Starting a small business of your own usually requires more than four hours of work a week. It’s possible to start one that you run online in the evening and weekends to fit the 4-hour lifestyle design. However, for most founders, heavily outsourcing to employees, freelancers, or other service providers is necessary to keep the hours down.
It’s difficult to remember all the right steps when starting a new business. Some of them should be taken right away whereas others are good to keep in mind or to perform a few months later.
Here are four steps that are easily forgotten when starting a new business.
1. Let Friends and Family Know What You’re Doing
For most people starting a business, even if they plan to outsource a great deal of the heavy lifting, there’s still plenty to do. Make no mistake, you’ll likely be burning plenty of midnight oil in the course of going from a basic business concept to a fully operational venture.
Advising your friends, family, and your spouse (if you have one) is going to be necessary. Why is this? Because they’re probably not going to see much of you unless you maintain regular office hours, which is highly unlikely.
Preparing the people that you’re closest to about when you’re getting started is easy to forget. And they’ll feel ignored if they don’t know why you now so busy all the time.
2. Simplify the Product or Service Offering
While it’s desirable to get a fully-featured product or service out to the public, this requires far more time. Given the requirement to generate revenue in the not too distant future, waiting forever to launch isn’t workable.
There’s a reason why products come in a first version and then subsequent ones. For instance, incremental software releases have become popular to avoid getting bogged down in a huge new release that never seems to be ready. Similarly, don’t overbuild a product or overcomplicate a new service trying to make it perfect.
Devise or design it. Test it. Launch it. Then refine it ready for version 2.0.
3. Understand More About Business Financials and Credit Ratings
When running a business, the credit rating and how the financials are managed matter more than you’d think. You may be planning to be self-funded in the early stages, in which case, why does your business credit rating matter?
As is covered in this business credit guide, landlords, suppliers, and other organizations may check the rating. It’s necessary to make supplier payments or financial repayments on time. This type of activity often finds its way onto business rating reports – particularly late payments – which may affect a landlord’s decision on renting an office or have other unintended consequences.
4. Turn Yourself into an Extrovert (Even If It Feels Unnatural at First)
You might be a programmer, a designer, or someone else who’s happier operating in the background. That’s fine… Except if you’re running a business and there isn’t a sales staff – then you’re the sales staff!
Now that you’ve picked yourself up off the floor, where do you go next?
Learn to become more outgoing. Get used to talking up your business. Take a course or find other ways to put yourself out there. Do it every day. Force yourself even before you launch to become a more outgoing person in support of your business venture.
Starting a business and making it a success requires a wide-ranging set of skills. Make sure that you’re ready before you proceed
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