How to start planning to open a business and requirements to start a business.
I want to start a business but have no idea how to start a business. Here are 26 Steps on How to Start a Business.
Now the market is very transparent and the market competition is very fierce. It is not that easy to start a business. You can see where you can make money and others can see it.
Therefore, no one can give you an accurate answer when it comes to saying that the entrepreneurial project is the most reliable.
Because you have different resources and capabilities in the same project, the results will be completely different.
Therefore, when you are preparing to start a business, you must carefully evaluate what abilities and resources you have and don’t just listen to others to start a business casually.
Now there are some so-called entrepreneurial mentors, and in order to fool everyone to buy their courses, they are bragging about them. These people are not responsible at all. We have worked in the credit industry for many years and have contact with various bosses, big and small bosses. a lot.
Judging from the bosses we have contacted, those who can really succeed in entrepreneurship are mainly concentrated in these categories.
In recent years, the wave of entrepreneurship has continued to emerge, but this year is definitely the best time to start a business! In the U.S., more new businesses were established this year than ever before.
About 1.4 million startups filed with the government as of September 30, 2021, compared with 1.14 million during the same period in 2020, according to the US Census Bureau.
This may feel counterintuitive given the uncertainty of the economy, but the truth is that new problems require new solutions, and the current global pandemic has created quite a few problems.
Many people are thinking about how to plan well this year to make more money. To make money, it is not realistic to go to work honestly. Most of the people who really make money are starting their own businesses.
But now the competition in various industries is very fierce. Starting a business is easy to say, but not so simple to do. Judging from the actual situation in the past few years, many people have failed to start a business. Among 10 people starting a business, they can survive for three years. Basically no more than two people.
So in the end, whether to start a business, everyone must think carefully and don’t be fooled by some so-called entrepreneurial masters, and then really use some of the family’s savings or even borrow money to start a business. Starting a business is a long road. Don't act on impulse.
Those so-called entrepreneurial masters of marketing masters who play tricks on the Internet have basically never actually started their own businesses. They all make money from traffic by piecing together some cases from others. You must not trust these people.
I think if you really want to start a business, you must choose according to your own situation. So, are you brewing a great idea? If so, you might be thinking: How can I start my own business? Here's a step-by-step guide on how to launch a startup.
I believe that entrepreneurs should do the following 26 things: boldly go for loans or financing, conduct tax compliance tests, observe industry leaders, and try to land on the Stock Exchange for companies that have reached a certain scale.
Because starting a business is too difficult and tests people too much, we entrepreneurs must choose to believe - because we believe, we see; because we believe, we persevere. Entrepreneurs cannot survive winter without a fire in their hearts.
A lot of people are looking for projects and are constantly looking for new projects. Because many people are in the dark, they don’t know what to do, and they are not satisfied with the current situation. When it comes to working, they can only protect their livelihoods and save money. Need to use transaction time to start a business.
Everyone has different ways of selecting projects. I have summarized the experience I have gained from working on projects in the past few years and shared them with us, hoping to help us in the new year.
26 Steps on How to Start a Business
1. Start with a question
When you're starting a business, forget the "chasing a passion" you've heard, and instead, go after a problem. What's the meaning?
Solve real problems you face in this world. Venture capitalist Paul Graham (and an early investor in Dropbox, Stripe, Reddit, and more) has said that the best startups have three common characteristics:
- They are what the founders themselves want;
- They can build themselves;
- Few people realize it's worth doing.
Take Uber for example. The app was inspired by the story of founders Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp who were stuck in Paris on a snowy night and couldn't find a taxi.
So, think about it: what problem are you trying to solve today? Then, figure out a way to build a solution.
2. Start by getting to know yourself
Many people can’t even recognize their own strengths, hobbies, trump cards, resources, needs, goals, capital, and capabilities they have, and still want to start a business? Isn’t it ridiculous? Entrepreneurship is to solve other people’s problems, you don’t even have your own Can't solve the problem, can't figure out what business to start?
So take a big piece of paper yourself, write down all your strengths and weaknesses, and then find your own strengths as a judgment label for the core of your business.
3. Start with understanding the social structure
Some people's knowledge structure is only limited to knowing themselves. They do not have the ability to discover social problems, nor do they know the essence of entrepreneurship. It depends on other people's entrepreneurship and their own play. In fact, they are just fooling around.
