Often times, frustration in our life comes and takes a seat right next to us and we begin our long journey down day dream lane, that path of “what if I were to open my own business and be my own boss”? Of course you know the dream; everyone has had them on more than one occasion in their lifetime of employment frustration, that frustrating point when you’re making minimum wage or a non-livable wage to take care of you or your family. You begin this process by asking yourself, “why am I making this guy so much money but I’m not getting my just reward”? Then the epiphany happens, “I can do this for myself,” and the dawn of entrepreneurship is born. However, where do you begin? This is the question that as an entrepreneur you will come to hate for the remainder of your time in business and you may actually be successful in your first round as a business owner or you may not; what’s important is that if you do fail on the first shot of entrepreneurship that you recognize your mistakes and try again when you’re better planned for the endeavor. This is why a business plan is so important when you are first starting out, you want to plan for mistakes and success but your ultimate goal is pure success.
Although, having the title of entrepreneur may be great but it doesn’t come without sacrifice. As a new or aspiring business owner you will find yourself working the majority of the hours even after the business has closed and you will not care because your business will be what defines you. As you begin you will wear many hats at first, as you watch your business grow from an idea to a reality and these hats will consist of accountant, marketer, product designer, real estate, interviewer, manager, loss and prevention, and many more. However, if you follow your business plan you will have few errors but you should also understand that a business plan is adjustable. So, let’s get down to brass tacks so to speak, where do you begin? First of all, the construction of a business plan is crucial if you plan on seeking any type of funding or grants outside of your own pocket and it’s just plain ole good business, then you are going to want to determine what business structure your business should be (i.e. LLC, S-Corporation, C-Corporation, LLP) each of these has its own benefits and most first time small business owners file for Limited Liability Corporation paperwork in their home state. With the filling of your corporation paperwork you will then need to separate your business assets from your personal assets, meaning basically when your paperwork is approved by the secretary of the state you will need to take your paperwork, photo identification and open a business checking account and use it only for business purposes, did I mention use it for only business purposes, this means no groceries, no Honda payments, well the car payment and groceries you could probably get by with under a tax break but it’s still bad business. It is important for your accounting, taxes, and the business that you never take money from the business for personal use; if you don’t have it in your personal account then you just don’t have it until your business either gives you a paycheck or pays you.
While, some of this may seem a little overwhelming at first don’t get bothered by the small stuff, you have plenty of time and you should utilize that time wisely to continue to work on your business plan. On average it could take anywhere from 14 days to six long weeks to get your state paperwork back from the appropriate agency. The beginning stages of opening a business is mostly paperwork and choosing what platform you are going to compete on. For example, when I mentioned real estate earlier I’m sure most of you automatically thought I was talking about either leasing or buying a brick or mortar store front. The reality of real estate is defined by where you intend on competing, if you intend on competing on an e-commerce platform this will unlock global competition versus a physical store front available only to your local community or you could have both a store front with an e-commerce page giving clients or customers a more convenient way to access your goods or services. The brick and mortar store front with e-commerce gives the functionality to compete with larger business entities. However, if the financing is not available for a brick and mortar store front starting with an e-commerce business model can reap just as many rewards with less overhead than a more traditional storefront. The business models both work the same and operate on the same level of business and should offer the same functionality to the consumer or client. However, an e-commerce storefront whether it’s business to business (B2B) or general retail gives you the opportunity to put more revenue back in your pocket for long term expanded growth.
While, we can breakdown every aspect of starting a new business some key concepts that I consider to be an absolute must are budgeting, especially for marketing and this also depends on what type of marketing you intend to put your resources into. For example, Google Ad-Words is a great place to start to get either your e-commerce or brick and mortar business some traffic. When I mean traffic I use that in a traditional sense, this is when you actually have visitors come and visit your physical store location or your web-store to make purchases to generate revenue. However, I don’t think that it’s a wise idea to go for more traditional marketing when you are first starting your own business simply due to the cost which can lead to enormous overhead. The digital age has shown us that we can generate a substantial amount of revenue by utilizing geo-targeting, keywords, and targeting a specific audience for your goods or services. The emphasis on marketing should be one of your top priorities as a new or aspiring business owner as well as having a generous budget for your revenue goals. This should also lead you to do your share of market research to make sure the market can support your future endeavor, market research and market analysis are also key points you will need to focus on in your business plan. Unfortunately, I do believe that advertising on certain social media sites such as Facebook are far too expensive for the new and aspiring business owner but they do however, offer an invaluable resource and that’s a fan page for your new business. After all the name of the marketing game is exposure as much as you can as fast as you can as long as it is all positive.
The complete understanding to new entrepreneurship is a never ending lesson, just as it is full of layers that you have to peel one back at a time as you learn and sometimes making crucial mistakes can be an invaluable lesson even when they hurt your pride and your wallet but rest assured it is those mistakes that you will not make again. No one can give anyone the magic answer to success because in order to achieve you have to put the work in, put the time in, and be diligent about what it is you are trying to accomplish. I like to think that with all my business failures and success stories that I have come a long way from the day I made that rash decision that would eventually lead to my first business that would also lead me to my first business failure. I point this out because the business world is not a world where we can sit and dream of a better life, mistakes happen and they happen often, the difference is, knowing when the hole you have dug yourself into is deep enough. The business world is an ever change world and when you think you have learned everything you should probably rethink that thought. There can be success for everyone but the business environment will have no toleration for irrational mistakes, I don’t knows, or I didn’t think about that, you are entering into an arena where you will be playing on the same field as the super elite minds of business, it is a necessity to bring you’re A-game anything less and you will leave this arena defeated. However, don’t fear rejection but be completely terrified of failure and make this your mantra and success will be yours as you evolve into the next business world elite.
With that I say," welcome to the arena!
-Anthony Morgan
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