How to Start a Business?

Table of Contents (TOC):

• Introduction
• Idea Generation and Validation
• Developing a Business Plan
• Securing Funding
• Legal Structures & Registrations
• Setting Up Operations
• Launching Your Business
• Marketing & Sales
• Ongoing Growth and Management
• Getting Started With UniAthena
• Conclusion
• Bonus Points

Introduction 

From wanting to follow one’s passion to making an impact on society, starting a business is a common aspiration among young and seasoned professionals alike. Thanks to the power of the internet and the digitisation of commerce, the number of small businesses have also risen in recent years. 

While challenges are inevitable (the US Bureau of Labor Statistics posits that 20% of new businesses fail within the first year), through regular and intentional upskilling, young Entrepreneurs can learn to pinpoint business opportunities and create robust business plans. 

So if you, too, are wondering how to start a business, keep reading!

Idea Generation and Validation 

When creating a business plan, start by looking into good business ideas. But what are some ways to assess the viability of business ideas? Business opportunities may be viable if they meet one or more of the factors below:

• It addresses a pain point experienced by consumers: For example, Uber was conceptualised by founders’ Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp struggling to hail a cab when in Paris. They decided to create a taxi-hailing app to help users find transportation easily with their smartphones. 
• It is informed by current market trends: Research the current market landscape, target demographics, consumer preferences, projected trends, and competitors. These insights can help you strategically develop, build, and market a service or product. 
• It addresses flaws in the present offerings: How can they be improved? Can raw materials be sourced cheaply? Can delivery be optimized? Can product design be more innovative and inclusive? If your idea addresses these questions, there could be a business opportunity here. 

Once you have an idea of the product or service you wish to bring to the market, it is time to make a business plan. 

Developing a Business Plan

Building a simple yet coherent business plan is crucial. Not only does it act as a roadmap for the growth of your business, but it allows you to make objective decisions, get a bird’s eye view of the business, and even persuade potential investors. 

A typical Business plan would include a company description, executive summary, overview of the products/services provided, market analyses, sales and marketing strategies, and financial projections. While several kinds of Business Plan templates are available for free use online, as long as they offer transparency into your business, you are good to go. 

Securing Funding

Depending on the scale of your business, there are a few routes you can consider to secure funding. 

• Investors: You may have potential investors or venture capitalists who will give you funding in exchange for a stake in your company. 
• Business Loans: If you wish to retain complete ownership of your venture, then consider applying for a business loan.
• Crowdfunding: If you believe your business will gain public traction and support, then consider platforms like GoFundMe, where you can receive funding from individuals. 
• Self-funding: If you have savings or the means to fund your venture yourself, you can dip into your personal wealth for business budgets. 

Legal Structure and Registration 

It is important to comply with the legal requirements, such as business licenses, registrations, and permits, when launching your business. As these requirements vary from place to place, you would need to enquire with local authorities and experts about the specific requirements. 

It is also crucial to clarify your business's legal structure, which can be one of the following:

• Sole Proprietorship: This type of business is owned by one single person. While this structure is easy to set up, it comes with personal responsibility and sole liability. 
• Partnership: This involves running your business with other partners. There are two main types – limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships. 
• Limited Liability Corporation (LCC): A combination of sole proprietorship and partnership structures, LLCs offer the best of both worlds. 
• Corporation: These include several sub-types, including C Corps, S Corps, Benefit Corporations, Close Corporations, Non-Profits, etc. 
• Cooperative: This kind of business is owned and operated by ‘member-owners’, where each member has a say in how operations are conducted. 

Research each of the structures and explore their pros and cons before settling on the kind that best serves your business idea. 

Setting Up Operations

Once the legal procedures have been finalized, it is time to open a shop. This includes:

• Setting Up Spaces: This refers to office spaces, warehouses, factories, and the like. Unlike online businesses, retail spaces may also be secured. 
• Developing Workflows: This includes finalizing official protocols and SOP (Standards of Procedure), from product development to supply chain processes. 
• Set Up Technical Resources: This involves procuring software for CRM, BI, HRM, Inventory Management, and so on. 
• Procure Supplies: This involves purchasing equipment like furniture, desktops, phones, office supplies and other items for employee use. 
• Build Manpower: Human resources, or hiring, ob-boarding, training employees to work for the business, is also considered. 

At this stage, the business materializes from an abstract concept fortified by legal documents to a living and breathing entity. 