Entrepreneurship is about solving social problems. If you want to solve social problems, you must first understand the structure of social operation, and where is its core problem? The problem with it is where your money comes from.
4. Start by understanding the laws of nature
Some people do things out of order, just based on personal preferences, not only do they have no goals and plans, but the most important thing is to do things casually. If you can do one thing well, that is hell.
The development of most things in this world will conform to the rules of the laws of nature. Only when you understand the rules of the laws of nature can you truly improve the probability of success in doing things?
Otherwise, what you say is a waste of time, or you have to pay ten times or even 20 times the cost of someone who masters the law.
5. Start with understanding human nature
What you create is the karma of the human world, not the karma of the animal world,
The core of karma in the human world is human nature, which will never change.
It is human psychology, human thinking, human habits, and human needs. Only by truly understanding the true meaning of human nature and its characteristics, can you maximize your value and your products, realize their connection, and ultimately earn money from every transaction profit.
6. Start by understanding the market or industry rules
Many people do some industries and projects that others have been tired of doing or even can't do anymore,
Or these industries are either high competition, high threshold, or high capital,
In fact, these industries are not suitable for people without the strength to enter.
Therefore, only by understanding the market rules can you know where the blue ocean market with low competition lies under the loopholes in the rules and the loopholes in competition.
7. Begin by making a plan, setting goals, and writing a money-making plan.
When you find blank demand points in the market, no one has solved these places, then this is the golden area where you earn the first pot of gold.
Only through goal management and planning can we effectively achieve steady progress. Many people have no goals and no plans. They only fish for three days and spend two days in the net, and in the end, nothing is accomplished.
8. Continuous practice to find positive feedback from the market.
The market is always your teacher, and the customer is always your god. All your actions are to find positive feedback from the market, which is your ultimate goal.
Such goals, whether it is Ali or Tencent, are doing it every day, no matter how much money they invest every day, they are doing this kind of thing. This is the core rule of business.
As long as you find positive feedback from the market, this is the ladder to start your career, and you don't have to go to work.
9. Iteratively revise your product
solution until it is invulnerable, or close to being invulnerable.
Everything needs to be changed, including this thing you want to do, so your plan also needs to change with the change of things.
It is not so simple to describe it with functional relationships. It is only reasonable that we should use a higher philosophy to describe it.
Therefore, it is necessary to construct a multi-dimensional, multi-directional, and theoretical model of different time points to find its most realistic appearance.
For things, we can only chase changes, but cannot control them. Only in this way can we go more steadily on the road of entrepreneurship.
10. There is a high threshold of technology.
The current market competition is very fierce. If a certain product is very profitable, a large number of people and capital will enter the industry.
Therefore, in some traditional industries, there are very few people who can really succeed in starting a business, but there are also some people who can make a way out of traditional industries. The reason why these people can start a business successfully is that they have mastered some technologies, and then use these technologies.
The transformation of traditional industries has produced different products. These products may improve performance and may increase functions. At the same time, they are different from existing products and have great advantages, so they can gain market share. 's approval.
In addition, in today's increasingly homogenized market, if you really want to stand out, you must learn to innovate, that is to say, create completely different products and services, but innovation is not everyone can do it, if you don't Excellent technology, without high threshold technical barriers, it is difficult for you to innovate.
Judging from the actual situation of some customers we have contacted, many of them are technical backgrounds, and they have strong technical thresholds, and then convert these technologies into entrepreneurial projects, which is easy to succeed.
11. There is strong financial backing.
Now many entrepreneurial projects are actually burning money. For many entrepreneurial projects, the final result of competition is competition for users.
But for ordinary entrepreneurs, everyone has no money at all, and they cannot do a lot of promotion, so the speed of acquiring users is very slow.
Those rich people, they can spend a lot of money to subsidize customers, even buy some resources, and they can also use high salaries to dig some excellent talents, so they develop rapidly in the process of entrepreneurship.
12. There are special personal connections.
Although the market competition is very fierce now, some projects still have a high threshold, especially some projects related to the government, if you do not have certain resources, it is really difficult to obtain.
Therefore, in reality, there are some people who have personal connections in some special departments. Using this personal connection, they can easily obtain some high-quality projects, so the probability of success in starting a business is obviously much higher than that of ordinary people.
There are also friends who came from large companies. These large companies have many supply chains. They use this kind of connection to make certain products or services for large companies, which can also improve the success rate of entrepreneurship.
