12-Steps to Avoid Business Failure
Essential steps to reducing risk and avoiding failure.
As a New Business Consultant, I create content for new entrepreneurs every day. I can't say enough that starting a business is a process, and it takes time.
There are 12 startup steps to starting any business, no matter what business idea you have, or whether you want to stay small or be the next Amazon.
It's easy to believe that you can start a business without planning. "Taking the leap" has been taken out of context! The "leap" has never excluded the need for learning and planning - at least for successful entrepreneurs.
Without a doubt, your success is in the planning. So, even though your business is new, small, or home-based, you still need to plan the same as big businesses.
These 12 startup steps will help you gain clarity about every aspect of the business you’re starting. If you don't take these 12 steps seriously, your business could fail before it even gets off the ground. I am sure you want to start your new business with the best possible odds of success. So before you dive in and start making things up as you go along, let's talk about these 12 essential startup steps.
Let’s get started!
From the moment you have an idea to the point of getting sales, with whatever steps you take, not addressing the 12 essential steps in your initial business planning could mean encountering them later, struggling to survive, or business failure.
12 ESSENTIAL STEPS OF THE BUSINESS STARTUP PROCESS:
Discover the perfect business idea for you and develop a business concept. You must start a business you enjoy or are passionate about. You will be more likely to work at and achieve success.
Validate idea, Identify target market, and determine Income potential. This will ensure that you have a buying market for your products.
Create a family of product and service solutions. This is the core of your business that ensures you are solving your customers’ problems.
Establish Cost, Prices, and Profit. Every business must be profitable to sustain its operation.
Create a S.W.O.T. Analysis and Competitor Landscape. Just because you are new or small doesn’t mean you don’t have competition. You do, and they are actively selling to your customers. This step will help you gain market share.
Create a Marketing message, plan, and strategy. Small businesses must strategize too! Marketing is how you communicate with your target.
Create a Management Plan. Think through how you are going to manage your business now and in the future. As you visualize your growing business, document startup costs for Overhead, HR, Assets, and other expenses’; Also consider implementing policy, quality control, larger order production, and future business goals.
Finalize the Startup Budget. Determining how much money you need to start your business is critical. You will need enough to get going and sustain monthly operations until the business starts to generate sales.
Capital, Funding Sources, Partnership Agreements. In addition to funding your startup, you need to know who is willing to invest in you, your partner contributions, and the percentage of ownership for each partner.
Create a Business Model. This is the ideal approach to establish how your business is going to build, grow, expand, and scale.
Launch and execute strategies. These are two different tasks that work in harmony. Make sure your launch is successful by executing your marketing strategies that get attention on day-1.
Tracking methods, financial analysis. Once you have executed your strategies, track them to determine which are effective. Make adjustments and focus your efforts on improving, improving, improving.
These 12 steps will put you in a very good position to succeed.
FREE DOWNLOAD
To help you dig deeper and take action with these steps, I have an interactive Business Startup Checklist that you can download for free.
The Business Startup Checklist lists each of these steps and more. With it, you can keep track of what you've accomplished and stay organized along the way.
You can also download our Trial Version of Workshop-I. It is the quintessential tool for new entrepreneurs starting their first business. Effortlessly, it will guide you through the business planning process, reducing the risk of failure, and of course, increasing your chances for success.
Much Success.
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