Starting a Company? Here’s a Few Things to Think About
It’s a lot of people’s dream to start a business, and more are doing it since the Internet has so many resources available. The online web has allowed people to not only register a business quickly, but find the resources they need to get started. By doing a google search online for “how to start a business” you’ll find tutorials, forms, content, and advice. However, I’m surprised at the amount of people who make common mistakes when starting a business. This costs them both time and money.
Today, we’ll be discussing things to consider when starting a new business. We’ll be exploring:
- Costs
- Company type
- Marketing
- Getting online
- Calculating the final numbers
The Startup Costs
It’s so easy to lose track of costs when starting a business because you don’t know what to expect. For example, depending on the type of business your starting, you’ll have inventory costs, rental costs, employee costs, registration costs, and others. If you haven’t been saving to start a business, then you might run into trouble especially if this was a decision you made quickly. I recommend you plan ahead before starting your business and think about the costs involved. This way you’ll be able to accumulate money, and won’t get caught off guard.
Here’s valuable information on starting a business, and how to consider all the costs involved.
Type of Company
You have several options when registering your business, and it’s important to know how each one affects your bottom-line. Some registration types will save you a lot of money on startup costs, but you’ll be paying higher taxes. Other types of business registration costs a lot of money, but give you tax breaks. Before starting your business, you should research what registration fits your basic needs. For example, you have the following types available:
- Sole proprietorship
- Limited liability corporation
- Limited by shares
- Charitable organization
- Limited by the guarantor
Research each type of company formation and find what works best. The decision should be based on how many employees you’ll be hiring and if you’ll have company assets like cars, commercial unit, and loans.
Marketing
Top companies spend millions of dollars each year marketing their brand and/or products. When you start a business, you’ll want to think about how to promote your brand. From personal experience, marketing costs can get high especially with online channels like Google AdWords, Bing, and social media. You might even be considering offline methods like a magazine, newspaper or brochures.
It’s important to budget your marketing needs, and include this into your startup costs when preparing.
Getting Online
Almost every business has an online presence and it’s important you think about establishing one for yourself. The Internet has connected people from all over the world, and they can be your future customers. But, in order for you to attract this vast audience, you have to create a brand for yourself online. Not to mention, starting a website is so affordable and can be done within a week using platforms like WordPress. Here are some things to think about before creating your website:
- What’s your online objective (i.e. customer acquisition, brand awareness, etc)?
- How do you want your site to be designed?
- Who will maintain the site?
- What’s the information you want on your site?
- Menu items, pages, blog section, layout.
Final Number
Business is about making a profit, and if you don’t then you may have to consider closing it down. It’s important you calculate your numbers as frequently as possible to understand where adjustments are needed. For example, after correctly doing the numbers, you’ll find out what marketing channels are working, what products bring in the most money, and if you’re actually making a profit from your business. If accounting is not your passion, then hire someone to help you out.
Final Thoughts
Here’s a company formation checklist to follow before registering your company. This list will help you stay on track and think about the factors which matter most. (Doing a quick search in Google will provide you additional information too.)
Featured photo credit: entrepreneur.com via entrepreneur.com
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