Sunday, February 6, 2011

Five Tips To Follow Before Starting A Small Business

By Chase Crawford


Nearly everyone dreams of starting a small business. This is simply the best option if you want to start building enough wealth to raise a family or prepare for a comfortable retirement. Before you do get busy with the details though, there are five vital tips you need to consider following.

#1- Consider leaving the old path.

For as long as we can remember, great businesses had physical representations. This simply meant that to be trusted, a business owner had to have a brick and mortar office or store. This is no longer an exclusive requirement. There are now lots of businesses that are run purely on the web.

You might want to take the same option when you start a small business of your own. Going online is a sensible choice because it is less expensive and does not restrict your customer reach. If you do decide to take this path though, you have to remind yourself to treat your web business in the same way you would a physical one.

#2- Promise to be serious about matters.

It is a given that you need to be serious about what you're doing. This however is really easier said than done. This is especially if you've started something based on a hobby. There is always the desire to want to enjoy what you're doing at the expense of forgetting to focus on factors that you don't quite enjoy. Always remember that a real venture will require you to pay a lot of attention to marketing, customer support, technical set-up and resource management to name a few.

#3- Start creating systems for everything in advance.

Even before starting a small business, you should already have skeleton outlines of systems for running everything. You need to have systems because they are the true keys to automation that can free up your time and your staff's time. The great thing about good systems is that they get rid of people dependency. That means even if your experts resign, any new personnel can learn to do the work that's left behind.

#4- Don't attempt to dip into things you know nothing about.

It's typical for start-up businesses to be run and operated by their owners at first. You might have to go through this stage yourself. This should not give you the impression though that you should meddle with things that are too difficult and critical for you to handle. One example of this is business registration. Before you get your ideas rolling, get a consultant or an accountant.

#5- Hire the best but don't be in a rush to do so.

No venture will ever survive as a one man show forever. You need people. Don't just start picking randomly though. You need to make sure that you hire only the best there is because hiring lesser skilled individuals will pull your entire organization down. This is why you should hire slow. This is even if you are in desperate need of help. You need to be absolutely sure that you get the right people.

There is no doubt that starting a small business is a true key to gaining genuine financial stability. Do always bear in mind though that things aren't always going to be easy. To be very successful, you need a great set-up, attitude, procedures and personnel.



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