Advice for Start-up Businesses: One Word – Accountant
Starting a new business can be an extremely daunting task for anyone, whether you’re an experienced business player or simply embarking upon your first foray into the commercial world. From ISO certifications to small business taxations, the business world can seem worryingly perilous and dangerously complicated from an outsider’s perspective.
It needn’t be that way though, because forming a new company can actually be far less tricky than the copious amounts of business jargon, complex strategies, and detailed workings that are often employed by successful businessmen and women might suggest. In order to simplify the whole process, below have been provided four clear yet important steps for fledgling business owners. Designed to put your mind at ease and clarify the procedures necessary for creating a successful new business, this advice has been formulated in collaboration with the accountancy firm Farnell Clarke.
Undertake Some Market Research
One of the best ways to predict if your new company is going to sink or swim before you’ve even begun setting it up is to do some research into the factors that’ll affect if from the start. Of course, these vary from business to business – if you’re planning on forming a dealership to sell paintings created by elephants, for instance, check to make sure that there aren’t any nearby abstract art enterprises for you to compete with. But there are a set of common variables which all new businesses would do well to investigate. These almost always involve checking to see who and what your business will be competing with, whether there’s a profitable amount of customers to be dealing with, if there are any nearby suppliers for your company, and whether there’s a support base of local people willing to work for you or staff your operations. It is actually possible to hire a market research company to undertake these checks for you but these can be very expensive and thus are probably unsuitable for most emerging businesses.
If successful research is undertaken into all of these areas and you still feel that there’s a suitable chance that your company will be profitable, bearing in mind all of these factors, then you may well be onto a brilliant business idea.
Identify Start-up Costs
One of the most important things that you can do when beginning your own business is to think about all of the costs and financial requirements necessary to actually start it. One recent piece of research into the subject put such figures as high as $147,580, on average, for small business owners. Make sure that you leave room for costs incurred by advertising, business plans, communications infrastructure, finance raising measures, equipment, office supplies, insurance, redecoration, the fees required for professional staff, initial stocks costs, transportation, website design, and, of course, any unexpected costs that your business might run into, as well. Try saying all of those with your mouth full!
Attract Investors
Having factored in your start-up costs and done your research, identifying a sound local base on which to build your company, the next thing to do is to try and get some investment from external sources, unless you have your own finances already handy. Most investors will find some form of appeal in your company if, simply, it can be shown to have profit making potential. In today’s economic climate, though, a certain hesitancy on behalf of investors might manifest itself. Therefore, it’s best to make sure that you and all of your management team are impeccably presented and can clearly show that you are the best people possible to handle your potential investors’ money. Make sure you demonstrate visible self-discipline, unimpeachable money handling skills and financial restraint, and an ability to motivate and encourage others. Obtaining money from investors is very much essential if your piggy bank is dry!
Make Sure Your Company is Insured
You might think it’s more obvious than a polar bear in Mali to ensure that any new business is insured, but a surprising number of fledgling companies these days simply don’t bother with it. Though catastrophes might seem very unlikely and rare, they are actually far more common than might be thought and very much capable of causing financial destruction to a new enterprise. Experts always advise that business owners have contingent plans in place to deal with emergencies, obtaining insurance is the safest and most reliable way of dealing with the risk of disaster, and it’s something that no new business should be without.
