Starting a business involves navigating a multitude of complex issues, including legal, financing, sales and marketing, intellectual property protection, liability protection, human resources, and more. However, with the current interest in entrepreneurship at an all-time high and many successful stories of startups growing into billion-dollar companies, such as Uber, Facebook, WhatsApp, Airbnb, and more, starting your own business can be an exciting and fulfilling endeavor.
To help you get started, here are 35 key steps to consider when starting a business, with links to additional resources for more in-depth information.
1. Understand the challenges and commitment involved in starting a business, including coming up with a great and unique product or service, having a strong plan and vision for the business, securing sufficient capital and cash flow, finding and retaining great employees, firing bad employees quickly and legally, managing your time efficiently, maintaining a reasonable work/life balance, and knowing when to pivot your strategy.
2. Protect your personal assets by forming your business as a corporation, S corporation, C corporation, or limited liability company (LLC) to minimize personal liability. Ensure you follow corporate formalities, such as using the corporate name, using proper signature, following bylaws, keeping funds and taxation separate, and keeping transactions separate, to further minimize risk.
3. Select a great name for your business by avoiding difficult-to-spell names, limiting names, conducting thorough Internet and trademark searches, and testing the name with employees, partners, investors, and potential customers.
4. Prioritize building a great product or service by differentiating it in meaningful ways from the competition and getting it to market quickly enough to obtain customer feedback.
5. Create a great website for your business that is search engine optimized, features high-quality content, loads quickly, has a memorable “.com” domain name, showcases your products or services, and encourages visitor engagement.
6. Develop a concise and compelling elevator pitch to introduce your business to investors, customers, employees, or partners. Start strong, be enthusiastic, and tailor the pitch to the audience while conveying why your business is unique and the problem it solves.
7. Establish a written founder agreement with co-founders to clarify the details of your business relationship, including equity split, vesting, roles and responsibilities, buyback rights, time commitment, salaries, decision-making, removal, asset contributions, sale, and dispute resolution.
Starting a business is no easy feat, but with proper planning and execution, it can be a rewarding and successful venture. Use these key steps as a guide to help you along the way, and be sure to seek out additional resources and support to address any challenges you may face.