Are you ready to take the plunge and start a business? Learn more about the top tips to help you succeed
So, you have a business idea that you want to put into practice. Starting a business takes a lot of planning and dedication, and there’s so much to keep in mind that it’s easy to overlook some of the important elements. Asking for advice is a wise thing to do, but since everyone seems to have their own recipe for success, you may end up with an overwhelming amount of information.
In this article we have collected the top tips for start ups as provided by the most successful entrepreneurs and summarized them into the top 5 tips:
1. You don’t have to do it yourself
While it’s not necessary to go to business school to start and run a successful business, budding business owners can greatly benefit from specialist help and advice. It pays to research all the options that may be available to you in your local area, such as mentoring schemes, workshops, seminars, networking events, essential business training and online business communities. A good place to start is a government initiative known as the School for Start-up Launcher Program, which holds regular events across the country.
2. Learn from other people’s mistakes
It’s always hard to find a happy medium between being a risk taker and being too conservative, but paying attention to the most common start-up mistakes can help. This includes setting prices too low or too high, offering too many discounts, not being familiar with relevant industry rules and regulations, choosing a bad location, spending money without making it first, and making poor choices regarding business partners or staff.
3. Don’t feel tempted to pass money
Being a business owner is all about accountability. Of course, any start-up will require an accountant, lawyer or financial advisor, but this doesn’t mean that you can “opt out” of having knowledge in these areas. As a business owner, you should have a basic knowledge of legal, financial and tax matters, as any mistakes will ultimately be your responsibility. It also helps to spend time learning about marketing, PR, and IT skills and tools. This may sound like a lot of work, but help is available (as mentioned in the first part of this article).
4. Pace yourself
Learn to prioritize and don’t be too ambitious. You may have dozens of things on your to-do list, but it’s more feasible (and less stressful) to focus on completing a few of them each week than trying to accomplish too many and ending up with mediocre results.
5. Business model vs business process
There is no denying that business models are useful in implementing new ideas. However, successful entrepreneurs like serial entrepreneur GurbakshChahal warn startups not to focus too much on the model and neglect the process. Businesses and their clients are dynamic and constantly changing entities, so it’s best to have a plan B in case things don’t go as expected and adapt to customer needs through research and feedback from day one. Look ahead and make a habit of thinking about what the next stage of your business might involve.
By considering the points stated above and by staying alert to potential problems, you can minimize the risk and stress associated with launching a new start up, while increasing your chances of success. Starting a business will involve a lot of pitfalls and security issues especially if you are selling online. We recommend that you follow the advice of industry specialists for such technical issues small business credit card acceptance and tax issues.
Picture taken by swisscan on Flickr
Greg is a blogger who likes to write articles giving advice to small business owners.
