It seems that people are growing increasingly tired of the nine-to-five grind and working for someone else. In fact, 29% of people are becoming entrepreneurs because they want more control over their lives and to be their own boss.
Still, it’s important to understand that while becoming an entrepreneur can give you more freedom over what you do with your life, it still requires a lot of time, hard work, and dedication. Running a business is not easy, and it comes with plenty of risks.
Around 20% of new businesses fail within the first year, in fact. However, this is not meant to deter you but rather to show that while starting your own business can be freeing and bring you a lot of joy, it requires commitment and self-discipline if you want to succeed.
In this article, we’ll offer tips and guidance on how to start your own business to help you feel more prepared and ready to face any challenges that may come your way.
8 Tips for Becoming an Entrepreneur and Starting a Business
If you’ve given this a lot of thought debating between job vs entrepreneurship and think you’re ready to become an entrepreneur, the tips below can help guide you. Learn all you can as you start your first business after solely being an employee during your career journey thus far.
1. Do Your Research
The first step of starting any business is to do your research and then do some more. Even if you’ve already done your research on starting a business, there is likely plenty more you can and should still learn. In truth, if you are going to be a successful entrepreneur, you should never stop doing research.
The market, customers, and business trends can all constantly change. So you should always be doing your research to stay up-to-date and in-the-know. This will ensure you are making the right decisions for your business, regardless of industry.
But before you’ve even started, you should definitely know your potential market through and through, including your target audience and customer base. Your customers will be key to keeping you in business, so you really want to know and understand them to build a brand and create products or services that meet their needs.
This includes doing marketing research — or hiring someone to help you with marketing research — to develop the right brand name, logo, and all other content to ensure it makes sense for your business and will appeal to your target consumers.
2. Develop a Solid Business Plan
Of course, the next step when opening a new business is to develop a great business plan. Your business plan is the roadmap for how you want to structure, run, and grow your business, and it is essential to have a clear plan with clear goals if you want to stay on track and succeed.
This should include things like the size of your business, where it will be located, strategies for how to run your business day-to-day, financial goals and plans, policies and procedures, company philosophy, what you want the workplace culture to be like, the packages or programs you want to offer employees, and future goals of where you’d like your company to be in five years and beyond.
3. Get Funding
Funding is crucial when starting a new business. You need to have the right amount just to get started, enough to hold you over until you start turning a profit, and additional funding to help you grow your business as you start expanding and hiring more employees. And if you don’t have all of this money on hand, you’ll need to either raise it, take out a loan, or procure investors.
4. Have a Recovery Plan
This is something that is often overlooked, but having a recovery plan in case something goes wrong is something every entrepreneur should consider when starting a business. Primarily, this means having enough saved up to keep your business afloat in case disaster strikes.
You never know what could happen down the road, so always have a backup or recovery plan that includes emergency funds and even the right insurance policy to protect your business. You can also create a document that guides your employees on how to handle any adverse situations internally and externally. This can include policies for their pay and job security, as well as how to communicate to customers about a negative event.
5. Register Your Business and Get Set Up for Taxes
Once you have a solid business plan and strategy in place and have done your research, it’s time to start officially getting your business set up.
This means registering your business with the government, opening a business bank account, getting your tax ID/employer identification number set up, and obtaining any necessary licenses or permits. Check with your specific state and jurisdiction to see what licenses are required in your area to run your particular business.
6. Hire and Recruit the Right People
The people you hire to help you run your business are just as important as the business plan itself. You want to make sure you are hiring quality people that will help your business, not hinder it. Part of this process includes deciding when to hire in-house or when to outsource.
New businesses don’t always have a lot of money for overhead costs, so it can be wise sometimes to initially outsource some of your work before paying more to hire employees full-time.
7. Develop the Right Leadership and Management Skills
Naturally, when you run a business, there are countless people on a daily or weekly basis that you will have to communicate with aside from potential and current clients.
This can include board members, investors, business partners, and your own staff. It’s important for you to develop the right skills to help you effectively communicate with these people, including clear communication, good listening skills, empathy, and proper management skills.
This should also include learning the sales skills and strategies necessary to help you make business deals and close sales. Whether you are just starting out or looking to expand, you will have to make business deals at some point to help your company grow and succeed. Learning how to negotiate and communicate with other decision-makers is essential.
8. Maintain a Healthy Work-Life Balance
Starting a new business is not easy, and it can impact your mental health if you aren’t careful. Pay close attention to how you are feeling, physically and emotionally, during the startup phase. This is especially important for aspiring business owners struggling with mental health issues, but anyone can benefit from a positive work-life balance.
While hard work and dedication are key to starting a business, you also need to listen to your body and know when to take a break to address your needs. If you neglect your mental health, it can negatively affect how well you are capable of running your business.
To avoid this, make sure you maintain a healthy work-life balance and take time to enjoy things outside of work. Burnout happens to CEOs and entrepreneurs, and it’s no joke.
As long as you take breaks and do what you need to do to take care of yourself, you should be able to maintain a healthier mental and emotional state. If it helps, have someone close to you keep you accountable for taking breaks from your new business venture.
Final Thoughts
No two businesses are the same and there is no one right way to do things. However, the tips above can at least guide you as you get started transitioning from employee to entrepreneur.
Just remember to do your research and spend time developing a solid business plan. How you start can make or break your business, so the more planning you do, the better.
Of course, even with planning, there are always risks and challenges that you will face as an aspiring business owner. The more prepared you are, the easier it will be to overcome the hurdles that come your way.
