One of the best things you can do to build a fortune is to start a business. It can be daunting, but with the right systems it can be easy. The good news is that all the things you need to get done to start your business have been done a million times before. Even if you’re going to do everything from scratch, you don’t need to start from scratch or waste your brainpower figuring out what to do.
There are at least 24 steps that you must take when starting your new business, which I will walk you through step by step.
I’m going to assume you already have an idea of what your business is going to be. I won’t show you how to build or grow your business in this article, but I’ll tell you what practical steps are needed to get you started.
How to start a business in 24 steps
- Create a basic business plan.
- Create a name.
- Buy a private domain name.
- Secure your social media accounts.
- Develop a brand identity.
- Set up a G Suite account.
- Create an easy basic website.
- I get business cards.
- I am looking for an accountant and a lawyer.
- Set up a limited liability company.
- Get an employer identification number.
- Create an operating agreement.
- Submit the necessary papers to the government.
- I open a business bank account.
- Set up a payroll service for employees and contractors.
- Set up QuickBooks.
- Establish a basic accounting system.
- Start using a project management solution from day one.
- Build an internal wiki from day one.
- Set up a Slack account.
- Set up a number for conference calls and meetings.
- Set up 1Password.
- Create a subscription tracker.
- Create a strategic plan for the next 12 months.
First: Decide on the scope of your project
1 . Create a basic business plan
You won’t want to take a long road trip without planning your trip. And you don’t want to do the same when starting your own business. Accordingly, you have to answer two basic questions:
- What do you need to do to reach profitability?
- How will you pay for the things you need to do in order to get profit?
Don’t overthink, be realistic about what it takes.
Do your research, and know your numbers. Write it all down on a piece of paper, and the business plan will develop into a useful tool over the first 6-12 months.
2. Create a name The
step of creating a name for the project can be difficult and a little challenging. The name has to be cool. Not to be perfect and not to be made up of different buzzwords like Google or Yahoo because you will mention that name often and it will most likely be the Internet address of your project.
Here’s what’s important:
- Definitely the most important aspect when you come up with a name , to be innovative and confident. And if you don’t like it, you won’t be able to promote it, as you will be promoting it seven days a week all year round for a long time. At least that’s the plan.
- Choose something unique . The general rule is that when you Google the name, you won’t find a business or any existing product with the same name you chose.
- Your name should be a simple but memorable brand . You don’t want to make your brand search more difficult.
- Get a business website for your name (.com). Despite its importance, many people ignore the project domain name, and this is unbelievable! If you want people to take your business seriously, make sure you have a business website.
You can brainstorm the following points to choose an appropriate name for your business:
brainstorming, words, concepts, specifications, etc.
１. Brainstorm based on your initial thinking in the first step. ２. Check the names on Google. Eliminate any known and popular options — especially those in your area or town.
Make sure you can get the domain name. Don’t expect that you can get a domain name for $7 a year so you’ll get what you want. You need to invest in a server name for your project to ensure its viability. And if you’re on a tight budget, get creative. You can get a great name for as little as $1,500 without any restrictions if you put in your effort.
More tips for getting the right name
- Imagine the name of your project with a logo on a large banner in your future office.
- Imagine your project name on a T-shirt.
- Say the project name out loud. “Hello, I am -the name of the business-.” How did you feel? Do you like ringing the word?
- Echo your options and talk to people about it.
- Spend some time thinking about it and leave it for a while. Do you keep coming back and picking the same name?
Next, secure your business and marketing collateral.
3 Your domain name is critical, buy
it and that means you don’t have to fear spending money on your domain. I used Domain.com to purchase my domain name. Depending on your project, you will talk about your address on the Internet as often as you say the name of your business, and the higher the budget allocated to your domain name, the more you will be able to achieve it and make it a reality.
4 . Securing Social Media Accounts
It’s hard to find a good name so that a business site purchase is possible. After all, the Internet is more than 30 years old. Where most of the good names have been taken.
And if you find an available name, you probably won’t get the exact same name on social media as it.
