Posted by Andrea on 5/23/2014 to
Building your own business. It's a true American story. There are lots of stories about many of our Founding Fathers - and even the earliest settlers before them - pulling themselves by their bootstraps and creating a business for themselves as a way to get income to pay for the necessities of life - shelter, transportation, clothing and candles and lanterns.
In your own way, if you are looking to start a business to make ends meet in this economy, you are a Founding Father. But oftentimes, it isn't just putting out a little advertising, getting a few supplies and voila, you're in business. You do need a strategy and some steps in order to ensure maximum success of your business going forward. If you fail to achieve any of these steps which we offer, you may find some trouble later.
Here are 10 steps to take to effectively open for business.
- Plan. No business can really start without a business plan. Laying out your goals, objectives, the type of business, identifying your potential market and other items will be a big help in later steps.
- Training. You likely don't know everything there is to know about running a business, so take advantage of many free courses available regarding a number of different business topics - from how to write a business plan, how to expand or relocate, or even how to best secure capital or steps to take to hire the right people.
- Location. If you are opening some kind of retail store, get some advice on the best place to locate your business so that you will get good customer traffic.
- Money. If you are looking to get capital from other sources besides your own wallet, check out venture capital, grants or certain small-business loans. You can learn about each of these and figure out which path would be best for your business.
- Legalese. Figure what type of business you will be - sole proprietorship, an LLC, an S corporation, etc.
- DBA. Your state government will need to know your business exists, so make sure to register your business name (not John Doe, but "doing business as" John's Doe-nut Shop).
- TIN. Time for the dreaded call to the IRS to get a federal tax identification number (TIN) for your business. You'll need to do the same with your state's revenue department.
- Insurances. You'll have to register with your state agency to secure worker's compensation, unemployment and disability insurance for yourself and employees.
- Get Permission. Next, based on the type of business you have, you'll have to file for various licenses and permits at the local, state or federal level.
- Hiring. There are some legal rules you will need to know before you start adding payroll.
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