Starting a small business is a lifelong adventure that requires a significant financial and personal investment. In fact, most new companies close their doors before their fifth year.
However, don’t give up. There are techniques and steps you can take to improve your business’s chances of success, and by applying solid fundamentals, you can greatly increase your chances of success.
Discover the 5 key steps to starting a small business in the best possible way.
1. Prepare the ground and define a business plan
As with any project start, it is necessary to structure it in order to have a precise overall vision to subsequently define an effective strategy in line with reality.
To do this, don’t hesitate to put your ideas on paper, take stock, self-evaluate, think about how you could transform your ideas into a thriving business. Every effort you put into planning your business plan exponentially multiplies your success in applying these steps to start your small business.
To start a small business and see it thrive, you will need to study the competition, know their positioning in the market and take inspiration from those who have succeeded. All of these steps are aimed at thinking about how you will set up your tools to attract customers.
Questions to ask yourself to succeed in a business plan
To start a business in Quebec and even outside, it is necessary to ask yourself some particularly important questions. You can then include the answers found in your business plan.
What message will the price of your product or service send to your customers (low-end, mid-range, high-end, etc.)?
2. Find financing to start your small business
After you have established your business plan , you will have to get down to business: financing.
Not everyone is on an equal footing at this level, some will have more liquidity than others, and it all depends on the investment needs of your future SME. For this, having a basic knowledge of accounting is a great asset. Without certain knowledge, it is easy to get caught out in this environment, in this case do not hesitate to call on the valuable advice of a chartered accountant from Quebec who will be able to guide you in all the steps related to starting a business.
3. Keep your cash to make your business prosper
In the first few months after starting your small business, the hardest part is managing to stay out of debt. In fact, there is a good chance that you will not receive a salary for several months. It is therefore important to have a small safety net in case of a hard blow.
This is why you need to invest wisely. Don’t call on dozens of specialists when you don’t know the basics of starting a business, choose reliable and experienced partners. Same thing for credits, avoid multipying them and think now about the future tax savings you could make.
When starting a business, you have to limit costs. So, think twice before quitting your job to devote yourself fully to your project which certainly requires time, but also money.
4. Create your business network
The worst thing you can do when you want to start a small business is to withdraw into yourself. Instead, it’s time to get out of your office, go to happy hour, and get involved in industry associations to make useful contacts.
