by Rahimah Sultan

Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.

In the last article 11 Steps to Start Your Own Business Part 1, we covered the first five steps of starting your own business. We’ll now cover the remaining six steps.


Now that the business is set up, what’s next?


6. Get Your Finances in Order

Open a business bank account and keep your business and personal finances separate. Your business account can be used for business transactions such as invoicing customers or paying suppliers. Usually, a bank will insist you have a separate business bank account in case you want a business loan or line of credit. You’ll have to provide your business name and business tax identification number (EIN) when opening a business bank account.

You’ll need to hire a bookkeeper or get accounting software. There are some software programs that double as bookkeeping tools and often include features such as check writing and managing receivables and payables. The software can also be used to generate invoices, track your income and expenses, run reports and calculate taxes. These services can be accessed online from any computer or mobile device.

You must get an idea of your startup costs before funding your business. To do this list all physical supplies you need, estimate the cost of any professional services you’ll need, add the cost of any licenses or permits required to operate, and calculate office space cost or other real estate. If applicable, add payroll and benefits costs.

Since businesses can take years to make a profit, it’s better to overestimate startup costs and have too much cash on hand rather than too little. Some experts recommend having enough cash to cover six months of operating expenses. You should also know your break-even point; the point at which your business makes money.


7. Fund Your Business

There are many ways to fund your business. Some require more effort than others. There are two categories of funding: internal and external.

Internal funding includes credit cards, personal savings, and family and friends. This option has the inherent risks of lost wealth due to not paying debts or hard feelings because of strained relationships if the company goes under.

External funding includes:

Small business loans and grants
Angel investors
Venture capital
Crowdfunding

Whatever the source plan for profit. It’s much better to take home all your money rather than lose part of it.

To choose the right funding source consider the amount of money you need, the time frame for repayment, and risk tolerance.


8. Apply for Business Insurance

Even if you don’t have employees or you have a home-based business, you need to have insurance. The type depends on your business model and your risks. You might need more than one kind of policy and, as your business grows, you might need additional coverage. In most states, if you have employees, workers’ compensation insurance is required by law.

The basic types of business insurance coverage are:

Liability insurance which protects your business against third-party claims of bodily injury, property damage, and personal injury such as defamation or false advertising.

Property insurance for covering the physical assets of your business, including your office space, equipment, and inventory.

Business interruption insurance to pay for the loss of income if your business is forced to close temporarily due to a covered event such as a natural disaster.

Product liability insurance for protection against claims that your products caused bodily injury or property damage.

Employee practices liability insurance that covers claims from employees alleging discrimination, sexual harassment, or other wrongful termination.

Workers’ compensation insurance for medical expenses and income replacement for employees who are injured on the job.


9. Have the Right Business Tools

The right business tools can help make your life easier and your business run a lot smoother. They can also help save time, automate tasks, and aid you in making better decisions.

Following are some tools to consider:

Accounting software
Customer relationship management software (CRM)
Project management software
Credit card processor
Point of sale (POS)
Virtual private network (VPN)
Merchant services
Email Hosting


10. Market Your Business

Don’t spend so much time creating the products that you have no marketing budget by launch time.

A web presence is essential even if you’re a brick-and-mortar business. Here are tips for establishing a web presence. You can have a standard informational site or an e-commerce site where you sell products online.

After getting a website or e-commerce site you need to optimize it for search engines so that when a potential customer searches for specific keywords for your products, search engines can direct them to your site.

As SEO is a long-term strategy, don’t expect a lot of traffic from search engines initially—even when you’re using all the correct keywords.

Provide quality, relevant digital content on your site. Content marketing should be one of the most critical tasks on your daily to-do list and should be used in conjunction with social media.

Get listed in online directories like Yelp, Google My Business, and Facebook to find local businesses. Include your business in as many relevant directories as possible and create listings for your business in specific directories that focus on your subject matter.

Develop a social media strategy and use social media to drive traffic back to your website where customers can learn more about what you do and buy your products or services.

You don’t have to use all the social media platforms. But you should have a presence on Facebook and Instagram as they offer e-commerce features that allow you to sell directly from your social media accounts. Both platforms have free ad training to help you market your business.


11. Scale Your Business

In order to scale your business, you’ll need to grow your customer base and revenue. You can do this by increasing your marketing efforts, collaborating with other creators, improving your product or service, or adding new products or services that complement what you already offer.

Consider ways you can automate or outsource particular tasks so that you can focus on scaling your business. For example, if social media marketing is occupying too much of your time, you can use a platform such as Hootsuite to help you manage your accounts more efficiently. You can also completely outsource the time-consumer.

You can use technology to automate certain business processes including accounting, lead generation, and email marketing. By doing this you will have more time to focus on other parts of your business.

