How To Save A Small Fortune When Launching Your New Company

/in /by

StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article |Launch a new company|How To Save A Small Fortune When Launching Your New CompanyIf you’re thinking about launching a new company during the next couple of months, you’re probably worrying about getting the investment you need to get the concept off the ground. Sure, you’re going to need some cash to turn your business dreams into a reality, but there are plenty of ways to reduce your spending and save a small fortune if you pay attention to the expert advice on this page.

Today, we’re going to take a look at some of the most straightforward and simple ways you can limit the amount you need to invest in getting your venture off the ground. Depending on your business idea’s nature, you may have to tailor some of these suggestions accordingly. Just use some common sense!

Work from home during the early days

There is no reason to rent an office or buy business premises when you’re just starting out. In most instances, you can save lots of money by working from home. Maybe you have a spare bedroom or a garage that you can convert into an office? Perhaps you can take a desk up to your attic or something similar?

Working from home will mean you don’t have to worry about renting an office until you begin to make a profit. Of course, there are some downsides to working from home, and you’ll have to work hard to limit their impact as much as possible.

For example, working from home can become a real pain if you have family members or children in the house. So, you need to make sure they know to leave you alone when you’re sitting at your desk. The last thing you need is for the kids to knock on your door every five minutes.

StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article |Launch a new company|How To Save A Small Fortune When Launching Your New Company Outsource some of the work

You can increase your output during your business’s early stages without spending too much money if you choose to outsource some of the work. You can’t afford to hire employees at the moment, so it’s sensible to find freelancers willing to help out on an as and when basis.

There are lots of excellent freelancing websites you can use to find the right professionals, and you just need to open an account to get started. In most instances, you will post a job, and the freelancers will bid for the work. You then select the individual you deem most suitable and let them get started.

Some of the best freelancing websites around today include:

  • People Per Hour
  • Fiverr
  • Guru
  • DesignCrowd
  • Upwork

StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article |Launch a new company|How To Save A Small Fortune When Launching Your New CompanyPurchase the items you need in bulk

Experts from Supply Link USA and many other professionals claim that buying your essentials in bulk could help you to save a fortune in business expenses. Whether you need to purchase ink and toner for your printer and photocopier, or you need stationery and other items, bulk buying is the best solution.

Don’t make the mistake of buying the things you need from high street retailers because you will pay the highest prices. Instead, you should look towards getting in touch with the suppliers who stock those stores. At the end of the day, you’re in the business world now, and you can get lots of discounts if you’re smart.

Use the latest software

New business software reaches the market every single day, and using it can save you a lot of working hours, according to The Balance. Sure, you’ll have to make an initial investment to get the solutions you require. However, they could save you lots of money in the long run. Why employ humans to perform a task when there is software out there that will do it?

Take some time to research your competitors and the software they use to run their operations if you struggle to know where to start. There is no harm in replicating the processes used by other companies in your industry when you’re just starting out.

Also, find some reputable blogs and news websites that publish articles about your industry. That way, you should remain at the forefront of the market and ensure you hear about any new revelations or software releases ahead of time.

Automate as much as possible

Automation is everything in the business world at the moment, and you’ll need to automate as many of your essential processes as possible if you want to make a killing while reducing your expenses.

It doesn’t make sense to pay someone to enter information into a database for hours when you can find software that will do it instantly. The same goes for lots of other processes and actions within your operation. If you can work out a way to automate them, you shouldn’t have to spend any additional cash.

Depending on your industry and your company’s nature, it could be possible to automate everything from lead generation to distribution if you’re smart.

Ask friends and family to help

Lastly, sometimes you need to call on people who care about you if you need to reduce costs when launching a new business. You might even think about asking them for funding. While you might not have enough capital to employ workers outright, you’ll probably need some assistance. That is where your friends and family could come in handy.

Ask people you trust if they’re willing to lend a hand for a few hours for free whenever you need some help. If it makes you feel better, you could offer to pay the person for their time when your company begins to make a profit. You could even promise to offer them a job first whenever you’re ready to employ workers.

You should now have some excellent ideas that will help you to save a small fortune when launching a new business venture during the next few months. Be sure to spend a lot of time on your business plan and make sure you cover all the bases if you don’t want to face any nasty surprises. Understand your costs, budget accordingly, and make sure you have some cash spare in case something goes wrong. If you do that, nothing should stand between yourself and business success.

Reputation And Entrepreneurship- What Startups Can Do To Enhance It

/in /by

StrategyDriven Starting Your Busines Article |Enhance Reputation |Reputation And Entrepreneurship- What Startups Can Do To Enhance ItStarting up a new business is never easy but this wouldn’t dissuade someone born with an entrepreneurial streak. When you establish your dream venture, there’s always a lot to handle. Apart from the financial challenges and hard work to be invested, you need to be very careful about managing your reputation at all times. One slip at this stage can throw your reputation off track and your company may never be able to take off.

