The Step-By-Step Small Business Start Up Guide

Many of us dream of working for ourselves – the freedom associated with being your own boss brings with it an enormous sense of achievement and pride, but also risk. It can be a scary time, and there is lots to consider.

At Helloprint, we do all we can to help business start-ups produce quality print to stand out from the crowd; whether its printing sales banners and corporate flags or leaflets, letter templates, compliment slips and business cards.

We made up a guide for anyone wishing to go at it alone. The checklist includes everything from finding a mentor to registering your business, as well as advice on what you need to consider before becoming operational and ways to promote your company before and after launch.

So, you’ve got an idea? Great, here are the steps to see it through: 

1. Research

The biggest nightmare is starting a business, without actually knowing the ins and outs of the industry. To execute a business plan successfully, you have to be well-aware of what you’re getting yourself into. Here’s a checklist of the topic, on which you have to be an expert:

• Is there a demand for your product or service?
• Who are your potential customers?
• What are the characteristics of your target customer group?
• Who are your competitors? All of them!
• How do you stand out from them?
• How does their business work? What’s their pricing, service, etc?
• Where is the best place to start your business?

2. Business plan

A business plan is the one tool that will help you firstly, formulate the questions, which would give you a successful start and secondly, answer those questions. A business plan is about putting on paper all the exciting, but also some of the boring aspects, related to launching your business. Let go through a checklist for the seamless business plan:

• Create a company profile

A company profile would include a story about how your organization came to be, descriptions of your products or services, your designated target customer base and also a bit about the vibe of your brand.

This part has to be very detailed, since potential investors would like to be briefed on all aspects of your business and in-depth.  

• Marketing strategy

A well-designed marketing strategy is what will kick-start your business. You need to design an aggressive and detailed approach in order to reach the maximum number of people. A good idea is to cover all types of medium, online and off. 

Create a list of all your objectives and an extensive plan on how you want to achieve them. Don’t forget about future plans, you may have a killer launch campaign, but if you can’t keep up the pace, it may be your downfall. 

• Design and development

We cannot express how important it is to plan the future. If you don’t have a development plan, you can’t launch your business. It’s not just about starting, it’s about creating something. 

Generate a clear-cut plan for what happens after the initial wave of customers, how do you plan to retain them and keep them coming back, what will you do to acquire a larger customer base, what is your mission, what do you want to achieve for the bigger picture and why is all of that important. 

• Operations and management

Make sure you have a very thorough overview of exactly how each aspect of your business will operate. Depending on your industry, this may mean a lot of description. Make sure you know where and how you are going to produce your product, where will you get the parts or if you are in hospitality, where are you getting your products.

If you are offering a service, how are you going to make it happen, what do you need, a website, an office? All of this will be very important for your investors.     

3. Financing

There are various ways you can finance your business. You can save up from your own earnings, you can try crowdfunding, you can get a bank loan or try to attract investors. Try to think of the future of your company when making such a big decision about where you should get your financing from.  

4. Final bureaucracies

Depending on where you decide to set up your business, the procedures regarding registration and licensing vary a lot, they are also different by industry. Therefore, there is no clear checklist we can give you, however, our biggest advice is to do your research. Contact representatives, which can help you and make sure you know exactly what you need for your business, in order to avoid any legal issues. Also, hire a lawyer or a law firm, which can help you with the process. 

We hope you found this basic guide useful. Do you have any questions? Feel free to leave a comment down below and we’ll make sure to answer your questions.