Steps to Setting up a Successful Business
Setting up a successful business is the best way to achieve career fulfillment (if you are an entrepreneur at heart…that is), build your legacy and attain financial freedom. It’s also one of the riskiest, hardest, and most frustrating ventures you will ever set out upon in your life.
We will be going through all the nuts and bolts in the Worthy Woman Business Club, but today, I’m just sharing some quick tips to get you going:-
1. YOUR MINDSET
Your Mind is your greatest tool for business success or failure. “ Whether you think you can or you can’t, either way, you are right” So my first question to you is….’What do you believe?” Do you know without a doubt that you are capable of building a successful business if you are prepared to work hard, invest in developing your skills and fail forward?
Well you should, because it’s true! If you lack confidence or have low self-esteem, it’s important to tackle that first, because the mindset is 90% of the game. You can get a coach, study stories of successful entrepreneurs, do your regular thought work and affirmations, and before you know it, you’ll be ready!
2. YOUR BUSINESS VISION
The first creation of your business is going to take place in your mind. Spend as much time as you can creating the vision for your business in your mind. Imagine yourself running your super successful business. What does it look like? Who are you serving? Where? What are you doing on a day to day basis? Keep building up this picture in your mind and write it down. You can use a vision board to create a picture story and gaze at it at least once daily.
3. VALIDATING YOUR BUSINESS IDEA
It is important to validate your business idea with as many real potential customers as possible. Just because you think pink jute bags are the greatest thing since sliced bread doesn’t mean we all do. Always validate your idea by listing the results/problems you want to solve for your customers and find out if that’s what they want, as well as what they want to pay for it.
4. REGISTERING YOUR BUSINESS
It is important to decide what kind of business you want to run from the outset. You can register:
- A Business name – the business is essentially YOU
- A Limited Liability Company – the business has a separate legal personality
5. SETTING UP YOUR SYSTEMS & PROCESSES
If you do this properly at the outset, you will avoid at least 50% of the real struggles of many businesses, especially women-owned businesses. Setting up a structure will save you hide from the tax man, banker, and investor and help you tear yourself away from your business at critical times.
6. YOUR WEBSITE & DIGITAL MARKETING
Digital Marketing is by far the most cost-effective way to get the word out there about your business. To drive the best results for your business, you need to build your online presence. With this, you will be able to reach more leads that want your products or services. Take very good care of your brand and the quality of the communication you put out.
Ensure your domain name is easy to remember and build a world-class website. Keep up with technology as well to stay relevant. Investing in digital marketing will go a long way for your business and understanding ways to reach more people i.e paid advertisement and creating relevant and enjoyable content are a few of the tools you can use to generate more sales.
7. SALES – THE LIFEBLOOD OF YOUR BUSINESS
No customers, no sales, no business. Many entrepreneurs pay undue attention to raising finance over selling. If you focus on sales, both sales and funding will follow you. Sales is a form of marketing for your business, each sale you make is you sending your product or service into the world and if it’s excellent, this will most likely come with referrals or even more patronage from customers. More sales equals more revenue and more profits, if you have your costs under control!
8. YOUR BUSINESS FINANCES
Accounting and Finance are the language of business. You must learn to speak the lingo. It’s really not as difficult as it looks. In fact, it’s quite simple really. We will teach you all the nuts and bolts in the Club. You need to know the basics…the profit & loss account, the balance sheet and the cash flow statement are things that should be of second nature to you, to successfully set up and run your business.
There are other terminologies that I won’t bore you with here, but having a sound knowledge of Accounting and Finance will save you a lot of hassle when running your business.
9. STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL HIRING
Hiring right is one of the most essential ingredients to setting up a successful business. Unfortunately, you can’t do all the work yourself, on the path to growth. To hire right, you need to know exactly what you require of the person and have your ideal candidate profile. You may outsource the job to an experienced HR company, but if you choose to do the hiring yourself, you need to do a job description.
Prepare interview questions and tests that assess the skills you need. Publicize the job on the numerous platforms available. Review submitted applications/CV’s, narrow them down to the ones that appeal to you and call the selected people for tests and interviews. It is important that you do more than just interview the candidates and always have a probation period.
10. CONNECTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
In business, who you know often turns out to be more important than what you know. You need to be aware of the important connections you need for business success and learn the right way to go about making those connections. Mentors, Coaches, role-models etc, may determine the difference between your success and failure.
We trust this gives you the roadmap you need for your journey to business success.
Abi Longe – February 2021
Abi is a High-performance coach and strategist leading global business and individual transformations.