{"id":7245,"date":"2014-07-18T14:59:30","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T20:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/?p=7245"},"modified":"2014-07-18T14:59:34","modified_gmt":"2014-07-18T20:59:34","slug":"starting-a-small-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/business-2\/small-business-startups\/starting-a-small-business.html","title":{"rendered":"Getting Your Small Business Out of the Starting Gate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Watch<\/a>
Watch Out For Common Pitfalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>The hardest part of starting any business is getting it up and running\u00a0and out of the starting gate. Just the thought of that obstacle is enough to keep a lot of people from even trying in the first place. But there are ways that you can make your business startup easier, especially financially.<\/p>\n

There are two areas that you have to pay close attention to \u2013 expenses and income. That\u2019s more than obvious, but it\u2019s the tactics that you\u00a0use for each that will largely determine whether your business\u00a0is a\u00a0success or failure.<\/p>\n

Keep a Tight Lid on Your Expenses<\/h2>\n

A common mistake that many new business owners make is spending a lot of money upfront, often before they even launch the business. With bricks and mortar type businesses that\u2019s par for the course. But since most businesses today are Internet-based, you should be able run your business on an absolute shoestring.<\/p>\n

Here are some tactics to help you do just that:<\/p>\n

Work out of your home for as long as you can.<\/strong> You should avoid buying or renting any business-related space until you’ve first established a healthy cash flow. Work\u00a0out of your home for as long as you can, and if you do need extra space\u00a0rent or sub-let it\u00a0on a short-term basis at the very lowest price possible. In the meantime, working out of your home will allow you to have all the trappings of an office \u2013 electricity, phone lines, and Internet connection \u2013 without the added expense that you have if you need to hook them all up in a remote space.<\/p>\n

Unless it’s mission-critical buy secondhand.<\/strong> Equipment is another area where you need to be cost conscious. Unless equipment is absolutely essential to the basic operation of your business, you should avoid heavy investment until you have a demonstrated cash flow coming in. Buy secondhand equipment and use it for as long as you can, until your income allows you to trade up.<\/p>\n

Don’t hire – subcontract out instead.<\/strong> One of the toughest parts of starting a new business is having to do every job<\/em> connected with your business. If there\u2019s no income, you can\u2019t possibly hire anyone to do certain jobs for you. Instead, sub-contract work out on an as-needed basis. For example, you can bring in someone with accounting experience to help you close out your\u00a0monthly books. You can also hire someone for\u00a0a\u00a0couple of days to help you with your accounts receivable.<\/p>\n

Partner where possible.<\/strong> Sometimes there\u2019s a major function in your business that you simply cannot handle on your own. If that\u2019s the case, look into partnering with somebody who is strong in that area. Since the partner will get a share of the profits \u2013 rather than a fixed salary \u2013 the arrangement should be much easier on your budget.<\/p>\n

When you are starting a new business, you should be very conscious\u00a0to avoid\u00a0creating fixed expenses that you will need to pay even if you don’t have any income. That can put you out of business before you even get started.<\/p>\n

Building Your Income<\/h2>\n

There\u2019s no delicate way to put this, but until you have a cash flow, you don\u2019t have a business.<\/em> This should make creating a cash flow Job 1. There are ways to do this when you\u2019re first starting out and operating on a shoestring.<\/p>\n

Get a cash flow going before going full-time.<\/strong> In most businesses, it\u2019s completely unnecessary to quit your job and start running the business on a full-time basis. It will be better if you hold onto your job \u2013 that way you have a cash flow for your living expenses \u2013 and build up your business as a side venture. If you can create a cash flow of just a few hundred dollars a month in this way, you will not only have an income when you\u00a0go full-time, but you\u2019ll also have the confidence of knowing that your business concept\u00a0will be successful. Yes, it will slow the start of your business, but at the same time it will improve your chances of success. Those are the kinds of trade-offs you will want to make.<\/p>\n

Concentrate your time on the activities that generate the most income.<\/strong> This needs to be a core principle of anyone who is\u00a0going into business for themselves. Starting a business, you might have 20 tasks that you have to perform each week. If\u00a0four of\u00a0those tasks are the ones that will generate income, or the lion\u2019s share of it, then those are the tasks that you need to be concentrating on most heavily. You\u2019ll need to do this at least until your business reaches a point where it’s generating sufficient income for you to begin paying others to do the tasks that are not bringing cash in the door. Your business will succeed to the degree that you are successful in concentrating on activities that will generate the most income.<\/em><\/p>\n

Implement low cost\/free marketing.<\/strong> Marketing is generally the most important activity in any business, but especially at upstart. Marketing is what draws people’s attention to your business, so that you can convert them into paying customers. You will need to come up with low-cost and therefore very sustainable marketing activities that will make this happen.<\/p>\n

Some of the methods that you can try that will be easy on your budget include:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Networking with people who represent natural clients for your business.<\/li>\n
  • Using the social media to draw people to your website and business \u2013 they\u2019re free to participate in.<\/li>\n
  • Email blasts to everyone in your email address book \u2013 even if they\u2019re not prospective customers, they may forward your email on to others you are.<\/li>\n
  • Ask everyone you meet who do you know who is looking for (my product or service)?<\/em> Many business arrangements are started by informal conversations.<\/li>\n
  • Have a supply of custom-made business cards or business flyers that you\u00a0can pass out to\u00a0anyone you meet. You need to have something tangible to help people remember you after you meet with them.<\/li>\n
  • You should create a website \u2013 even a simple one \u2013 as soon as you start your business. Everyone is on the web these days, and you need to be as well. A simple (and free) WordPress format can get you started until you have enough income to build a top-quality site.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The whole purpose of marketing is to get people\u2019s attention so that they are looking for you even when you\u2019re not out prospecting. Some of the best customers and clients you will land will be third-party referrals, or people who saw your flyer or website. These are all inexpensive marketing methods that will help you to create a customer base until you can afford to invest serious money in marketing.<\/p>\n

    Concentrate your efforts on building your cash flow, as well keeping your expenses at the absolute bare-bones minimum level. That combination will help to give you the time that you need to get your business established.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The hardest part of starting any business is getting it up and running\u00a0and out of the starting gate. Just the thought of that obstacle is enough to keep a lot of people from even trying in the first place. But there are ways that you can make your business startup easier, especially financially. There are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":7282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[579],"tags":[430],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7245"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}