But you must do everything in your power to get the commercial site, and if you fail to get it, be creative. Internet address handlers for social networks are much less important than a private website, but they are well worth the effort.
You can immediately decide how much effort you should put into your social media – you can simply get the name and keep it, you can share some photos and a piece of information about the project, or you can put in all the effort you want. It’s up to you. For now, you just have to make sure you put your hand on it to insure the future.
5 . Developing a Brand
Identity Your brand identity is very important. Identity is the colors, images and logos that customers associate with your brand.
A business identity takes a lot of work – but you can always renew a business identity in the future, so the initial run should be satisfactory. 99Designs is a great choice for a complete brand identity package. You can also run a design competition that allows you to choose from hundreds of options.
Unlike your business name, your brand identity is not restricted and restricted. It doesn’t have to be perfect (or expensive) you just need to design it. You can always come back with other designs – most companies do.
6 . G Suite Account Setup Google Cloud
Services are the most important tool for our business. Everything depends on its use. Provides all emails, calendar and agendas. We also rely on Google Drive / Docs. Much. You will need to set up Google Cloud Services once you have your domain name. After that you can easily set up your business accounts. Pricing is set as of April 1, 2019, basic account is $6 per user.
7 . Creating a basic website is easy.
Depending on your business, your website can be as big or small, as you wish. If your project is a small individual enterprise such as a freelance writer, you may only need one page with links to your writing and possibly your contact information.
If you are in the e-commerce business and sell products and services, you will need a larger website.
For now, our focus here is simply on a simple and easy basic website. You can expand to a larger website later if needed. It’s a good idea to have a one-page homepage site with information about your company. Then you can expand further from that point. You can be up and running in minutes with Squarespace. Once you’re ready to build a full-featured website, it’s easy to switch to WordPress.
8. Get Business Cards
99Designs provides you with a complete identity package. You can also use Vistaprint to get business cards printed. The idea of cards may seem old, but believe me, once you start your own business, you will talk about it a lot and everyone you talk to should get a card with information about your business. One thing to keep in mind is not to write your phone number on the card, but you can type it in manually when you want to give it to someone you really want to contact. It’s easy to hand out cards freely — and lets the people you give your phone number to know you really mean it.
Now, make your business legal and secure
9. Searching for an accountant and a lawyer.
It’s easy to hire a lawyer and accountant later – but you have to do it sooner rather than later. You will save yourself a lot of trouble and potentially help and save your business in the future by getting them at an early stage.. There are a lot of great options and it can be both a remote accountant and a lawyer.
10 . Create a Limited Liability Company (LLC) and
you can follow two methods:
- Use your attorney.
- Use online legal services.
No matter what you choose, setting up an LLC is very simple. Legal Zoom offers to save you some money.
11. Obtain an Employer Identification Number (EIN)
Obtaining your own Employer Identification Number is something that you can obtain in conjunction with setting up an LLC. It is usually the same process.
You will need the number to do almost everything about your business, including business banking. You’ll also be using it to pay taxes – so be sure to note the point!
12 . Create an operating agreement
Even if your project involves no one but you, you need to create an operating agreement. If you own partners, you can clear LegalNature through the LegalNature platform.
Chances are that things will evolve over time and you will update your operating agreement anyway. If you have partners, seek help from your attorney in this case.
13 . Submission of official government papers
If you hire a lawyer for your business, they can do this for you. Otherwise, you will need to do some research on the requirements in the country in which you reside, which also vary depending on the type of business you will be starting.
14 . Open a business bank account
This step is straightforward. You will need an EIN, and it is most appropriate that you deal with the same bank that you already use for your personal accounts.
One thing you have to watch out for is the bundle upscaling that many of the major banks are doing. For example, having two products that perform the same task and meet the same needs, but one of them has additional advantages when you pay more.
The important thing here is to use your bank account only as a bank account and to be wary of using it for other offers or services. Gusto is there to help you expand your options.
