If you're planning to launch a business in 2012, you'll need every last penny you can get your hands on. That's why we put together a guide to free and low-cost resources to help you ease smoothly into the world of entrepreneurship.
It's still tough out there. Credit remains relatively tight, and consumers are cautious. So arm yourself with valuable information that will help you to get off to a winning start. We're here to help. Here are the essential steps you'll need to take to get your new business off the ground.
Figure out the right concept. To be successful and happy in your own business, you need to think seriously about how you like to spend your time and where you want to live. After you've come up with a business concept that suits you personally, the next step is to research the competition, your prospective customers and the cost of getting started.
- Here are trends we think are going to be hot next year: 10 Hot Startup Sectors for New Business Ideas in 2012
- Identify your passions and the things that make you happy with these five creativity exercises.
- Have you thought about a franchise? We've got a list of 100 low-cost franchises you can start for less than $50,000.
- To estimate your startup costs, work through our free and low-cost financial forms.
Related: Five Affordable Consumer Research Tools
Create a business plan. Putting your goals on paper will help you focus your concept. A business plan typically includes details about the product or service, the competition and target consumers, plus a cash-flow projection. You'll also want to come up with a clever name for your startup.
- Explore our how-to guides on business plans, including the basics of writing your plan, what you must include and where to find help.
- As you consider names for your business, be sure to check the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's website to make sure they aren't already taken.
- You'll need to determine the structure of your business for tax purposes. Study the SBA's list of possibilities and tax implications for each one.
- Find your local chapter of SCORE, a nonprofit association created to educate and mentor entrepreneurs. It may be able to refer you to local business owners to serve as advisers.
- If you plan to recruit employees, look for guidance in our hiring center, including how to start employees on the right track. You can also review the SBA's 10 steps to making your first hire.
Find Financing. The idea is hatched, the plan is set. But nothing happens without some green. Getting a loan could prove challenging because banks often are hesitant to lend to someone without a track record. And another traditional credit source—the home equity loan—has become harder to come by since the housing market cratered and home values plummeted. So it just might be time to hit up friends and family and draw on your personal savings.
- Follow our guide to raising money for helpful tips. In particular, check out the section about startup financing.
- Search for angel investors in the directory for the Angel Capital Association. We also recap the top 10 angel investor groups that fund startups, ranked by number of investors.
- Find venture capital investors through the directory of the National Venture Capital Association.
- Try the SBA's search tool for loans and grants to find out what you may be eligible for.
- If you're considering giving up a stake in your company for cash, use our Investment ROI calculator to see how you may fare in the end.
- This search tool from MultiFunding, a loan advisory firm, will tell you how friendly your bank is toward small businesses.
Related: What Technologies Banks Should Be Using to Keep Your Money Safe
Develop and execute a marketing plan. In the Internet age, you can choose from an ever-expanding array of marketing tools, including traditional media, social networks, blogs, email and pay-per-click ads. They all require time and money, and the trick is to determine which offer the best return on investment for your particular business.
- What is a marketing plan and how should you put it together? Consider these five steps to get started.
- If you're advertising online, you will want to optimize your rank on Google and other search engines. Check out Google's beginners guide to search engine optimization.
- Become a member--for free--of the Foundation for the Advancement of Marketing Excellence in Entrepreneurs and take one of its online courses.
- Use Entrepreneur.com's calculators to determine your ROI for pay-per-click advertising and the efficiency of email marketing campaigns.
Related: Seven Tips for Improving Pay-Per-Click Campaigns
Start selling. When you hang out the "open" sign, be ready to meet your new customers with enthusiasm and the right sales pitch. Once you start attracting customers, you'll need to figure out how to keep them coming back with great service, new products and promotions.
- When approaching your first customers, you're likely to face rejection before you reach sales success. Consider these seven rules to help you cope.
- Are you going to accept credit and debit cards? If so, consult the National Federation of Independent Business for recommendations for finding a merchant card processor: You also can watch its free webinar, "Payment Processing 101 for Small Businesses."
