A business is an enterprising entity engaged in commercial, professional or industrial activities. It can also be a pro-profit entity or a non-profit organization.
Running a business, or rather a successful business, requires equal parts of resilience, creativity, adaptability, consistency and luck.
A few steps before setting up a business are essential, and they include the following;
Decide the business you want.
Refine your business idea and identify the market you want to enter. This is a foundation for any successful business and should be done diligently. Point out weaknesses in the market and perfect them. You can also identify what is missing in the market and introduce it.
You need to develop a business plan.
When the idea and business concept is refined, the next step is developing a plan to bring the idea to life. A well-crafted business plan propels you through starting and running the business. This will also guide you to achieving your goals and objectives and generally have a good business strategy. A business plan also includes finding your start-up cost, the services you want to offer, and your target clients.
You then have to identify your legal business structure.
This is determined by the situation, long or short-term goals and preferences. Legal business structures include sole proprietorship, general partnership, limited liability company (LLC) and corporations. A corporation is the most complex business structure. It is a legal entity that is separate and independent from the shareholders. A general partnership is an association between two or more people. A sole proprietorship is owned and managed by an individual.
Depending on your business, you will need a business permit.
If it’s a food business, you’ll need a food service permit from your local health department and then get business insurance to protect your business from potential risks.
You will then need to hire, train and build a team.
Not unless you’re planning to be the only employee. When hiring, be clear about the roles and responsibilities of each position. It’s also important to communicate the expectations.
Branding and Advertising the Business
Most importantly, after everything is branding and advertising the business, build a strong brand identity by first defining the business’ mission and values too. Have an effective marketing strategy to attain the desired outcome. Identify your audience and be able to know the best marketing activities for them. Create a positive customer experience as this glues customers to your business over time. Interactions between the customers and the service providers must be constantly encouraged so that you can tell what customers want or prefer.
Setting up a business is, of course, not anything easy as it requires resilience. Conduct in-depth market research on your field of interest, and this can be through surveys. Besides selling products and services, you also need to build your network and brand to get a following of people interested in your offer.
