How to start your own business

How to Start a Business

What is a business? A Business is a group of people who have form a legally recognized organization designed to provide goods and/or services to consumers or other businesses. Business is people centric. Organized efficient effort.

Why? Reason to be? Desire Lifestyle Necessity Write down your motivations Control of your time Follow your dreams Money See Opportunity Do what you love!

SWOT Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats Internal External

Determination Choose to succeed. Declare it. Look in the mirror and say: “ I am in the business of __________.” or “I am a __________.” Congratulations you’re a Sole Proprietor! No additional paperwork required. “ The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man's determination.” Tommy Lasorda

Define the path What kind of business are you going to have? What is it going to look like? Visualize it. Are you selling a product or a service? What is the benefit / advantage you provide? Who is going to benefit? What problem does your product or service solve ? “ Little by little one walks far” Peruvian Proverb Your business plan will include these.

“ Dealing with people is probably the biggest problem you face, especially if you are in business. Yes, and that is also true if you are a housewife, architect or engineer.” Dale Carnegie Build Your Team For your business to be successful you will need to work with people.

Suppliers
Vendors
Clients 
Strategic partners
Accountants
Lawyers
Technicians
Designers
Business coaches etc....

Determine who you will need on your team

Organizing

Business Name Registration

Sole Proprietor
Limited Liability Partnership
Limited Liability Company
S-Corp
C-Corp

EIN Employer Identification Number

(the social security for your business) Get started @ Secretary of State website http://www.sos.state.co.us/ http://www.irs.gov Local city site Bank Account Special Licenses? Insurance?

Funding

Friends / Family and Fools
Part time job or part time business
Credit Card
Personal loan
Savings
Angel investor
Bootstrap
Business sales
Venture Capital

Marketing

Business Name
Logo
Website
Business Cards
Flyers / Brouchures
Newpaper
Social Networks

Facebook,
Twitter
Linkedin etc..

Radio
TV
Magazines
Billboards
Car wraps
Google ads
Google local

Identify Your Target Market

Sales

Negotiations
Contracts
Fulfillment
Collecting the Money!

Credit Cards
Checks
Cash
Payments
Terms
Collections
Write offs

Accounting

Management Vision

Evaluate Current Financial Statement
Evaluate the Market
Compare Vision (internal) to Market Reality (external)
Invest / Grow / Maintain
Advisors
Board of Directors
Desire

Scientific Method Compare Results to your Hypothesis. Change as necessary.

Goal Setting Meaningful and measurable Example: $XXXXX a month in retainer income 10 new clients this month Internal

Business Cycles Seasonal Honeymoon period Market location Market change Competition External

Where to Start / What to do next Startup Internal vs External Vision compared to the Market reality Maintain or Grow Plan vs Execute Steering the Ship Mile high view

Focus / GTD

Take Action “ The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” Mark Twain

Your not alone Mark D. Lusher Omnidant LLC 1035 Pearl St. Fourth Floor Boulder, CO 80302 tel. 303.731.6072 cel 720.940.6629 [email_address] http://www.omnidant.com http://www.marklusher.com http://www.prosperingnow.com http://www.mindscapehosting.com "Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.” Niccolo Machiavelli