Want to take the plunge and start your own business?
It’s a tough and long road ahead for entrepreneurs. According to 2019 data, nearly 45% of businesses fail during the first five years. In fact, only 25% of businesses make it to 15 years or more.
If you want to be among them, you need to follow the right process, proven strategies, and expert advice. It is essential that you plan everything in detail and be prepared to put in all the hard work and devotion required to make a business successful.
To help you start and operate a promising business, we’ve listed a few tips that can help you on your way to entrepreneurship. Read on to discover them and put the right foot forward.
Table of Contents
- Create a Robust Business Plan
- Do All of Your Paperwork Right
- Stay Focused and Organized
- Put Your Customers First
Are You Ready to Turn Your Startup Dream Into Reality?
#1. Create a Robust Business Plan
Creating a business plan is the key step to building a profitable and long-lasting business.
If you want your small business to be successful, you should put together a detailed business plan that defines everything, from your goals to the plan of action.
Your business plan should include details about:
- What type of business are you forming?
- Who are your ideal buyers?
- What are you offering them?
- How will your products or services benefit them?
- What are your competitors offering, at what prices, and how are they promoting their products/services?
- What are your business goals?
- Before starting a new business you must be insured with business insurance.
This will help you lay a solid foundation for your small business and increase the chances of success.
#2. Do All of Your Paperwork Right
Regardless of the business entity you choose to form, you will have to do a lot of paperwork to start conducting business in the United States.
You need to file essential legal documents with the Secretary of the State in the state you want to do business in. Along with state filings, you’ll also need to obtain an Federal EIN (Employer Identification Number) from the IRS.
All of this legal documentation can be quite tedious and challenging, especially if you’re doing it for the first time.
The good news is: You don’t have to do it on your own. You can file your business formation documents by filling out a simple application form at GovDocFiling. They can also help you identify the entity type that best fits your taxation, liability, and operational needs.
They have bundled legal documents with their filing service, making it a very low upfront cost at $345 for federal (EIN) and state filings, 5 legal documents, and a business start up guide with exclusive discounts on other services.
#3. Stay Focused and Organized
Successful businesses are not built in a day. It takes a lot of time, resources, effort, and persistence to turn your startup dream into a profitable business venture.
Along with staying focused on your goals and plan of action, it is also important to stay organized. You need to organize and manage everything from projects to tasks, team members, sales funnels, and finances.
A good way to ensure that everything and everyone is on the right track is to use powerful tracking and management tools.
You can use:
- Slack and Trello to create, assign, track, and manage tasks across departments and projects
- Clockify to track time spent on various tasks and projects by different departments and team members
- Mesasix Time Tracker to track employee activity, monthly login hours, and current availability
- FreshBooks, Wave, and Xero to track and handle invoicing, income, and expenses
These software solutions can help you streamline your business processes and manage all aspects of doing business.
Leveraging technology for business can also help you reach more customers and grow your revenue.
#4. Put Your Customers First
Providing good service to your customers is crucial for building their trust in your brand. It can help you enhance customer loyalty, drive referral and repeat purchases, and retain existing customers.
Remember, happy customers can be the greatest brand advocates.
Are You Ready to Turn Your Startup Dream Into Reality?
Are you starting a business for the first time and worried about failure?
Following the tips we’ve mentioned above can help you get your business up and running in a smoother and less stressful manner. Make sure that you stay focused and put in all the hard work required to make a business profitable.
However, don’t do it all alone. You can (and should) get help from professionals for important tasks such as state filings, bookkeeping, accounting, and sales management. GovDocFiling’s FREE business start up guide has additional guidance for starting, running, and growing your business and your team.
Do you need more advice on starting your business in the U.S.? Feel free to drop us a comment below.