Sign up for your master playback tools
15. Create a payroll service for employees and contractors
You don’t have to worry about this point until you start paying your employees or contractors. However, it is good to be prepared and aware. Not only will the service monitor your payroll, but it will also take care of the taxes and forms you have to file.
16. Set up QuickBooks
A QuickBooks account is essential from day one of your business venture. This is how you will manage your books and ensure that you always have good records. Going back and importing data and dates is never fun. The sooner you prepare it, the better.
17 . Establishing a basic accounting system
Your best bet here is to work closely with your accountant. A good approach is to ask your accountant what you need to do throughout the year to make things easier when taxes come and to make sure all quarterly obligations are met.
QuickBooks takes the weight off you, but there are still things that you’ll need to pay attention to and focus on while doing them. I’ve cleared things up here but there are a few points on Shopify where there is a good guide on accounting for small business.
18. Start using project management solutions from day one
The most important point here is to get used to keeping track of all your work. Even if you are the only person in your company, you have to work as an integrated organization, because one day you will not have a choice. The second point is that besides creating good habits, the information, data, and dates that will result from working from day one will help you memorize and write down.
It is very important that when new people come to your organization they are able to see the work that has been done in the past. It’s the context that helps them (and your business) achieve success in the future.
It doesn’t matter which tool you use. You’ll likely change it a few times anyway. I used Trello. There are dozens of great tools that are useful in this field.
19 . Building an internal wiki from day one
Just as you should use a project management tool from the start, it is extremely important to start documenting everything right away. If you’ve ever wanted to scale your startup, you’ll need your brain, too. Your inner wiki is your brain. When you give your future team instant access to the data that is your brain, it’s huge. If you already have a structured approach to documenting things in wikis, your team will follow suit.
It is not fun to know the value of a wiki system after 3 years of work, to delve deeply into the minds of 50 people. You’ll think of an endless number of documents you’d like to write as you progress through your company. I used Confluence.
20. Create an account in Slack
Everyone enjoys using Slack as much as they love it. Mobile communication is the key to success. Unrestricted packages are a good place to start. A subscription to Slack costs you about $7 per user per month, which gives you various controls like host access to different channels, more storage and calling apps.
21 . Set up a group call number
Many businesses need to hold conference calls once in a while, and GoToMeeting makes this easy. Instantly join a video, audio, or web-based meeting or host someone else, or manage the call from the conference room, office, or remote location via your Mac, PC, or even your mobile phone. Visit GoToMeeting to sign up and get started in just a few minutes.
22. Setup 1Password
By getting to this step, things will become clearer: to reduce your headaches in the future. Set up your systems now and you’ll be able to focus on the right growth moving forward. 1Password is an excellent tool for managing all your passwords and sensitive data. And it’s easy to share logins securely with your team — key because Certify estimates that lost passwords cost $416 in productivity per person.
23. Create a subscription tracker
It’s easy to set up tracking for subscriptions, but this step is often overlooked. As we mentioned, Password1 is useful for keeping track of logins. You still need a way to quickly see what you have, what your payments are and where your money is going, especially as your company grows and more people use the different tools and subscriptions.
All you need is a simple spreadsheet. Track your subscription, monthly or annual cost, terms (if any), payment method (what account or card is associated with it?), and renewal date.
Now, plan your goals for the first year at work
24. Create a Strategic Plan for the Next 12 Months
Like your business plan, your strategic plan doesn’t need to be complicated. Here’s how to write a simple business plan for your first-year startup
- Set one big goal for the next 12 months.
- Determine what you need to do to reach your goal. What projects or activities will you need to do?
- Discover metrics or benchmarks that you can use to monitor your progress. Establish a system to keep track of them
- Review and face difficulties monthly. Make any necessary adjustments.
Even if one person works in a store, spending time working and setting goals dictates strategic thinking and purpose. It will help you to avoid reacting and to randomly do whatever comes your way. It becomes even more important when you have a team that needs to know which direction to go. They will need a suitable environment in order to do their jobs.
