In this article, I will show you how you can successfully start a business in 8 steps. Of course, I’m not going to go into detail about what you have to do in detail, because that would go well beyond the scope of the article.
1) Develop an Idea
Every good business, first of all, needs a good idea which is supposed to solve a real problem and where the market is not too competitive. And the most important thing is that you have fun with what you want to do, because if you don’t have fun, your motivation will decrease very quickly if the first successes are not achieved immediately.
2) Decide who you want to bring on board
It depends a lot on what you actually want to do. If you only need a little capital for your future business, then of course you are not dependent on external investors. But it is different if you need external capital: Decide here very precisely from whom you would like to receive capital. Because investors, in particular, are often only interested in their business developing quickly so that they can then sell their shares again after usually around 5 years. It is therefore often irrelevant for investors how the company develops in the long term.
3) Analyze your Market
How big is the market? How strong is the competition? How big are the competitors? Can you possibly specialize further within this market? Investigate your market very carefully, because this is where many start-ups make mistakes. Often you underestimate the competition, do not know that there are companies that have already implemented your idea, etc.
4) Plan Your Business
Develop a revenue model, create a sales and marketing plan, and budget for your business. In this way, banks or investors can analyze and evaluate your idea, and such a well-developed business plan shows your expertise and that you have dealt with your idea in detail.
Set milestones for yourself that you want to have achieved after certain periods of time. If possible, these goals should also be provided with numbers, i.e. quantified, so that you can see whether you have actually achieved your goals.
5) Prepare to Start
Preparing for a start includes a number of things, including opening a bank account, business registration, taking out necessary insurance …
Investing in essential equipment such as printers, computers, and quality laptops is crucial to starting and running a successful business as it enables you to efficiently manage your operations and deliver high-quality services to your customers.
And of course you should now also decide in which region you would like to set up a business. After all, the region can also be very decisive for founders’ later success. Starting with the different taxes to the infrastructure, it can often be worthwhile to think carefully about where you want to start your business.
6) Product Development
Develop a good product and price strategy in order to be able to position your product or service as precisely as possible in the market. For example: Would you prefer to sell your product in the low-cost segment or is it a high-end product?
7) Find Staff
If you don’t need staff, you can skip this step, otherwise this is probably one of the most important steps. Only hire people who fit your desired corporate culture. Also think carefully about which responsibilities you hand over to the individual employees and which roles these employees should take on.
8) Raise Capital
Finally, you still need the capital to get started. In the second step, you already considered where you would get your capital from. If you finance everything yourself you are of course in a comfortable situation, but for the founders who are dependent on external capital, it is now important to convince investors or banks of your idea.
Business angels are often ideal for very young startups. Although they only bring smaller amounts of capital with them, business angels score more on the technical side. They often have a large network with very good contacts and have usually already founded successful companies themselves and therefore know “how things go”.
Venture capitalists can provide you with a lot of capital, but they don’t look after young startups as well as business angels.
As you can see, it is important to make a precise plan, because just starting out doesn’t work so well in most cases.
