Admit it, everyone of us have secretly dreamt of running a business successfully. Most of us just tend to shove the thought aside considering the risk factors and budget constraints. However, the truth is actually the opposite.
Starting your own business isn’t a distant reality, and can in fact be achieved pretty easily in today’s modern era if you are determined and passionate enough. It’s no wonder that so many home-based businesses have popped up around the globe ever since the pandemic struck.
Nevertheless, in order to maximize your chances of successfully pulling off a small scale start-up, it is essential to follow a few concrete steps. To assist you in the process, we have listed the key steps that will help you inch towards your goal. Check them out!
Industry Research
The first and foremost step when planning to launch a small business is to perform an industry research so as to check the viability of your idea. This includes analyzing what your competitors are doing, and figuring out what your ideal customer is looking for. Besides, a competitor analysis will help you identify best market practices and also work out how you can place your offer in a better way. Customer research on the other hand will assist you in learning the different buying behaviors so as to create better products, services, and exclusive deals. Nest, you can proceed to test your idea with ideal customers in the form of quick surveys, free samples, etc. for feedback prior to the launch.
Write a Business Plan
So, you are confident about your innovative business idea? That’s great! Now hurry and chose a name for it and then jot it as a business plan. Doing so will keep you focused on taking the right action. Business plans basically serve as a roadmap to convert your vivid business dreams into reality. It states the primary goal of the business, the funding required, as well as a marketing plan. Having one also helps in keeping you acountable and track progress. The best part is that you can keep adding or altering the plan as per your vision as your business grows.
Finalize a Business Structure
Another important thing to decide as a small scale buiness is the structure you choose for it. For instance, do you think that starting off as a sole proprietor or company will be a good idea, or would you rather share the risks and liabilites by entering a partnership? Remember, whichever business structure you opt for will directly impact the legal requirements and tax payable of your business. It will also affect your setup costs and profit margins.
Allocate Budget
Once you have estimated all the costs of starting and running your business, the next step is to figure out where the funds will come from. This will help you determine whether or not you can afford the start-up and how well it will pay back for all the efforts you put in. Moreover, through budgeting, you will also be able to identify the business’s breakeven point, whether you’ll need to borrow money, what is the best price you can offer your customers and if hiring staff would be a good idea.
Set Your Prices
The pricing of your product or service plays a huge role in determining the amount of sales and profit you are likely to make. Hence, once you are done with sorting our your business budget, it’s time to set your prices. You need to workout the amount you need to charge from customers to cover your operating costs. This also includes chosing a launch pricing strategy, to build your customer base, such as:
- Price skimming – Launch a new produt/service at a higher price to create urgency of acquiring a premium deal, and skim it down later during sales.
- Price penetration – Lower your profit margin to boost sales volume.
- Sweetner deals – Set high prices with a tempting introductory discount to ceate a feeling of a steal deal, without devaluing what you are offering.
Register the Business
It is crucial to get your business registered with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority of Singapore (ACRA) once you have finalized a name, business structure and board of directors of you start-up. This needs to be done prior to proceeding with the business operations or hiring employees. Furthermore, you need to perform an extensive research to identify what kinds of legal permits, relevant to your venture, need to be applied for from regulatory bodies. To ease this process, you can seek assistance of a well reputable and trustworthy business registration service.
Nonetheless, starting a business may sound exciting and overwhelming at the same time, but is easily doable if you follow the right steps as mentioned above.