Another example is that some people have been in the sales industry for many years, are very familiar with products, and have some customer resource bases. Taking advantage of this advantage, they have a relatively high probability of success in starting a business, so we see that many bosses are actually sales backgrounds.
13. Have rich industry experience.
The so-called expert sees the doorway, and the layman sees the excitement. There are many products and services, and everyone seems to be very relaxed, so many people think that as long as they are willing to work hard and pay, they will definitely be successful in this industry, but really wait until you enter this industry. only to find that the truth is not as simple as you think.
If you don't have more than 3 years of experience in a certain industry, and you don't have a deep enough understanding of the industry, the probability of your success in starting a business in this industry will be relatively small.
On the contrary, those who have worked in the same industry for many years and are very familiar with the products and services of this industry, the degree of competition in the market, the operation of the industry, and the practitioners in the industry are very familiar, then they have a high probability of success in starting a business in this industry. improve.
Because they know what customers in this industry need and how to meet those customer needs.
14. I have been struggling for many years on the road to entrepreneurship.
The situations we mentioned earlier are quite special, but for the vast majority of entrepreneurs, many people have no resources, no connections, no funds, or even industry experience.
So for these ordinary entrepreneurs, don't they have no chance of success at all? of course not.
In reality, there are many people who are ordinary entrepreneurs, but these ordinary entrepreneurs through continuous struggle repeated defeats, and battles, then summed up the experience and formed strong psychology, so they gradually succeeded...
For the vast majority of entrepreneurs, the last one is really suitable for everyone, that is, repeated failures and battles. No entrepreneurial project can guarantee that everyone will succeed the first time they enter. Most people are constantly Making mistakes, then constantly sum up experiences, and finally achieve success.
Therefore, those who want to start a business, don’t focus on which projects are suitable for starting a business, what you should think about is what projects are suitable for you.
Everyone must choose a suitable project according to their own ability, their own funds, their own experience, and their own team, so as to improve the probability of success in entrepreneurship.
15. We must believe in the power of industry.
We have to believe that the power of the industry will be further demonstrated. I have a prediction that the world will reopen this year. After three years of testing, the epidemic has almost reached an inflection point. Humanity will eventually defeat the virus, and the global industrial chain may have a process of reconnecting.
The strength of the World industry, after two years of accumulation, will be re-displayed in front of the whole world. Even if it is just a small or medium-sized enterprise, as long as you can become a strong player in the world market, you are likely to be a strong player in the global economic system. This is the power of the industry.
Of course, some industries will not develop very well in 2021, such as K12 education, tourism, offline catering, etc., all facing many challenges. But at the same time, many industries have also ushered in the opportunity to make a comeback.
Many traditional brands and traditional enterprises have regained the ambition to grow to Wandian through new consumption; the Internet has developed to this day, many people think that the To C network has developed to the extreme, but We have seen the metaverse, and the shadow of the next generation of the Internet has emerged.
The industry is always changing and improving. It is the consistent proposition of our dark horse entrepreneurs to stick to the industry and not change industry easily, and it is also the conclusion we have drawn from our long-term practice.
16. We must believe in digitalization.
For traditional industries and small and medium-sized enterprises, digitalization used to seem far away from us, and that should be the concern of large companies or Internet companies.
But in fact, the new digital infrastructure of the country has penetrated into small and medium-sized enterprises in recent years. We have seen that too many dark horse companies have gained great help through the digitization of the industry and become completely different companies.
For small and medium-sized enterprises and industrial entrepreneurs, digitalization cannot be avoided. It is the thing that can best enhance the competitiveness of enterprises.
The digital water of many small and medium-sized enterprises has already boiled to 90 degrees, and if they continue to boil for a while, the water will boil after a certain threshold.
17. We must believe in the power of persistence.
Persistence is the hardest, sometimes it requires you to be forced to make a lot of sacrifices, a lot of compromises, and a lot of shrinkages. But as long as you persevere, you will usher in new opportunities.
One day entrepreneurship, lifelong entrepreneurship, I hope that those entrepreneurs who have suffered setbacks can rekindle their inner passions and return to the game.
18. Do the industry you are familiar with.
We have worked in the credit industry for many years, and have been exposed to a variety of bosses, both from some large enterprises and some ordinary self-employed.
Among these people, we have seen that some people have been very successful in starting their own businesses, and they may have saved millions or even tens of millions of family assets a year or two ago.
