Things You Ought To Know While Starting Your Business!

July 29, 2009 by Chris  
Filed under Leadership Skills

starting your businessBusinesses are developed with some planning in mind, when you see big businesses around you, not all probably started as you did it, some might have stumbled along the way, some might have got ready built empire and yet some might have worked really hard to achieve their targets or make money. In business, everything works on trust worthiness, if you are worth of any rewards you are going to get them in no time than expected. There were hell lots of mistakes I made in my first few business assignments; but those have not stopped me from being where I stand today. You can well imagine how it feels when starting your own business unit. I was a little nervous and little excited, it’s a mix of enthusiasm and willingness that you are going to put in your business. Today I am going to share few things that you, as a young entrepreneur should keep in mind before heading out on a road to success:

  1. The first and foremost I had like to advice you is to pick a real intelligent name for your company, I have seen many an instances where I started with my business that didn’t really work because of the faulty, stupid names I had put as. Your company’s name should necessarily conjoin the business you are doing, forgetting what looks well or bad. Your company name should match with the service that you are providing but at the same time remember not to keep some lengthy names which people wouldn’t be able to remember.
  2. Some of my close pals, I have noticed they mostly went for an “A”, to start the business with, the reason being that they would be listed first in whatever the listings, it is a good practice from business’s point of view but make sure they carry weight and people would know what exactly you are into. Sometimes, people do make mistakes in keeping stupid names and they carry on with the same identity for years, later they make this big mistake of changing their company names after years of being realized as the earlier stupid name, it is best to make something good out of bad, already people know you as some company so rather live with it than going through all the process of building a new brand value in market.
  3. Don’t forget to hire a good law firm for doing all business legal proceedings, even if you get a good well known law firm there are chances you might as well find some best lawyers who will do your work relating to corporate tax, litigation, income tax returns, etc. remember, lawyers work for you and not the company they are working for, so its best to tie up with some well known company who will give you the best lawyers as per your requirements.
  4. There were times, when I had faced bad situation because of these stupid lawyers, the proceedings were delayed in some cases, some were too lazy doing the tasks at quicker pace, etc. I wanted someone who is active and treat my business as his own so the best advice I got from someone, my guru, is to look out for good law firm. The law firms have to carry their reputation, so in no doubt they are going to give you the best they have.
  5. This is one of the advices I keep giving to everyone I come across, to hire some big company even if that costs you a little more but go for professionalism and ethic based lawyers.
  6. In new enterprises, you don’t necessarily be having a huge staff to represent your company. It is only the work that you do is going to count and so you make money accordingly, there were some idiotic mistakes I did while hiring people for some of my first few companies, the companies that didn’t really made to A lists and I feel, it is the workers who make a company and not the company who makes them, so get the best professional people working for you. Some faults I made were:
    1. Don’t hire a person in your company, just because he was a super master in his earlier job or earned varied certificates in previous job. He might be an expert in the earlier job but not the current job so think over his qualifications, his capabilities and what things he can do for company as a person.
    2. Some people feel, hiring more employees will solve their problems, it is not the case, in fact, you can save lots of money by cutting down on the salaries of employees by doing some work on your own. Go and sell it yourself, this way you will get the real experience of the market and get to know people personally.
    3. Other than employee salaries, there are lots of other expenses incurred to run a company, these costing includes, computer maintenance, electricity bills, employee insurance, office space, etc. so manage your finances well.
    4. You might feel great about someone working for you from seven seas, but it is not really a good idea as there are chances of misleading and you don’t really know the efficiency of the person or if he/she has done the work, in such cases, you can make use of varied software to keep track about the work time and break time.
  7. If you are in yesteryears, following old sayings, mind you, you are not going to be always successful, old habits help but not always, stick by the motto, “be faster and getting things done”. I remember the times when I started out with my first few set of companies, it was all a total mess all because of my fault. As your very first venture, you will nurture your new baby business with all the finest possible inputs you can, if you had been feeling the same all this while, don’t worry as these are the symptoms of anxiety every new entrepreneur will face. Instead of taking logical steps which are good for business, you kind of move towards emotional needs of the company so I advice you to take quick steps in whatever decisions you need to take, if you don’t change it now you will be forced to change or take steps in future.
  8. If you are a go getter then you cannot forget to put all the inputs, what it takes to build a successful business network by successful networking you can conquer all odds in life whether you are new or old to business, whether you are making money or loss in business, whether you are located in the same continent or farthest of locations. When you have perfect networking connections, you are at it and you have already won the half, the match.
  9. Success follows Network, if you network well in business terms, you are bound to get good business proposals, and no one likes to do business with someone who is not aligned in the group of networks. So be there always at a position where people will pick you, make sure to attend all the industrial networking events next time.
  10. In business circles, I have often noticed how people treat someone who has given them huge businesses as someone who is GOD like, I really cannot digest this fact that how can someone treat someone as God when everything has been achieved due to his own hard work and determination. When I started with my business, I used to take advice from the people who were already successful in particular field, but sooner I noticed, those advices were not quite working for my business and instead of making profits I made huge loses, this was the time I realized that if I want to run my business I will have to think on my own and proceed by taking major decisions on my own. What I am trying to portray here is, that take advices from people but look over pros and cons before accepting those advices in your business.
  11. No matter how much ever successful you may be in your business, you should always be ready to take new inputs from your followers. You might never know when you get some of the best fabulous ideas to run your business, it may come in any form through suggestions, from partners, from business colleagues, etc. when you are running a partnership business, having a partner is a bliss as your partner would always be there to stop you when something might seem un-adjustable.
  12. No one is perfect, unless you make a mistake you are not going to learn something new so making mistakes are good to the extent that you don’t keep repeating them. If at all you happen to make mistakes, your partner will help you sort out things through different perceptions. Over and above, having a business partner helps you to come out of adversity. You never know in what form the help may come through, your partner may be an expert in the field you are finding difficult so its best to take advice from them.
  13. If you are new to business, don’t fear if something doesn’t work as per your planning. New entrepreneurs often fall under this dilemma of facing the failure, unless you try on something, you will never know of being successful in any particular business endeavors. I have had few instances in my life where I was really fearful of taking on some new business challenge, but after a while I got used to overcoming it and being successful. If you are not sure of taking up something, don’t fear, take it up and blow it away, the worst that can happen is your failure, that failure is not going to eat you up but rather make you steady along the way.

At the end, I would just advice you, young, hot blooded entrepreneurs to accept challenges as they come and not to make any silly mistakes that will ruin your business venture. Learn from your mistakes, don’t repeat them and do each of your business assignments as excitedly you had done the very first one and please avoid the mistakes I made.