Launching Your Business

This is when the behind-the-scenes planning and operational efforts go live. Upon launching, your business will join the marketplace and invite customers to explore the offerings. For physical stores, this can include a formal store opening event, while e-commerce storefronts would have websites that go live upon launch. This would be advertised to create some buzz around the brand. 

Marketing and Sales 

After launch, it’s time to keep customers coming back for more. Since marketing professionals would have been hired when setting up operations, they will be tasked with developing the right marketing strategies to entice customers. 

This would include Digital Marketing efforts through online targeted advertising, SEO efforts, Social Media branding, influencer partnerships, and so on. Traditional Marketing efforts, such as billboards, flyers, magazine advertisements, or even radio advertisements, can be explored as per budget considerations. 

As customers develop brand awareness and interact with the products and services offered, it is up to Sales staff to ensure that purchases are made, targets are hit and customers are impressed. They use sales strategies and tactics to increase product movement and enter the consumer consciousness. 

Ongoing Growth and Management

After launch, the next challenge is to increase sales, boost customer retention, and become a formidable brand in the competitive market. To do this, businesses must:

1. Innovate and Expand:

• Products and services that do not evolve to keep up with new technology, standards of living, or consumer expectations will become obsolete almost immediately. 
• Business Intelligence is the first step to identifying how improvements can be made and offerings can be diversified, to remain competitive in the marketplace. 

2. Nurture Brand Loyalty:

• From Glossier’s beauty community to Coca-Cola’s ‘Share a Coke’ campaign, businesses must make an effort to rally their customers over a common aspiration.
• This builds a sense of community and belongingness that fosters brand loyalty, and it can even help businesses access more real-time customer insights. 

3. Expand Your Reach:

• Grow your consumer base and enter new geographical markets to expand your brand’s presence and reach. 
• You can also reach previously untapped consumer segments with strategic partnerships with other brands, celebrities, influencers, etc. 

4. Let Data Show You The Way:

• Data-driven decision-making will always be more precise and reliable than intuition or gut-feel decisions. 
• Looking at data from consumers, market trends, sales, and others can give a clearer indication of remedial actions, potential for innovation and experimentation, and so on. 

5. Improve Your Operations:

• Be on the lookout for any ways you can improve the efficiency of your operations, from integrating new technologies to negotiating new supplier contracts.
• This will help daily processes flow smoothly, ensuring that the business-as-usual tasks proceed as intended. 

6. Manage Finances Right:

• From proper budget allocation to timely investments, managing organizational finances well is key to success. 
• Maintaining clear and accurate financial records, building models to forecast risks, and running analyses help determine a company’s financial well-being. 

Getting Started With UniAthena:

Before you run to build your dream business plan, it’s time to do some learning! Arming yourself with relevant, expert-verified insights can offer clarity, redirect your efforts, and increase your overall chances of success. You don’t need to start with a full-time academic program – here are our quick-to-learn and easy-to-digest Short Courses for Entrepreneurs:

• Diploma In Entrepreneurship

This 100% online Short Course guides Entrepreneurs towards achieving a balance of innovation, and creativity, and addressing a current need among consumers. In as little as six hours, this free-to-learn program will offer actionable insights that lend clarity and credibility to your entrepreneurial aspirations.

• Essentials for Launching your Startup

Another must-try beginner course, this short program offers a theoretical foundation for your business opportunities. With insights into building an MVP, Lean Start-ups, and Intellectual Property Rights, this course offers the foundational know-how every Entrepreneur needs. 

• Executive Diploma in Innovation & Entrepreneurship

In addition to key foundational concepts of Entrepreneurship, this Executive Diploma dives into creativity, innovation, social entrepreneurship, and sectoral innovation. Armed with these expert insights, learners will be ready to fine-tune their business plans for success. 

• MBA Essentials with Entrepreneurship

For the MBA-aspirant low on time and money, this Mini-MBA is the next best opportunity to develop core managerial skills. With actionable insights on HR, Finance Management, Operations, Marketing and Entrepreneurship, learners will gain a holistic understanding of the key skills needed to run a successful business. 

Conclusion

In this blog, we provided a brief step-by-step overview of how you can begin building your dream venture. While the order of the steps, and some of the sub-steps, can vary depending on individual circumstances, this manual offers a starting point for you to conceptualise your business’ founding, building and growth. 

Bonus Points:

• 44% of Entrepreneurs hold an academic degree. You can opt to pursue a degree yourself or choose any of our Short Courses for a quick skill boost.
• As an Entrepreneur, your soft skills matter as much, and perhaps even more, than your hard skills. Focus on building resilience, perseverance, communication, and people skills.