Starting your own business
Do you need to register a company to start a business? Or can you start a business and then register a company? Which one comes first? It’s a bit like the question of the chicken and the egg, do you agree?
There are so many things to consider like what will you do in your business, how will you start it, how much will it cost, what laws do you need to comply with to start and keep the business running, the list goes on.
There are many books written about how and what to do when starting a business. We will give you our honest and simple guide on what you should consider over the next couple of blog posts.
Hopefully, they will be useful to you if you’re starting out a business or even have already started one and you may find that you’ve missed a few important aspects along the line.
What problem are you solving?
The most important element in starting any business is the answer to the question “What problem is your business solving?”
This often, is a problem that you have experienced and cannot find a solution for. Once you have this figured out, the rest becomes a lot easier.
What is your USP?
If you are a doctor like a GP, there can be so many GPs in one area/city/town, but what makes a patient come to you and not go to the other GPs around?
It’s called your Unique Selling Point (USP).
What makes you different? Why should a paying customer choose you over another business?
In the case of a GP, it could be the friendly and caring staff or how good the GP is with kids, or how the GP offers preventative care customised for each family, etc.
You can have a Unique Selling Point even when there is more than one business in an area that seems to solve the same problem. Truth be told, it would not be a problem still, if it were being fully solved by the other business(es) in your area!
How are you going to go about your business?
This is where your plan comes in (aka business strategy). Your strategy looks at how you are going to get the wheels to turn to get your business going.
The Strategy
Just like planning a holiday, you decide that you want to go on holiday to a place you’ve never been before (aka your vision).
You then start to look for different places that you can visit. This is called looking at options.
There are many routes to get your destination, so you lay out those options and consider your current situation in choosing the best way to move forward.
You decide based on your likes and your personality (your business values) and what is affordable.
Similarly, your vision reminds you and your staff of where you want to get to,. Your values will shape your business culture and guide you and your employees on how you go about your business, be it within the company or with customers.
Operations
You’ve chosen the right option for your holiday, you then start putting into action the different things you need to do to make your holiday a success.
The actions (business operational plan) look like booking a flight, booking the hotel, researching activities to do when on holiday, so you’re guaranteed a hassle-free time when there.
Your business operating plan outlines, how you will sell, how you will deliver your products or services, how will you handle your customers, how will you hire and pay employees, how will you buy from suppliers and pay them, etc.
This plan can be further broken down into a sales and marketing plan, HR plan, etc.
The budget then becomes the financial plan of how you are going to fund the operating plan to make the business work.
People
Sometimes, the holiday you are planning needs more expertise or time than you are personally capable of providing. This is when you begin to look for a travel agent who can help you put the whole holiday experience together for you at a fee.
Similarly, this is where the business owner has to then start employing staff and seeking advice and services from professionals.
This is an important part of being a business owner.
Building a successful business cannot be done on your own, it takes a community of people and professionals to support you as you move towards achieving your mission.
Achievement
Whilst on holiday, you take pictures and bring back some gifts to remember your holiday by.
If you are prudent, you may even re-assess your finances and see if you didn’t overspend on your budget.
You will also use lessons learnt from this holiday experience into the next holiday you want to go on, so that it’s better than before.
It is necessary to show a picture of how your business has performed against what you had planned.
Regular reporting on business performance, helps you keep an eye on how things are going according to the original operating plan.
If for some reason, things went better or worse, you have the opportunity at this stage to amend the operating plan to take advantage of lessons learnt as the business operates.
Reporting is not only required by law, but an essential tool for business survival in the short and long term.
This is how you will know if you’ve achieved what you set out to achieve.
In conclusion, we believe that if you have a problem that is not being solved, you have a business idea and if you know what makes you different, then you can start your business.
Exactly how depends on many factors and we’ll cover some of the legal, tax and other requirements in future blogs.
How can we help?
We are ready to assist you with the advice and practical tools on how to get your business off to the right start.
If you have already started, we can still help by putting together a plan with your input that will be your guide going forward in terms of managing and growing your business.
Get in touch with us by sending an email to hello@santosbiz.co.za or Book a Call with us now. ?