But more of the people we see are drowning in debt and making a mess of their lives.
The reason why different people start their own businesses has different results, we have summarized a very key experience, that is, whether you are familiar with the project of starting a business.
Through some of the customers we have contacted, those who can really succeed in starting a business usually come from the company. They have done management in the company, or they have done technology in the company.
They are very familiar with this industry and even have certain customers. The foundation, and then come out to start their own business, this kind of person has a very high probability of success in starting a business.
On the contrary, some people do not carefully screen projects in the process of starting a business, but blindly do things that others think make money. For example, when they see some projects that others have made money from starting a business, they feel that they can do it too, but When you really do it, you will find that it is like a mountain.
There must be a certain reason for others to make money. If you are not familiar with this industry and enter blindly, you will only end up at a loss.
So my first suggestion is that you must do things you are familiar with within the process of starting a business, you must be familiar with the product, the industry, the customers in this industry, and the basic logic of the operation of this industry so that you can get started smoothly. , to avoid some unnecessary errors.
19. Start with a small business.
If you don't have much money, don't think about some high-level projects. If your disposable capital is less than 1 million, I suggest you start a small business and don't invest too much money at once.
There are two advantages to a small business.
- First, you can gradually become familiar with the industry and products.
- Second, you can reduce the cost of trial and error.
For example, if you invest tens of thousands of dollars, even if it is not completed in the end, you will lose tens of thousands at most. Dollars, the rest of the money you can start all over again.
But if you put all your savings or even borrowed money into a project if the project fails, you will not only have any savings left, but you will also owe a lot of debt. In time, debt is enough to get you down. You are so overwhelmed that you have no intention of starting a business.
In the process of starting a business, it is not about who can be bigger, but who can live longer.
20. Be prepared for repeated defeats.
We also mentioned earlier that through the analysis of big data, there are many people who fail to start their own businesses. Among every 10 people, no more than two people can really survive for three years, which means that most of them end in failure.
Therefore, everyone should not delusionally think that starting a business will be successful immediately, that you can buy a house and a car in one or two years, and you can go public in 3 or 4 years. This kind of illusion must be broken.
Everyone must be fully prepared before starting a business, that is, failure. From a realistic point of view, there are very few people who can really succeed in a one-time start-up.
21. Research the market
Before you start fine-tuning your concept, you need to research the status quo and understand the current market.
As Startups.com founder Will Schroeder wrote:
“Every minute you spend researching online can save you 10 minutes; if you blindly build your company, you will find that customers may flock to different solutions for the problem you are solving ."
Of course, "market research" sounds more complicated than it actually is.
Spanx founder Sara Blakely advises:
“(List) all the products or businesses you can find that are similar to the product or startup you want to create. For each company, write what you like and dislike about them in a pro/con fashion. Once you do Do, write down all the ways your ideas differ from theirs."
Find out what's on the market and how your business will come up with different, much-needed solutions.
22. Consider starting a side business
Before starting my own company, I worked full-time at a large media company. There, I noticed something was missing in the world: easy-to-create online forms. So I started working on solutions as a side hustle, continuing to build skills and experience in my day job without giving up my salary.
In the end, I earned more from my part-time job than my monthly salary. That's when I left the company and ran it independently, believing that I could continue to pay the bills.
We read all the headlines about VC and fundraising all the time, but for future entrepreneurs, the safer, less stressful route to entrepreneurship may be a better option.
As long as your ideas are solid, your business can grow just as big. Just look at Sara Blakely, who started her company with her own cash and never accepted any outside investment.
Starting small and growing incrementally can also ensure that your product solves the problem you want to solve—before you pump your own and investors’ money into the company.
23. Don't play the waiting game
Entrepreneurs tend to be perfectionists. With so many products, you want your product to be perfect before it's released to the world. But the truth is, the only way to know if people will like and use your product is to get it out into the world.
Rich Allen, author of The Ultimate Business Adjustment: A Simple But Powerful Business Model That Will Change the Lives of Small Business Owners, writes:
“It’s best to start your journey with an unfinished or unpolished product or service and let its early adopters help you improve it. This may mean your pricing won’t be fixed, your offering won’t be complete, Nor will your service be automated. But that's fine."
Don't wait. If you do, a competitor may pop up and offer the same (or better) solution to your problem.
