Every business is different and what you need for each business will vary.
If you’re at the stage of checklist we’re assuming you’ve already taken care of some of the things below. I mean after all you’re starting a business …..
So we’re assuming here that you’ve done all the Research for your business idea.
You’ve already established the details ….
What you will sell
Is it legal
Who’s your market?
Are you willing to sell this for life?
What are you costs?
How much profit can you make?
Business Plan and Marketing Plan
You’ve got all these boxes checked off and you’re looking to put everything into place.
You’re ready to put things into motion as they say.
Don’t be surprised if it takes you more than a year to develop a sound business plan though.
Good ones usually take a while.
If you developed a business plan in one night, you’re either really good or you’ve left out a lot of important things.
For the most part there are a few common things that you should keep in mind when starting a business.
One of the things I remember mulling through my mind is constantly reminding myself that this is a business.
So I needed to separate business from personal.
In order to do that you’ve got a few pre-requisites that are in fact some things that you should just have in place when starting a business.
Decide on a name for your business
Register the name (in Trinidad)
Decide the legal form of the business and register the business. (sole proprietor, partnership, LLC etc)
In Trinidad the process is a little different.
You first have to have your name of business registered and approved before you can actually register the business itself.
The next phase is getting the money aspect organized which will mean
Opening a bank account for the business
Finding investors
If you’re going to have an online presence now would be a good time to secure your domain name.
Hindsight is also 20/20 but you will want to have your website domain name and company name secured around the same time.
This helps with your marketing down the road.
So you’ve put some separation between you and your business with all the legal stuff, the separate bank account etc.
What’s next?
Marketing your business right?
Well it’s probably not the next thing you’ll do but it’s certainly something you need to get in place.
So you’re talking online marketing, offline marketing (although I’m an advocate for online marketing). It just makes more sense in our world today.
So when I thought about marketing my business I didn’t think of campaigns and all that jazz.
I thought of who I wanted to reach and how many people I wanted to reach.
Then I thought of what am I going to do to reach and so another list emerged.
To reach people I needed to have in place
Social Media Accounts
Advertising Budget
Branding
Marketing Tools (Aweber, Capture Page Builder etc.)
After all of this then it was time to get to work on continuous marketing and delivery of product or service.
So That meant I need a place to work.
The final thing that came together for me was
My Workspace or Office
Now for most moms who are starting a business you probably want to minimize of costs right now.
Unless your business absolutely needs to have a front store or front office environment I will eliminate that overhead for the first two to three years if possible.
In my case I work from home.
So does my husband.
So it came to a point where we needed to have separate “office” spaces.
Naturally being the woman I moved into the “guest bedroom”
So ideally speaking my “office space” is a bedroom.
But you need to ensure that you have a space that is completely about you and your work.
I take great care in ensuring that my office still looks like an office.
At least my work space.
That way when I sit down at my desk it’s ALL about work.
If you’re selling products and need space for inventory you will probably need to keep that in mind in selecting either a place or room in your home for your office.
You also want to make sure that everything you will need is in that room.
Phone, Printer, Desks, Adequate electrical outlets.
Think about storage for books, products, packaging etc.
If you’re in the tropical climate with lots and lots of dust also think about protecting merchandise.
Although you may have insurance on your home, or if renting – renter’s insurance; You also want to do a little research on business insurance.
If any items get damaged in flood etc at least they will be covered.
Side note on Business tools
Very often we use our cell phones, computers, internet for both personal and business use.
It isn’t absolute necessary to separate the two, but just has when you’re working for an organization the computer you work on everyday belongs to the company,
it is a good idea to think of your own devices as your company’s.
That way you keep them out of the hands of children, neighbors, parents and friends.
You will never give a company phone to your child, so why give your business phone to your child to play with.
This has become more and more evident for me as my daughter gets older.
My business cannot afford to be replacing devices because I am not managing my child’s use of it.
So this has been a very “short” summary of the things you need to ensure you have in place when ready to launch your business.
Need more advice schedule some one-on-one time with me.
Would love to get into more detail for you.
I’m Hilary De Freitas The Marketing Mom
My Mission: to bring as many moms back home and still earning a living!
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