Which Way?

You've read up on all the pros and cons of each of the five startup approaches. How can you tell which one fits you best? Lea Strickland of FOCUS Resources advises aspiring entrepreneurs to do some serious self-examination. "Something usually drives someone to make the decision. Either they've been outsourced a number of times, their company has been downsized... [or] it's just something they've always wanted to do," she says. When you've got a fire in your belly for entrepreneurship, an outside catalyst can tell you that it's time to start up-and then your passions will help you determine which type of business suits you.

If you need lots of guidance and blueprints, a franchise is probably for you. If you like things your own way, without any outside influence, start from your own idea. If you're really good at revamping an old concept into something new and cool, perhaps that's the way to business for you. And if you're on a shoestring budget, you probably won't have enough upfront capital to buy an existing business. "The thing you need to take into consideration is where you are personally at this point in time," says Strickland. "Part of that decision is [also] knowing what financial resources you have and how much you're going to have to commit to the business."

On to the Next Destination
Getting the word out about your new business is key to any successful enterprise-but different startup tactics require different marketing tactics. When you buy a business, for instance, you need to determine if it's a local, regional or national brand, says Robert Manasier, a marketing expert with InFocusBrands.com, a branding and marketing company in Stony Point, New York. The company's current brand profile will help you determine your marketing moves: Do you need to expand? Do you need to get better regional brand recognition before going national? Should you go national at all?

And even though franchise marketing plans are usually set out for you, Manasier suggests tailoring those big national ads to your own community and getting your own flavor into the ad templates the franchisor provides, as much as the franchise agreement allows.

In marketing for a niche, he says, "You need to understand your competitors and your market to make sure you position your [niche] company correctly-how you say [your message], what colors you use, who you're speaking to-so that you speak their language."

If you create a business from a completely new idea, you might be overwhelmed by marketing choices. Manasier suggests boiling everything down to one simple message that says it all about your company and reinforcing that in all your marketing materials.

No matter what startup method you choose, says Manasier, "Make sure everything you create for your marketing goes back to that [one] message."

This article was originally published in the October 2005 print edition of Entrepreneur's StartUps with the headline: Which Way?.