How to Start a Business
Seven Essentials to Getting Rich Before You Go Broke
Calling all women business owners from anywhere in the world:
You are invited to apply for our “She’s the Cheese!” grant to start or grow your business — Apply today!
Ok, you’re ready to start a business. Why not?! You sure as heck can’t count on a J-O-B, especially in this economy. If you have your own business, your fate is up to you and not dependent upon decisions you have no say in.
But alas! the converse is also true — when you start your own business, EVERYTHING depends on you! Even if you delegate decision-making, you have to decide who you are going to trust, and what you are going to have them do.
Having said that, starting a business can be as easy as a friend offering to pay you watch her kids or create their scrapbooks. People see that you’re good at something, and it grows from there.
Or not.
Usually starting a "real" business takes some deliberate planning. Maybe one day it dawns on you that you ought to take your garage-sale-treasures-on-ebay "hobby" and get serious about it. Or perhaps you’re like me, dreaming of huge ventures long before you take the first step, and you finally decide to stop living in your head and take the leap.
However it happens for you, there are seven essentials to follow in starting your business. If you follow these, you’ll increase your chances of becoming a raging success before you go completely broke.
1. Decide why you want your own business and keep that purpose always before you. This and this alone will sustain you — when things are rough, and when things are going so great that it’s rough!
2. Write a business plan — literally, not just in your head. A "One Page Business Plan" will do. You will save money and keep focused. That focus is a major key to success, and entrepreneurs (who often have ADD) are easily distracted by the next great idea.
3. Choose your business entity. Even if you just choose to start out working "as yourself" (which is a sole proprietorship), choose it intentionally and know why you are choosing it.
Many, many issues are affected by which entity you choose for your business — especially tax planning and legal liability issues. Setting up the perfect business structure for your purposes can easily make a six or seven figure difference in your future — or even more if your business goes gangbusters and you decide to sell (or even just pass it on to your kids).
You can learn about the different tax and asset protection advantages of various entity types, and then set up your corporation online if you can’t afford the $2,000 typical attorney fee to do it for you.
If you do choose to set up a separate entity, don’t forget to get a separate Tax ID for your business. The government makes it really easy 
.
4. Go get all required business licenses. This is murky, because you could have city, county, and state licenses you have to get. There can be serious repercussions for not getting them — including huge financial loss. Look online and go to your local city hall to ask.
5. Copyright and/or patent your intellectual property like your logo, trademark, brand, trade secrets, etc., to protect your rights. Your ideas are worth money, so protect them. Nothing is easier to steal than an idea.
In one sense, ideas are a dime a dozen, worthless until acted upon. The more "fleshed out" your ideas are in action, the more they are worth — but that’s where the hard work comes in. You don’t want someone just copying your entire business and stealing it from you once you’ve proved it works as a profitable business.
6. Set up your chart of accounts. You absolutely have to know where you are getting your money and where you are spending your money, so you can make intelligent business decisions based on real data. I knew a business analyst hired by a dairy company, who discovered that the dairy was losing a dollar on every gallon of ice cream they produced. Soon after, they were serving ice cream only to the school class tours.
Making more money with less effort is not the only reason to set up your accounting system. Government revenue agents will wreak havoc with what free time and profits you have while they have a heyday with your "books" and tax returns. Really — take my word for it and set up your chart of accounts.
7. Set a budget, and buy only what you need, when you need it.
Ok, maybe this one isn’t essential if you have lots of money to blow on a hobby that never yields you a dime in return, let alone a profit. But for everyone else, this is essential principle to follow in starting your business.
Figure out how much you need to spend to make your business successful. Stick to the essentials in the beginning. No fluff. Figure out where the funding is coming from. You don’t want your business to be one of the DOA (“dead on arrival”) small businesses starved of capital.
Before every single purchase, ask yourself, “Is this what I need next to move my business forward?” If it’s not what you need NEXT, don’t buy it. Only buy what you need next, to break through a sticking point in your business so you can move forward fast.
That way you’ll get rich before you go broke .
