Kaboutjie SA Mommy Blogs by Lynne Huysamen
Have you ever thought of opening your own business? You probably have thought about a fast track to earning big money. Everyone thinks about their ideal business, but if you truly want to be an entrepreneur, you have to make your dream a reality. There are a lot of excuses and fears that will come up as you journey towards making money with your business. Once you start your own business, you’ll need to have insights into how you’ll be successful and make the right decisions to keep your business profitable.
So what should you do ensure that your small business gets off the ground and becomes a success? First, talk to your friends and family about your idea. As you start to talk about your business more, you’ll see ways you can improve the idea as well as who will support you if you decide to go for it.
Here are some other secrets to starting your own business:
Brainstorm Your Innovative Idea
Did you know that college students can make money online easily? In fact, college kids are young entrepreneurs. They are turning things like a POS system into a smart tablet device for their popup shops, or they are looking to online stores and mobile apps for ways to earn quick cash.
You can come up with something just as innovative and new age to target your audience and start making money. However, you’ll need to make sure that the costs will not outweigh the profits. Once you start to develop your idea, figure out how much it will cost to create the product or service.
Create a Business Plan for Fun
What does your business look like? What kind of resources do you need? What kind of funding do you think would get it off the ground? You can list out your ideas using a business plan. While this can eventually be a serious plan, you should just do business planning for fun in the beginning. This will help you put down your ideas and make it real while also giving you some things to think about. You should be able to use this business plan to show potential partners as well.
Imagine Yourself with Zero Money
What if you had to start a new business? What would you need to make to stay afloat and pay all of your bills? You also need to think of the risks when starting your business. How will you prevent yourself from going bankrupt? It’s always a good idea to have a backup plan in case everything falls through. This may mean having a backup day job or living with a relative to save on other expenses.
Patent Your Ideas
Before you start sharing your idea, you should try to set up your business and get a patent first. People are always looking to take other people’s ideas and make them their own. To prevent this, you can copyright your ideas and protect your venture so that it stays under your ownership.
Talk About Your Business Idea
You may think that your idea is impossible. If you think that it’s just a dream, then you should be able to talk about it and see what others think. You may have a great idea that just needs to be ironed out. Once you start talking about your idea, you’ll see what others think and also find ways to explain it easily to others. Some of the best plans are impossible dreams that someone believed in enough to start.
Understand Any Legal Requirements
While starting a business is exciting, there are laws that dampen the appeal. For example, you may have a business idea that involves using a POS system to purchase alcohol. Did you know that you’ll need to set up license ID checks to make sure that you abide by the law? Some of these laws are more stringent in certain states. You’ll need to look at the legal structure of your business before you get started so that you prevent yourself from getting into trouble.
Plan Your Marketing Strategy
How will people see your new brand? What’s it going to look like? This is the fun start of the business planning where you get to decide how your business will attract customers. However, you want to make sure that you think about all of the aspects, including the costs of advertising, networking, community building, PR, promotions, and social media management.
Choose Your Target Customer
When it comes to building your business, you’ll need to have a customer in mind. It’s a good idea to build a model around this audience so you know what to expect. For example, if your product or service mainly appeals to older couples who like to travel, then you’re probably looking for adventurous retirees. What kind of travel guides and packages will they be looking for? It’s important to take aim at the right customer, but you don’t want to pigeonhole your audience either. It’s important to do market research and user surveys in the beginning so you’re able to take your business to the next level.
Focus on Customer Service
You may have an amazing product, but how will you treat your customers? Most businesses forget this step when they start planning out their strategy for success. However, customer service is the biggest reason that customers return and remain loyal to a business. If something breaks or doesn’t work, how will they get a replacement or who will they talk to about their problems? You’ll need to have a customer service team who can answer these questions online, in-person, and by phone depending on your business model.
Choose the Right Name and Logo
All businesses need a good name. Of course, you want to pick something memorable and easy to read as well. You can great a list of names, starting with ideas that are catchy and then focusing on names that pertain to your business model. There are also services that can help you pick out a name. You can find them online just by typing “name my business.” In addition, how will your logo and marketing look for this brand? If you want something that’s more friendly, you’ll need to pick a slogan as well.
