Yeah, sure it’s easy, and needless to say, that title is a little tongue in cheek. It takes plenty of hard work to get a business off the ground. But, it’s worth every hour I’ve spent getting to where I am now.
When I chose to start my connection and image consulting enterprise, I tried hard to find an excellent startup guide. I couldn’t find any that had all of the steps. So, I decided to create one. So far, it’s mostly just the bare-bones outline (which happens to be long enough as it is) you see in this write-up.
I’ll be adding to it every week or 2, and writing far more detailed articles on all of the steps, so try to stop by and check it out every now and then. Allow me to know how I’m doing. Shoot off an email to me if I’ve forgotten something or you have questions.
Before you spend so much as a dollar, speak to a few experts. Go to the library or get on the internet and research, research, research. Take a little time to make sure entrepreneurship is right for you.
Make a pro and con list of venture ownership, and evaluate yourself honestly. The number of characteristics do you have in common with profitable business men? Is your financial position strong enough? Do you have the needed technical and management skills?
You’re not going to be the perfect entrepreneur. Nobody is. But to be able to make yourself the best entrepreneur you could be, look at ways to compensate for just about any weaknesses you might have.
I’m from Canada, so the government agencies I’ve mentioned in this guide are Canadian, but really, it can certainly be used by anyone. All you must do, if you’re from somewhere other than Canada, is find out where you have to find some of the things I’ll converse about. Some of the steps might be slightly different, and you may not have to worry about things like GST as an example, but I’m sure you’ll find this discussion helpful all the same.
These steps to starting a venture are in reasonably good order, but you might find yourself varying from it under your particular circumstances. That really isn’t a big deal, as long as you get most of it done. You will find some steps you’ll be able to skip as well, but please really don’t skip any of the “big ones”, which I’m sure you’ll pretty much figure out from taking a look at the list.
So, assuming you’ve done your evaluation and you still want to begin an enterprise, take a deep breath, and let’s get started.
1. Conduct a feasibility study of your venture. Describe your typical customer, your product and your competitors. Who will your suppliers be? What will you charge for your product? How will you market your product? These are simply a few of the questions you need to answer.
2. Write a complete venture plan for your company, using the information you gathered from your feasibility study. This vitally important, often overlooked step requires to incorporate a description of your enterprise, its goals, competitors, market, financial information, and needless to say, how you intend to meet your goals.
3. Get your financing in place. One can find many ways to finance your enterprise, from your own savings to personal credit cards to banking institution loans. In the event you need credit, know your business plan from front to back and maybe even sideways.
4. Decide what kind of structure your business will have. From a legal standpoint, you will find three basic choices, sole proprietorship, partnership and incorporation, each with advantages and disadvantages.
5. Choose a name for your business and check on name availability. Naming your corporation is highly individual, but it’s the first thing associated with your business, so choose your name carefully. You’ll must do a NUANS (Newly Upgraded Automated Name Search) report, which checks your name choices for uniqueness against a database of other venture names. A reserved name is valid for 90 days.
6. Decide whether you want to register federally or provincially and register your enterprise. If you register federally, you’ll also have to register provincially, which almost doubles the expense. You really don’t have to have legal counsel process them for you, but it might be a fantastic concept to at least seek advice from one. You might get the forms from your local government office, have them faxed to you or download them. You might fax or email printed copies, or complete the forms internet
7. Contact Canada Revenue Agency Business Window for your venture number, and to register for GST/HST, payroll, corporate income tax and import/export (if applicable). You can certainly also contact the CRA if you need general information about business expenses. Chances are you’ll have to collect GST, but you may want to register for a GST number even should you do not have to collect it because of input tax credits.
8. Decide whether you need to collect PST. Should you do, you need to submit “Registration as a Vendor” documents with your province.
9. Determine whether one can find special permits or licenses in your municipality. It’s highly unlikely that your municipality does not have special permits or licenses.
10. Develop the marketing materials you decided on in your business plan. They should include at least an enterprise identity package, press kit and site. Your identity package is your logo, business card and letterhead. A press kit can certainly include letters of introduction, biography sheets, press releases, articles and a brochure. In today’s electronic age, printed materials aren’t enough. You will need an internet site that looks professional, matches your printed material and has great copy. You’ll also want to make sure it’s optimized for search engines.
11. Set up your enterprise banking institution account and record-keeping system. Your banker will must see your incorporation documents, and you should likely create more than one account so you might keep track of your finances better. Record-keeping is required, and might be done manually or with a computer program.
12. Purchase insurance. You’ll find many different types of insurance, but most most likely your corporation will need at least one. For instance, if you’re going to have employees, you must contact the Worker’s Compensation plan Board. Depending on your type of business, you might want to contact them even in the event you really don’t have employees to insure yourself.
13. Contact potential creditors and build credit terms. You should have researched suppliers whenever you were doing your feasibility study. Now is the time to contact them.
14. Decide where your venture will be located. Lease your business’ space. Alternatively, you could choose to begin your business from home if it’s feasible. You’ll find advantages and disadvantages to starting your venture from home. You have tax write-offs as an example, but sometimes your image suffers.
15. Purchase supplies and office equipment. You’ll need too a lot of things to list here, and of course, each enterprise has different must have. You might need a fax machine and printer. You’ll most likely need a pc. You’ll certainly need paper, pens, pencils and a calculator.
Congratulations! Go out, buy yourself a bottle of champagne and celebrate. You’re about to embark on a most exciting journey. And may I be the first to wish you good luck and prosperous times in your business venture.
As promised, here’s my email address so you might ask questions, make comments or add steps to my list. Or, if you want, you could just drop me a line to let me know how your small enterprise is doing. I’d really like to know.
The author is the founder of online advertising firm nyc and A NJ Search Enginer Marketing services firm. For more on small businesses, visit the author’s blog.