There are many excellent reasons to start a business, including the sense of satisfaction for your achievements, better work-life balance, and freedom you might be craving from a “job.” However, as much as the idea might be tempting, starting your business without thoroughly thinking things through is not wise. If you rush and move too quickly, there’s a good chance you’ll overlook something important.
You need to take a step back and ensure you put in plenty of time and effort doing some research. Yes, this may slow down the launch of your business, but think of it this way. If you put in the hard work now and find out all you need to know, you’ll stand a much better chance of success. If you don’t research and jump in, you might have to close shop pretty quickly. Which sounds like the best option?
With that in mind, here are some things you need to research before you start a business.
Your Competition
Every business is going to have some competition, although some will have more than others. Ignoring this fact and pretending there’s no one doing anything remotely similar to you might be great for your peace of mind, but it’s terrible for your business. Knowing about your competition is vital for success, even if it feels uncomfortable.
When you study your competition, you can use their mistakes and successes to your advantage. You can avoid problems by paying attention to things that aren’t going well for them, and you can move further ahead by looking at what’s working. Of course, you can’t just take their good ideas and use them yourself. However, you can use them as the basis of what you’re doing. After all, if customers like what your competition is doing and you offer something even better, they’re sure to want to buy from you.
Your Target Audience
Just like when it comes to analyzing your competition, the idea of working out who your target audience is might not seem as though it’s really important. Can’t you just create a great marketing campaign that appeals to everyone?
In truth, the answer to that question is no. You can’t create a great marketing campaign that appeals to everyone because such a thing doesn’t exist. Although some people might like what you’re doing and how you’re doing it, others definitely won’t. That’s nothing negative about your business or products; it’s just that you can’t please everyone all at once. Generally, when you try, you end up hardly pleasing anyone at all.
It’s far better to know who your target market is. You can use knowledge about their age, location, jobs, income, and anything else you can find out to create a marketing campaign. This way, you will appeal to the people who are already most likely to buy from you rather than to people who are never going to purchase from your business.
Knowing as much as possible about your target market is also helpful for your social media. And yes, if you run a business, you must have social media. Which platform you choose to be active on depends on your target market. When you know whether they’re using Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tik Tok, or anything else, you can ensure you position your business in the same place. Not only will you create advertising that speaks to the right people, but you’ll be putting it right in front of them where they can’t help but see it. This combination is sure to bring you more sales.
Your Business Name
What is your business name? Every business has to have a name. You can’t set your business up as a legal entity without one, and you can’t successfully market anything, either. Just settling on the first name that comes to mind or picking one out of the air and thinking it will do isn’t the ideal way to name your business. It would be best if you did a lot of research about your business name to ensure you’re choosing wisely; it might be a more challenging choice than you first realized.
Something that will motivate you to think long and hard about your business name is that once you’ve chosen it and started to market it, you will create a website, a logo, and everything else your business name needs to feature. If you decide to change the company name, rebranding is expensive and time-consuming. Rebranding is not something any business would do unless they really wanted or needed to, especially as a startup entrepreneur. Not only will it cost a lot of money, but it will confuse the audience you’ve only just introduced yourself to. That can be enough to turn them away from your business, even if the entire reason for rebranding was to make it better.
As you can see, a lot needs to go into choosing the right name. Even if you use the first one that came to mind, at least you’ll know it’s right. The chosen name will not just be one you settled on because you were in a hurry to start.
Your Products And Services
If there’s one thing you need to know as much as possible about before you start a business, it’s the products and services you intend to sell. Unless you have an in-depth knowledge of them, you won’t be able to convince your customers to buy them. You won’t have the confidence you need to sell whatever it is you want to sell.
Once you decide what your business will be selling, you need to find out everything you can. You might already have a lot of knowledge about what you’re selling, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t more to learn. It’s best to get as up-to-date information as possible and always look for more learning opportunities because there’s no such thing as too much knowledge. There are many different ways to do that, from taking a course to checking out the BuildOps glossary.
When you know plenty about what you’re selling, you can answer questions more quickly, talk about the benefits without being unsure, and create content like explainer videos showing you’re an expert in your field. This can make a big difference to your bottom line.
Your USP
Your USP is your unique selling proposition; it makes you stand out from the crowd and become memorable. Ideally, it’s what helps you become a household name. It’s the thing you do that no one else does (or the thing you do that no one else does as well as you can). That’s why it’s vital to spend time thinking about what your USP is. Maybe it’s your product or service that’s genuinely unique. Perhaps it’s the way you run your business. Maybe it’s your employees or the things you do when it comes to customer service. It could even be the payment methods you offer or so much more.
Once you discover your USP, you can use it in your marketing, branding, and the fabric of your business, including how your employees interact with customers. Because there are many potential options, figuring out your USP could take some time. But when you think about how much relies on getting this right, you’ll know it’s time well spent.
Your Funding
It doesn’t have to cost a fortune to start a business, but it’s not typically going to be free, either. You may need a little funding to get started and possibly some more to keep going while you’re working on making a profit (which may take longer than you think).
But where will the money come from?
Researching how you will fund your business before you start would be best. There are various options when it comes to funding, from borrowing to crowdfunding or using your savings. Develop a business plan that includes a proposed budget, how much money you need, and where the funding will come from.
There are other things to consider when you start a business, but these elements will certainly get you a good head start. You can review some of the articles on this site to get ideas on where to begin. Do the research first, and you will be starting strong. Here’s to your success!
Carolyn R. Owens has over 25 years of proven experience and serves as a Career Strategist, Leadership, and Mentor Coach. She is the Chairwoman and CEO of Infinity Coaching, Inc., where they help you up-level your skills so you can up-level your income. Infinity Coaching, Inc. provides one-on-one and group coaching, organizational training, and personality assessments. Carolyn is certified to give the Energy Leadership Index and Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessments. You can learn more about assessments and other products and services at https://infinitycoaching.net.
