03 Feb Let’s undress your start-up plan!
Yes! I’m ready to start my own business!
- I know I need a business license. (Did you know you’ll need one for each locality you plan to transact in?) Google: (your city + Business License) to get specifics.
- I know I need a separate bank account. (Please tell me you know that!)
- I need business cards to hand out. (There IS more to that piece of the marketing and branding pie, but it’s not in the scope of this article. Shine some light on it by Googling things like “Branding,” “Brand identity,” then save yourself some bland-ness and talk to the pros to craft something that stands out from the meh crowds and actually represents the soul of you and your business!) My favorite for this: www.mabblemedia.com
- I’m not sure if I need insurance for this business or if I should incorporate. (This is NOT a Googler, in my opinion.) Chatting with a business lawyer is the safest move. If that is beyond your budget, make an appointment with both a SCORE and an SBA counselor (free). You will learn a lot and make good connections.
- Numbers scare me. I’m not sure where to start with getting the accounting part set up and maintaining it. (A frisky second to contacting the SCORE & SBA counselors [It’s free, remember?] to get you pointed in the right direction. You will be wise to get some assistance on this. Side story here. Once upon a time, I felt like I needed to tightly categorize and track EVERY single penny going both in and out of my businesses. My Quickbooks charts of accounts (and sub-accounts) were voluminous monsters! I could never find anyone who could maintain them with this excruciating detail; nor did I have the time for that insane amount of data entry. Result: mistakes and inaccurate numbers, the opposite of the goal. There is a sweet spot in your reporting that checks most of the boxes. Final note: numbers are the blood of your business. They need to be clean and accurate.
All of the above are uber-important and essential areas to address.
However, there is another area to shine some light on BEFORE you get to those departments.
Download your Purpose Matrix Focus sheet
The human race is programmed for survival purposes to be fear and unpleasant-ness averse. At one point, it kept us from being eaten by a wild boar. (They are scary smart, did you know that? lol!)
No boar threats here and now, but making a fool of yourself, losing your capital investment, feeling like a fraud – all of those arguably feel just as bloodcurdling.
You need to act from a commanding WHY FIRST, then stack that up against the worst-case scenarios you could face on the trek. At the first sniff of humiliation or grand loss, are you likely to retreat back to safety and fold? OR are the anticipated positive feelings compelling enough to inspire you to hunker down and find the best solutions to persevere toward their attainment?
Hugs!
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