Starting A Small Business

Many people love the idea of starting a home business. Mainly because they can start off small and expand, which means the start up is more affordable. With starting a home business you don't have to go through all that hassle of complying to another persons franchise rules, and paying royalties to the franchise every week, month or year. By franchise I mean McDonalds, Burger King, Toco Bell, KFC, and so on. All these are franchises that you can purchase a lisence to own, but have to comply with all their franchise rules and pay them royalties.

So you are probably wondering what are the steps to starting a home business. First off, I must tell you that starting a home business is not as complicated as you might think it is. Most people dread the idea of starting a home business because they think it is too hard or expensive or think it will be a straight out flop. You see it is this negative thinking that defeats you before you even begin. You beat yourself up before you even give it a shot. The truth is that most business start ups fail within a year mainly because they lack a sophisticated plan.

A sophisticated plan weighs out all options. It has prepared solutions for common problems that may happen while starting a home business; in particular yours. Although you can't see into the future to know all problems that may occur, it's good to write down the "what if's" and come up with solutions to them. A lot of my family members own Franchises and home businesses and they have succeeded using this planning tool, it has been very helpful to them.

Start with an idea

Jotting down your interests and hobbies can give you an idea of what you can start up as a business. I have also seen people start up businesses after just simply driving around their neighborhood and seeing what would fit in as a need, and fulfilling it. Fulfilling a certain need within your city can drive in tons of sales to your business, this is called a niche.
For example my Aunt Mariam loves to cook pasta, she uses it as a substitute for rice, it's strange but true. Any how she has never been content with the kind of pasta sauces that are out there on the market. They tasted good to her, but were always missing something . She would always say "I can make sauce better than this" or "this sauce is good, but it would taste better if it had my uniaue touch" we would always laugh and say "yes aunty we know." But one day my aunt supprised us all when she said she was going to make her own pasta sauce and market it. Over a period of time she experimented with different ingredients, and five months later she came up with a sauce that was truely amazing! We were all complimenting her on how delicious it was.

My cousin helped her out with designing a logo for her product, he did it all on his computer. My aunt then purchased jars from a near by dollar store, and began marketing her sauces in local supermarkets. She started off small with placing them in one store, but when people got wind of how great it tasted and were purchasing it by the flock, she had to expand to more stores. At one point she couldn't keep up with the orders, so she decided to get a manufacturer to make, package, and ship it, all for a small fee.

You see what I mean by fulfilling a need? my aunts interest was cooking, she loved preparing food, and wound up making a living out of something she loved. Keep in mind my aunt didn't start with much cash. She started off with 10 bottles of sauce, the ingredients came from the local grocery store. The jars she used came from the dollar store, and the logo design on the jars were all designed by her son. In total she spent $ 40 that's it! and now she is worth thousands!!! The great thing about being your own boss is that you get to set the price of the merchandise you are selling at whatever price you want. Now remember not to be greedy, it's good to set it at an affordable price so they can come back and purchase it again.

Choose best idea, then do research

Choose one idea from your interest list and do research on it, you want to know as much as you can about the business you are getting into. This is where search engines like google and yahoo come in handy, and the good thing about it is it's all free. The first thing you will be looking for when doing your research is some background on the actual business. See what tactics others have used to succeed and build on it. Now again, what works for other people may not work for you , but at least you have a rough idea on what approach to take.

Secondly, research the tools and materials you need for the start up and how much they cost. For example if you want to start up a flower boutique store, you would want to have a good idea on how much tools and materials cost such as: seeds, fertalizer,flower pots and so on. Also doing research on the right location to have the store at can have you at an advantage over your competition. Finding a niche plays a big role towards your success. Visit our marketing link, we supply information on where you can find products, tools, and what to look for as far as location for your business.

Set Budget

Yes setting a budget is very important, you do not want to spend money that will put you in the whole. A budget is a plan outlining on how much you are willing to spend on the materials or products you need to make your business happen. We have tons of information on budgeting click on the budgeting navigation bar ONLY when you have a solid idea of your home business choice and have set a full scale action plan. Budgeting also outlines costs of the different marketing approaches you would like to take to expose your business. Which leads us to...

Marketing

As you know there are many marketing stratagies to apply, such as: Newspaper ads, Radio, TV, Flyers, cards, direct response mailing and word of mouth. But the most effective way for most people is the internet. In an age where sites like Facebook, Myspace, Google and Yahoo are searched by millions everyday, not placing an ad about your business on one of them can place you at a great disadvantage. With Google for example you can use advertising tools like Adwords, PPC (pay per Click) and SEO (Search Engine Optomization). Click on the marketing tools navigation bar that is on the home page to learn more about effective advertising stratagies.

Staying motivated

Staying motivated is a very significant part of maintaining your home business. A lot of people have this drive of ambition when they start up their business, but then it slowly fades away when they do not get the results they want right away. Yes of course you want to see your business do well, but in most cases it takes time. You know success has a way of showing up right when you want to give up; right when you're fed up, so stick it out.

Nothing easily given is cherished; it is always taken for granted. You will find that your journey of trail and error will eventually lead to success, and when you attain it it will be very rewarding. You will value it more than if you received it right away. You know I was told once that "there is this common conception that motivation leads to action, but the reverse is also true, action leads to motivation" so I say to you persist in your actions and more motivation to keep your business going will embrace you; and much success and wealth will be yours.