collaborative post // Every single business owner has to collect the right resources to start a company. Even in the world of modern convenience, becoming a business owner doesn’t just happen overnight. For example, starting an ecommerce business out of your own home still takes quite a few resources. It can be more affordable than a bricks and mortar business, sure, but it can’t be done entirely for free!
Which is why you need to know the resources you absolutely need before you waste your time and money. Some are more important than others, and depending on your business goals, you’ll need one kind of resource more than another. So let’s delve into this idea below; here’s how to prepare for opening a business.
Plenty of Funding
Funding is obviously the number one resource you need to hand here, but securing it is the hard part. You’ve got a good business idea, a hardy plan to follow, and you know where you want to be in 5 or 10 years time – that’s all good! But can you translate this feeling and these ideas into something concrete, detailed, and even tangible for an investor to look over?
First of all, note it all down. What you want, where you want to go, and how you plan to achieve your goals. If you’re able to, think about asking a friend of yours with financial experience to go over the details for you; getting an early doors opinion might just save your whole pitch! Then look into your funding options.
You can go to the bank, you can apply to venture capitalist trusts, or you can use crowdfunding options; the choice is yours as long as it’s informed.
Enough Manpower
If you’re building this company entirely on your own, it’s going to be hard to see tangible results within a good time frame. And when it’s just you, it’s going to be hard to bring investors on board; they’ll be worried their investments just won’t pay off in time! Which is why it’s essential to have an idea for your team early, and to get receptive responses from these people.
Of course, if you reach out to a professional service, you won’t need to do much else other than pay for their professionalism. For example, if you need an IT desk in place to manage your network, servers, and website, IT consulting for SMEs is a reliable option to reach out to. But once again you can try to build a good relationship here; it could lead to a discount in future, and that’s very good for business.
A Place to Work
Of course, you need a place to set down your working space in the long term. And if you’re working from home, that can seem like an easy decision. You don’t need to find and rent an office, you don’t need to outfit a space with equipment for a whole team, and you don’t need to invest in local, physical marketing. However, it can still be hard to set up a scalable working area when you’ve only got your home to play with.
After all, you might be starting off in a cupboard sized spare room, or even just the back of the living room. You may be able to move into the garage at some point and convert it to a working office, but where do you go from there?
Once you start making real money, or need employees, or you want to host physical meetings with clients, where can you make all this happen? You may need to rent that office after all.
A Way to Balance Your Life
And finally, you need to focus on your work/life balance here too. You can’t be working all day, every day, and you need a break to rest and refill your energy. A bad business owner is one that’s overworked and has no energy for the challenges ahead – don’t let this be you.
So come up with a schedule right now. When are your working hours, and when are you logged off? What responsibilities need to come first, such as family? And should every day look the same?
Running a business takes real skill, but that won’t mean anything without the resources to back you up. Start with your time management, locate some reliable premises, and hire a team of talented employees to man your operation. And above all, you’ll need to locate the right funding sources early on.