24. Be customer-centric rather than competition-centric
One of the biggest mistakes I see with new business owners is that they focus too much on the competition and ignore the most important stakeholder: the customer. When you're just starting out, it's important to listen carefully to customer feedback, ideas, and even complaints. Criticism can help us find pain points and figure out how to innovate and improve.
Rich Allen writes,
"This first customer experience is invaluable to the direction, focus, and success of your new company."
Ask early customers what they liked, what they would change, and other insights about their experience. Don't forget to look at the data. When you post new or updated content, post it to a small group of people first and measure their response. This way, you can determine if additional changes are required before continuing to develop the full version.
25. Share, share, share
If a tree falls and no one around hears it, does it make a sound? If you're developing a great new product and no one knows about it, does your product still exist?
Answer: It does exist (it also makes sounds), but if no one knows about it, it probably doesn't.
There are many easy ways to share what you're doing. Post it on Weibo, post it on a blog, post a video of it on Bilibili, or post it on WeChat Moments. It turns out that people generally prefer to learn about your company through these free platforms.
For example, according to DemandMetric, 70% of people would rather learn about a company through an article than an advertisement. Through informal channels like official accounts, potential users can learn about your product and your founder’s journey, which can foster a more personal connection with the brand.
So speak up on the roof and pay attention to all your commitments.
26. Be prepared to delegate
One final tip for starting a business: learn to delegate, and fast. The most successful entrepreneurs know to hire talented people and leave decision-making in their hands so they can focus on bigger projects like growing their business.
In the case of Disney, as reported in the Harvard Business Review:
“Disney CEO Bob Iger has opened up the creative decision-making process to other leaders, keeping the company innovative. As the company acquires well-known brands such as Lucasfilm, Marvel, and Fox, he These leadership teams provide the autonomy that allows them to thrive in the Disney ecosystem."
Growth requires learning to stop micromanaging and trusting your leadership team to deliver on your vision.
Here, I would also like to make a few small suggestions for all entrepreneurs.
- The first small suggestion is to boldly apply for loans and financing before the third quarter. This year is likely to be the most accommodating year for credit in the past five or ten years. No matter which city your company is located in, I suggest you go to the bank and give it a try now. Chances are that banks are looking for companies like yours - above-scale businesses that are doing just fine. Hope you all take this opportunity. Of course, I also recommend that entrepreneurs go to investment institutions to go more. The first half of this year may be a good time for financing.
- The second tip, also related to money, suggests that entrepreneurs do a self-stress test on tax compliance.
- The third small suggestion, if you have the opportunity, if you have not tried it, suggests that the boss try to use SaaS for himself. SaaS for small and medium-sized enterprises, it is recommended that founders find their own way. Use once. the SaaS application for small and medium-sized enterprises has entered a very critical development moment, and it is the best service that small and medium-sized enterprises can use very conveniently. Founders and bosses often don't care about what the company is using. They are all used by CFOs, CTOs, and HR directors. Now I suggest that bosses find out for themselves.
- The fourth small suggestion is to observe a listed company with a market value of 100 billion in the industry track you are--in a broad sense, the big industry track where you are located. The financial reports of the secondary market are open and transparent, and through in-depth analysis of them, the trend of the entire industry can be pushed back. Pay attention to the changes in the market value of the industry leaders you are in. We need to observe the most advanced models in the industry and understand the future of the industry in advance.
- The fifth tip is if your company’s revenue has exceeded 50 million dollars, you must know about the opportunity to be listed on the Stock Exchange. In just over two months since it opened last year, 84 companies have been listed on the Stock Exchange, and more than 200 companies are expected to be listed.
These are some of my suggestions for dark horses and entrepreneurs. We have to believe in something and try something, even if it is only a small attempt.
Conclusion of how to start a business
Starting a new business can be nerve-racking, but it's also very exciting. The 26 tips I gave on how to start a business have helped me run and scale my business over the past 16 years, and I hope you will find them helpful too.
Where there are people, there is demand, so no matter what project you do, there is a certain market space. The existence of a certain product or a certain industry means that it will definitely make money, but different people make money in different ways.
For example, some people Make money from service, some people make money from product quality, and some people make money from the low price.
So when it comes to what project is suitable for entrepreneurship, no one can give an accurate answer. I think the key to starting a business is to look at people rather than projects.
If people have the ability and the right partner is found, even if it is ordinary, Small projects that others look down on, you can also do well; on the contrary, if a person has no entrepreneurial experience, even if they give you a good project, you will end up in a mess.