Posted on July 11, 2011
What are the golden rules of starting a new business? Or rather, the golden rules of succeeding with a new business?
Anyone who is planning to start a new business - be it startups or business owners who are planning to exit a business and start a new one, go through the same dilemma. What business to venture into? How to choose the right investment? What are the chances of success...?
There is no hard and fast rulebook for starting and succeeding in a new business or everyone who started a new business would have succeeded in it. Every business has its own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. But there are some fundamental principles that help you lay a strong foundation for a new business and help it grow into a flourishing venture.
Do what suits you best
If you are a start up, choose a business venture that excites you; something which you love doing. Never choose a venture only by its financial possibilities. There is no fun in building up something which you don't enjoy. If you don't like what you are doing and do it only because you think it offers better possibilities of growth, then success, even if it comes your way, will be temporary or unfulfilled.
If you are a business owner and you are looking to diversify, choose a venture that synergies with your current one. This will not only help you be in a stronger position with better business knowledge of your industry, you will also enjoy your new venture as a fresh area of growth. For instance, if your business deals with supplying food materials, you can explore areas in processed foods or food products. Read More...
Posted on May 28, 2011
A new business depends primarily on the management skills of the entrepreneur. The most successful entrepreneurs manage their resources by minimizing the amount of capital needed to start and grow their business. Angel investors want all of their investment put directly into making the business grow in order to insure a high rate of return, which should be about 20% to 30% per year on the invested amount. It is often a mistake among entrepreneurs to think that there are no competitors that operate in a similar capacity to their business, and this should be shown in your business prospectus as it relates to starting a company with money from an angel investor. Equity will almost always be required as a negotiating tool as it relates to working with a private third party funding source.
The details of how you will accomplish the goals of your business are described in your business overview documents. Entrepreneurs often have the misconception that a new business idea must be unique in order to be financed by an angel investor. However, this is usually not the case as the most important thing about your business is that it is economically viable. An expanded executive summary can be used to attract the attention of potential investors, and this should be shown within your new business plan. Read More...
Posted on February 23, 2011
Many virtual professionals I know have gone through that phase where they just put one foot in front of the other and hope that things go well.
The problem with that is that if you don't have a plan in place, you can experience a lot of issues:
- you can go off track
- worse, you can go nowhere
- you can't measure your successes
In order to know whether things are going the best way possible in your business it's important to determine where you want to go, how you want to get there, how you are GOING to get there, and how things look when you arrive. That's called strategic planning, and every business owner should practice it.
It's not as difficult as you might think. Whether you are tackling your client intake process, your marketing calendar, your revenue planning, or your newsletter, you need to go through these four steps to make sure that your process makes sense and that it will work for you.
Determine where you want to go
Sit back regularly and look at your business. Break things into chunks if it's easier for you, for instance - if you decide that you want to communicate more regularly with your audience, think about increasing the frequency of your newsletter. If you do it quarterly, plan for monthly. If you do it monthly, plan for twice a month. If you can, try to figure out if you can produce it weekly. Don't just make a decision, really look at your calendar to be sure that what you are deciding to do fits with your schedule (because once you commit to it you will want to be sure to be able to produce it easily). Read More...