- Now that you're making sales, you have to pay taxes, of course. Check out the IRS's Virtual Workshop to learn the basics.
- While on the road making sales calls, you can stay organized with these essential sales apps.
Related: Two Weeks to Startup
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Comments:
Superb post Cathy, I would recommend you to write something about web presence for start-ups in 2012, like to get a logo design, an e-commerce website along with SEO that you have mentioned above.
Catherine great tips, its good to have value based content pieces like this, there's so much fear and the unknown for start ups out there. Look forward to more content candy :)
Great, simple outline! Thanks!
Don't forget to secure your domain and Website! It's the age of the internet.
While this is a great overview with some really great tips across the board, I wish you could have added much much more for the potential small business owners out there. So much more goes into starting a business and as every venture or new business idea is different the roadmap is not always cookie cutter.
Thank you,this is helpful
Thank you so much for the inputs Catherine.. I am sure these inputs helps many in India and specially startups and small business. May be hiring and retain best people also would add value...
A strategic marketing plan for a startup is absolutely critical. As Catherine mentions above, not only to determine which channels and tactics are the best fit for your business and target audience, but to also clearly define who you are, what you are, how you are different, and who you are for. Personally, after providing marketing consulting for numerous startups, I would honestly say that positioning maps and finding that strong POD is the most common need and benefit derived from startup marketing.
Oh! It is awesome. I think it is very nice outline.
Its awesome... Thanks....
Thanks for the outline. When picking a business name, in addition to checking the Patent and Trademark office as you suggest, I would recommend going to Google's keyword and Adsense areas and check how many searches are done for each of the words in your potential name as well as the name in its entirety. That way, you can have an idea of how often people might stumble cross your name. I'd also recommend going to an online company that sells url's and type in your proposed name to see if anyone has taken it. If you pick your name first and only later go to buy the website, you might be sadden to find out someone else already has the web address you wanted for it.
Such a nice step by step points you @Catherine have discussed with us. These points will definitely be more helpful to the beginners to start their business effectively and will help to get the best results now in coming year. Thanks for sharing such nice article with us.
These are great tips. I would like to add that before you apply and be successful in receiving any kind of financing it’s important to prepare a cash flow projection and explain just how you plan to use the funds you are receiving. If applying for a loan, the bank will want to know how you plan to pay it down. Your cash flow projection will detail this out and provide the necessary information the bank needs to make their decision. I have detailed information on setting up a cash flow projection at www.smartbusinesscashflow.com.
If you are starting a business in 2012, eMinutes is a law firm on a mission to form 500 free corporations for first time entrepreneurs: www.eminutes.com/entrepreneurs
Great article. I would split up the first step into: 1) trend and market research 2) idea generation (sources: Bacon (1620), Deming (1982), Cole (2002) and Verhaeghe and Kfir (2002)). Moreover, I would suggest to start raising capital right from the beginning and keep raising more during the next steps. It's kind of an iterative process. Cheers, Jan
common this article looks like you had to catch up because of some deadline. Some text from here, some from there and you put an article. I am regular reader of entrepreneur but this is very repetitive.
I started my own business about 6 years ago, and I've gotta say, I wish there was an article like this back then. Nice work Catherine! Though things are working out well for me, it's been a lot of trial and error that could have been eliminated with this information.
Thank you for the auspicious writeup. It in fact was a amusement account it. Glance advanced to more introduced agreeable from you! However, how could we keep in touch?
Great list, I am a fan of SCORE and some of the other resources listed here. I know the list is of free (and almost free) tools, but as a trademark lawyer I would just caution that a simple USPTO search isn't enough to make sure you're in the clear when it comes to choosing a new brand or company name. More comprehensive clearance research isn't that expensive, and it's well worth the investment when you consider the potential costs of re-branding and/or litigation when someone else (who pays handsomely to monitor and protect their brands) comes knocking because you've chosen a trademark that is too similar to theirs.
Outstanding thanks for sharing!