idea will succeed.
You’ve been to the IRS Business Resource page so you know what sort of business structure you want to claim, what forms you need to fill out, how to get an Employer Identification Number (EIN), and even how to keep your records for tax purposes. Does that structure fit with what a potential investor wants to invest in for his tax or investment security reasons? You want to have a nice new website that somebody could build for you and possibly a storefront or at least a corporate address. But where do you go from there? How do you get your website to come up on search engines? Where should you buy advertisements? Are there trends that you’re not understanding? How does your sales force communicate with your customers? How do you communicate with them?
There are undoubtedly a number of questions anyone starting a new business needs to ask themselves. However, by taking the questions one at a time and making sure that you plan ahead, you could be able to answer all of those questions, find the solutions to the situations you’ve identified, as well as the ones you haven’t.
When do you think it is the right time to ask for a little help? Contact us now before your vision clouds. Then you can finish your success story with the pride and conviction you began with …….
That passion brought you through so many bumps in the road, and your tenacity and humility helped you succeed to this point when others might not have. That feeling is the essence of owning a business, it’s yours! Knowing that your hard work has paid off, not only in income, but in the intangibles, the wealth that includes more than just money.
EM Advisory Corp is an Advisory firm that connects with people. Our advice is rooted in our experience and personalized to your needs. Search our site for related Articles. Browse our FAQ’s for Answers and use our provided information and Services to help you solve your situation.
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