Among the chosen 190 countries2, India ranked 63rd in Doing Business 2020(Ease of Doing Business). It means that India is a favorable country for starting up a business. More and more people are working on start-ups. The Government of India is also inspiring to start a business with its various schemes, program, education, workshop, seminar, conference, and more.
You do not need a jumpstart to be a bigger brand or pvt ltd compan, but you need simple and effective start-up strategies. So, do not hesitate to be a proprietor to start your own business because you can always grow it later and hire employees.
Here, we are giving some basic requirements and key steps for creating your own business.
1 Perform a market analysis
It is the first step to starting any business or even expanding your existing business. It is indeed an important step before entering into business. To get information about your target customer base and your competition, the market analysis will help you a lot. Additionally, market research can provide you insight into your strength, weakness, opportunities, and threat to business success.
The market research will help you:
- Understand your customer’s needs
- Identify potential problems with your product or service
- Lessen financial losses by helping you make more informed decisions
- Find niche markets you may not have known about
- Set goals that can guide your business
2 Write a business plan
The second step before starting a business is to write or prepare a business plan. The purpose of your business plan is to define your business, products, and services. Besides, it will also define the operational plan of the business and the expansion plan for the future. Successful businesses use this as a resource for their organization’s growth. A perfect business plan contains:
- Title page and contents
- Statement of purpose
- Product descriptions
- Market analysis
- Competitor analysis
A business plan can help you make more efficient and strategic decisions, focus on your goals and strategies, find potential weaknesses, communicate your ideas to stakeholders, organize important information about your business, and hire right employees for your company.
3 Choose your business name
It is an important step to decide on an easy-to-remember and descriptive name for your business. If you choose to operate your business under a name other than your name (if you are a sole proprietor) or legal entity name (if you are an LLC or corporation), you will need to register that name with local and/or state governments.
4 Make your business official
Once you are ready with the basic requirements of a business like your business idea, business research, business name, and you know the potential to last in the market. It is time to make your business official by doing as follow:
- Register your business with your state/center
- Pick up the right licenses and permits
- Get a tax ID number, GST or VAT
It will help you create a brand name that no one else can have. And you can move to the next step to set up an office and other requisites.
5 Establishing a brand identity for your products and services
Once your business name finalized, the next step is to create your brand identity by creating a business logo, cards, and letterhead template. These items establish your company’s identity and help potential customers find and remember you.
Furthermore, you require an online presence for your business by having websites and social media accounts to reach your audience. You also require necessary contracts, service agreements, and invoices for your service or products for easy operational processes such as bill customers, tracking payments, keep records.
6 Protect your business
Starting a business involves money, time, and energy. That means you need to protect it with the right insurance cover that includes:
- General liability insurance
- Business income insurance
- Data breach coverage
- Professional liability coverage
- Commercial property insurance
7 Open business bank account
You must keep a separate business account for business day-to-day operations from your ones. Most banks offer business bank accounts i.e., current accounts.
To open this, you require business documentation such as a registration certificate, address proof, etc.
8 Workspace and Staff
If you are starting from home, you require a bare minimum of space but make sure you can allocate some area. If you are not starting a business from home, you are required to lease office space. Now-a-days shared office space option is also available if your nature of business does not require bigger staff or more space.
Besides, you have plan for furniture and office equipment to start a business. The other most significant step is to hire right staff for your office in different departments. However, you can start with fewer employees, and later you will expand your business and hire more employees.
Once you have followed these steps, it means you are ready to own a business. You can also find a good start-up team for day-to-day operational support and set it up for success.