On the other hand, a solid reputation right from the start can build the trust, credibility, and loyalty of your customers. Also, it can present you as a reliable prospect for suppliers and partners. Together, these factors can give you the growth push that your startup needs. It makes sense to put all the effort you can in building your reputation. Here are some measures that can help you enhance the reputation of your entrepreneurial venture.

Invest in consistent branding

Branding serves as the bridge between a business and its customers. It is all the more important at the startup stage when you want the potential audience to know, recognize, and recall your business. Investing in a consistent branding initiative makes it possible to build a reputation for your product and brand. Start by creating a compelling narrative that highlights your value proposition. Encourage the first customers to stay with your brand and propagate it with word-of-mouth recommendations. Incentivize them for spreading the word around because people tend to trust other people rather than brands. Ensure that the tone of voice and messaging is consistent across all the branding channels.

Have the right people on board

While a great branding plan gets you a head start with your reputation, you cannot sideline the value that people can add to your brand’s presence. This is one more reason why entrepreneurs should prioritize having the best people in their team. Hard skills do matter but you should onboard people who are great with interpersonal skills as well. Customer-facing roles, in particular, require extra care and attention. After all, these are the people who will interact with your customers. Moreover, those dealing with suppliers, vendors, and partners should also be capable of keeping up your reputation with positive and friendly interactions.

Steer clear of legal issues

Legal hassles are one of the most common reasons why any business may face reputational damage. Startups are at a higher risk because they aren’t aware of the issues they may come across, from intellectual property breaches to founder disputes, workplace discrimination and more. The legal risk can be unexpected, like personal injury cases from customers and third parties. The injured victim will probably get a law firm offering top-notch legal solutions to represent them for a compensation claim. While lawsuits have financial implications, the loss of reputation can be a bigger issue. So you must do everything you can to steer clear of them in the first place.

Get the basics right

Besides avoiding specific legal issues, getting your basics right is equally important to protect your reputation as a startup. This is something that a majority of founders overlook and end up paying a heavy price. Double-check your calculations while doing sales figures, financials, and taxes. Go the extra mile with product design safety and testing and avoid service errors that may bring bad reviews. Do everything possible to keep customers happy because a single bad review can send your reputation plummeting. Even if you do get a negative review, address it immediately and try winning the customer’s favor.

Grow at an optimal pace

It may be great to experience booming growth and have a huge customer base quickly. But an unrealistic speed of growth can actually lead to unrealistic expectations that you may not be able to handle in the long run. Your efforts should be to move ahead at a consistent yet optimal pace, focusing on long-term relationships rather than only immediate revenues and profits. Keep a close eye on your growth graph and ensure that you are always on the right track. The processes you have in place should be scalable and reproducible with other people, rather than being dependent on only a few people.

Your reputation depends on your business and it works the other way around as well. So it becomes important to follow the best practices and be committed to giving the best to your customers. Avoid every small slip and admit your mistake even if you make them. A proactive approach towards resolving issues goes a long way in giving you a healthier reputation.

5 Key Considerations When Buying A Business

/in /by

StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article | 5 Key Considerations When Buying A Business

Building a business from scratch is a challenging and lengthy process. Many professionals prefer to achieve their entrepreneurial dreams by purchasing an existing business. Perhaps you’ve been considering this venture and are wondering how to take the first steps? To help you get started on your journey, take a look at these five key considerations when buying a business.

1. Determine your needs

Before you start looking for businesses to purchase, it’s important to determine your needs. Your criteria will likely include several different factors:

  • Size: Are you looking to purchase a small, large, or mid-sized business? Large businesses may appear more attractive (profit wise). Small businesses are usually easier to manage.
  • Location: Which location are you looking to buy in? Remember that the location will have a direct impact on the company finances.
  • Industry: Which industry are you looking to purchase in? It’s wise to work with professionals who deal with buying and selling within your chosen industry specifically. For example, BSF specializes in the purchase and sale of funeral home businesses.

2. Prepaid expenses

Usually, prepaid expenses will not be included as part of the purchase price. You’ll need to separately determine what these expenses are. Failing to gain the correct info about prepaid expenses could severely affect your budget. You’ll want your budget to be air-tight from the get-go, so it’s essential to factor in all costs.

3. Assess growth potential

When you are considering buying a business, you will need to assess its potential for growth. You can do this by completing market research and by closely studying the future profit projections. When you’re liasing with the sellers, it’s important to establish the reason for the sale. Determine any problems which you may encounter when attempting to grow this business in the current market.

4. Due diligence

Due diligence is one of the most important aspects of any business sale. The process involves a full investigation of the legal and financial aspects of the company. Typical areas of investigation include real estate, employees, contracts, and finances. You should not enter into a contract until a trained lawyer has completed your due diligence process. The business in question will likely use a data room so that both parties can access the documents that they need. At this stage, you can draft a letter of intent; this letter should state the potential agreement. The letter of intent is not a contract, and the contract should not be signed until the due diligence process is complete.

