Setting Up Your New Small Business for Success

More Americans started a business over the past couple of years than at any point in our history. In fact, in 2022, it’s expected that a surge of over 40 million new small businesses will be started, or roughly 1-6 people are starting new businesses. This new business phenomenon is building off record years in 2020 and 2021. 

There are plenty of reasons for this trend, from job layoffs during the pandemic to how more businesses are catering to remote and online work, the increased dependency on eCommerce in our lives, to simply recognizing that their worth is more than what an employer may pay them. 

Steps To Start Your Small Business and Set It Up for Success

The problem most businesses suffer when they first start out is because they lack a detailed plan of what they are going to sell, who they will sell it to, and try to perfect their business rather than launch it and figure it out as you go. 

Of course, if you’re making electric flying cars, you need to have an understanding of the basics of physics, engineering, and the like. Still, to set your small business up for success, you need to be in the active phase and not the hypothetical stage. There are a few things that you can do to get started quickly that, with a good plan, will help position your business for success. 

Legal Entity

Getting your business license and fictitious name figured out is excellent. But, more importantly, setting up the legal entity you’re going to operate under will help you significantly during tax time. Choosing between a sole-proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) all have different tax benefits and protections for you as a business owner. 

What Will You Sell and How Will You Provide It to Consumers

Now that you have your business entity decided upon, you may think you know what you’re planning to sell. But, the truth is, what you want to sell and what may or may not be purchased are two different things entirely. Conducting research on the type of products and services you want to sell and the best format to sell them is crucial to saving your business time and money. 

For example, selling popsicles at camps may seem like a no-brainer during the summer. But how will your customers pay for them, how will you deliver them, and is there a price point that you can sell them that turns you a consistent profit? 

Know Your Customers

You may think you’ve got the perfect product for your customers, but how do you know they will buy it? Conducting market research and identifying the customer that is looking for your product at the price you offer is essential to having a successful business. 

In other words, knowing your customers and understanding exactly what they want and need at the time they are ready to make a purchasing decision is where you need to shine. 

Perfect Is the Enemy of Good (Just Launch It Already)

A huge sticking point in business success is overthinking the process too long. If you wait for your business and product to be perfect, you’ll never achieve your goals. Perfection is the enemy of the good, and launching your product and starting your business is the only sure-fire way to get to the point of making a profit. You will learn as you go. 

Iterate or Launch 2.0

Once you launch your business, learning to improve upon things is the idea behind iteration. You take in new data points about your offerings, make some minor tweaks, and improve what you have and how you provide it to consumers. 

For instance, you’re running an eCommerce site but are having issues with brand recognition. Tweaking and testing the design of your website to match your logo or vice-versa are simple tricks that may enhance your brand recognition while also increasing sales. 

Better yet, you could incorporate new sales techniques such as live stream selling and influencer marketing that can propel your brand and improve your sales at the same time. 

People are starting to see the power of self-employment and entrepreneurship more than in history. But, of course, setting up your small business for success requires some forethought, planning, and understanding of your potential customer needs. Still, more importantly, the ability to adapt and find new ways to find clients and build your brand.