It’s important to watch your finances and make sure you’re still profitable when scaling your business. Make sure you have enough money to cover your costs. You may need to either reduce your expenses or find ways to increase your revenue.

As your business grows, you will eventually need a team of people who can help you run the day-to-day operations. This might include hiring additional staff, contractors, or freelancers.

Now, with these 11 steps to start your own business, you can get started today.


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by Rahimah Sultan

Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.

Where do you start?

Starting a business can be very exciting and rewarding. But where do you start? There are many ways to approach creating a business as well as many important considerations.

What is often touted as overnight success requires years of dreaming, building, and positioning before a big public launch. So, remember to focus on your business journey and not measure your success against anyone else’s.

Before beginning these 11 steps to start your own business you need to get in the right mindset. You should know that it takes consistency, creating habits and follow-up routines, and writing out every possible step it takes to achieve your goal. Then order those steps by what needs to be done first. Some steps may take a few minutes to accomplish while others will take a long time. The point is to always take the next step and keep moving forward.


1. Determine Your Business Concept

How do you determine your business concept?

Before deciding what type of business to start, there are several things to consider:

What kind of financing do you have?
How much time do you have to devote to your business?
Do you prefer to work from home, at a workshop, or from an office?
What passions or interests do you have?
Can you sell information (a course) rather than a product?
What expertise or skills do you have?
How fast do you need to scale your business?
What kind of support do you have to start your business?
Will you be partnering with someone else?
Does the franchise model make more sense to you?


If you’re not sure of what kind of business to start, consider one of the following:

Start a blog
Start an online store
Start a franchise
Start a cleaning business
Start a bookkeeping business
Start a drop shipping business
Start a clothing business
Start a landscaping business
Start a consulting business
Start a vending machine business
Start a photography business


2. Research Your Market and Your Competitors

As an entrepreneur, you should spend more time on getting to know the competition rather than on products. If you ever apply for outside funding, your potential lender or partner will want to know what makes you (or your business idea) different from the rest.

If market analysis shows that your product or service is saturated in your area, see if you can come up with something different. For example – housekeeping. Rather than general cleaning services, you can specialize in homes with pets or focus on garage cleanups.

Primary research is the first stage of any competition study. This means getting data directly from potential customers and not basing your conclusions on past data. For this, you can use surveys, questionnaires, and interviews to learn what consumers want and would actually buy.

Secondary research uses existing sources of information, such as census data, to gather information. The current data may be studied, compiled, and analyzed in various ways that are appropriate for your needs but it probably won’t be as detailed as your primary research.

Thirdly, you can do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis which will allow you to get the facts about how your product or idea might perform if taken to market. It can also help you make decisions about the objective of your idea. Your business idea might have some weaknesses that you hadn’t considered or there may be opportunities to improve on a competitor’s product.


3. Create A Business Plan

A business plan is a document that serves as a roadmap for establishing your new business. It outlines your company’s objectives and how you plan to meet them.

Even if you intend to self-finance, a business plan can help you bring to life your idea and spot potential problems. When you write your well-rounded business plan, include the following sections:

Executive summary
Company description
Market analysis
Organization and structure
Mission and goals
Products and/or services
Background summary
Marketing plan
Financial plan


Come up with an exit strategy. The most common ones include:

Selling the business to another party
Passing the business down to family members
Liquidating the business assets
Closing the doors and walking away

The best option for you will depend on your goals and circumstances.

It’s important to have a scalable business model that can be replicated easily to serve more customers without acquiring a significant increase in expenses.

Some standard scalable business models are:

Subscription-based businesses
Businesses that sell digital products
Franchise businesses
Network marketing businesses


One of the most important things to do when starting a small business is to plan for taxes which can be very complex. There are several different types of taxes you may be liable for, including income tax, self-employment tax, sales tax, and property tax. Depending on the type of business you’re operating, you may also be required to pay other taxes, such as payroll tax or unemployment tax.


4. Choose Your Business Structure

When structuring your business, it’s essential to consider how each structure impacts the amount of taxes you owe, daily operations, and whether your personal assets are at risk.

The most common business structures in the US are LLC, LLP, Sole proprietorship, and corporation.

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5. Register Your Business and get Licenses

After choosing a business structure, you have several legal issues to address. Following is a good checklist of items to consider when establishing your business:

Choose a business name
Register your business and get an EIN
Get appropriate licenses and permits


You’ll officially create your business entity by filing forms with your state’s business agency. As part of this process, you’ll need to choose a registered agent to accept legal documents on behalf of your business. You’ll also pay a filing fee. The state will send you a certificate that you can use to apply for licenses, a tax identification number (TIN), and business bank accounts.

All businesses, other than sole proprietorships with no employees, must have a federal employer identification number. You can submit your application to the IRS and you’ll usually receive your number in minutes.


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