5. Hire a business broker

Perhaps you’re having trouble finding a business that meets your needs? In this case, it can be useful to use a business broker. A broker will help you to pre-screen businesses, and negotiate deals. You’ll need to exchange plenty of data throughout the process, and it can be useful to have professional support.

Buying a business is a huge decision, and so no aspect of the procedure should be rushed. With the right team of professionals behind you, the decision-making process is far easier.

Facts About LLCs All Business Owners Should Know

/in /by

A Limited Liability Company or an LLC is a company structure that borrows some features from Corporations and others from Partnerships.

Similar to Corporations, LLCs provide you with a huge advantage in the form of limited liability protection. On the other hand, LLCs have a flow-through taxation structure, just like it is in Partnerships.

In a nutshell, LLCs can be considered hybrids.

If you are someone who is looking to form their own LLC, take a step back. First, consider the pros and cons of LLCs carefully.
What Are the Advantages of LLCs?

Let’s first check out the advantages of forming LLCs:

  • Forming LLCs is easy and also relatively inexpensive.
  • Because of the limited liability feature of LLCs, none of the members is liable to pay the debts of the LLC personally.
  • The members of the LLC can decide how they want the profits to be distributed.
  • You don’t need to maintain formal records of resolutions or meetings for LLCs.
  • LLCs do not have a double taxation system.

What Are the Disadvantages of LLCs?

While LLCs do offer a lot of advantages for small business owners, they do also have their own drawbacks.

Here are some of the disadvantages of LLCs:

  • Federal, as well as state-level filings, are required for all LLCs.
  • You need to pay state filing fees for the year when you form the company, and every year consequently.
  • An LLC isn’t the best structure for companies with investors who want to make their companies public.

Now that you have a balanced perspective on LLCs, you can make an informed decision. If you are still interested in forming your own LLC, here is what you need to do.

Steps to Form Your Own LLC

The first step to form your LLC is to apply for your LLC EIN (Employer Identification Number). Once you get it, you need to file Articles of Organization with the Secretary of State.

That’s not all.

In addition to this, you are also required to make an operating agreement for your LLC. This agreement should outline the financial as well as functional frameworks for your LLC.

It should also clearly define responsibilities and profit distribution between members. Although creating an operating agreement isn’t a requirement in all states, it is recommended that you make one.

Want to know more about forming LLCs? Check out the infographic below by GovDocFiling.

The Essentials Facts of LLCs You Need to Know as a Small Business Owner

Image Courtesy: GovDocFiling

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Brett ShapiroBrett Shapiro is a co-owner of GovDocFiling. He had an entrepreneurial spirit since he was young. He started GovDocFiling, a simple resource center that takes care of the mundane, yet critical, formation documentation for any new business entity.

Are You Ready to Start a Home-based Business?

/in /by

StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article |Home-based Business|Are You Ready to Start a Home-based Business?Many people think about starting a business from home when they are passionate about something and/or have a talent. Working from home and being your own boss is an attractive prospect, but for most, it is certainly not an easy or quick way to make a living.

When deciding whether to start a home-based business, there are two key questions to ask yourself: are you ready to start a business, and are you in a position to run a business from home? The answer is not necessarily a simple yes or no, as there is a lot to consider. This article outlines the key points to examine before you make the decision.

Your personality and talents

We are all born with a predisposition for certain talents and traits, i.e. we are naturally better at some things than others. That is not to say that we cannot learn, diversify, and develop with experience, but often we have the greatest success in what comes naturally and what we enjoy.

Take some time to consider your talents and personality traits which could be assets when running a business, e.g. creativity, self-motivation, communication, resilience, discipline. You may decide that you are not well-suited to running a business and would be better suited to being employed but with more flexible hours/remote working options.

Your skills

While we are born with personality traits and talents, our skills are developed as we go along through experience and training. You might have design skills, organizational skills, writing skills, accounting skills, or people management skills, for example. You can gain and develop new skills as you run your business, but it is best to begin a business which complements what you already have.

Your talents, skills, experience, and interests should all come together to influence your choice of business. Starting a business in an industry in which you have no experience or knowledge is setting yourself up for an uphill battle, so capitalize on your assets. You should begin with a long list of possible ideas before whittling them down to just a handful of options which pique your interest.

Your home

Now that you have some ideas for a business, it is time to consider whether they are likely to function as a home-based business. There are several factors to consider including the location of your home, any local laws or licensing issues, how much space you will need, equipment, utilities, and living arrangements.

If you have a garage or spare room, you may be able to run a business, but if you are restricted on space or need a professional office where you can meet with clients, it may not be suited to a home business. However, if your business can be run from home with the exception of the occasional meeting or day in a professional office, you can make use of serviced offices Belfast as and when you need to.

Your income

Of course, the big question for anyone looking to start a new business is profitability. You may be exceptionally talented and/or skilled, but if people are not going to pay enough for the service or product, it is not a viable business. Can you make and sell enough units of the product to cover your running costs? You need to be sure that there is a market for your business and that you are offering something which other companies are not. Only businesses which can generate profit are worth investing your time and energy into.