If you have a strong entrepreneurial spirit and wish to start your own business, then there are many things that you should first ask yourself. By asking the correct questions when you are starting out, you will be better prepared to answer them after your business has started.
Here are seven important questions you may want to ask yourself when starting a small business:
1. Why do you want to do this?
This is the core question that must be answered before anything else. Why do you want to begin this business and invest a lot of time and money into this venture. Is it because you are tired of working for others? Is it because you believe you have a winning idea that will make you and your friends millions of dollars? Whatever it may be, you need to acknowledge this reason because you may need the inspiration it gives you later when your business has its first major problems.
2. Do you have a good business model?
This is the second most important thing that you will need to ask. The most basic definition of a business model is that it is a description of the way that an organization will make money. In a capitalist society, this is the foundation upon which your entire blueprint for success will be built. The main reason why most businesses fail is because they do not have a business model that works; therefore, you have to answer this question honestly and have numbers to back up your answer.
3. How much venture capital will you need?
This is an important thing to know so that you can approach investors with a well thought out business plan that is filled with all of the pertinent details. If you have not thought this through, then it will show, and you will probably not be able to get an investor to supply you with ample venture capital in order to begin your company. For you to know this answer, you will have to create a complete business plan built on your winning business model.
4. Where will you get financing?
Once you know how much you will need, and once you have figured out how you will allocate them, you need to figure out just where they will come from. Are you going to present your ideas to angel investors? Are you going to launch a crowdfunding campaign? Are you going to try and sell shares of stock in your firm, or are you going to try and get a business loan?
This is the hardest part of the equation. Once you have your seed capital, the rest of your journey will probably not be quite as difficult.
5. How many people will you have to hire?
Once you have acquired your funding, you will have to figure out how many people you will need to hire. You may have already answered this question to certain degree when you created your business plan and figured out how much money you will need. However, you may have left out the exact number of personnel that will be required. In addition, you may have to adjust various aspects of this amount once you have started your business and discovered there are new issues that you were not aware of.
6. What is my competition?
You will be researching the answer to this question while you are creating your business plan; however, once you actually get started, there might be additional issues with which you were not aware. Oftentimes, many entrepreneurs will forget about other organizations that provide similar things that will compete for the same set of customers that you are trying to attract.
7. What other businesses and professionals will you need to collaborate with?
Will you create everything yourself, or will someone create component parts needed for your final product? For example, if you are going to sell skin care products, then are you going to have someone to make the products for you, or will you create your own. In addition, will you need someone to distribute your product, and will you need someone to market and sell your services and goods?
There are other questions you need to ask if your business needs a strong online presence. Will you need an SEO firm to strengthen your online presence? Will you need someone to buy online advertising? Will you need translators to create marketing copy in foreign languages? These specific questions along with many others like them all need to be answered.
Conclusion
Make sure you have all of your bases covered. You have to think everything through, and you must have contingency plans ready to go in case there are emergencies.
By asking all of the right questions, you will be able to manage all of the many issues you will have once your company is up and running. So make sure you have the answers ready before you start, so they will be easier to handle if they ever become troublesome problems in the future.