5 Things to Remember When Starting a Business

Starting a business requires that you really plan everything meticulously. Making a critical mistake can set you back immensely or possibly even lead to failure. There are many aspects of starting a business that new business owners overlook. Here is a list of five things you need to remember.

1. Marketing is King

Many business start out with a great idea but falter due to bad marketing, minimal marketing, or a lack of marketing altogether. It’s critical to analyze your market, find out which marketing channels to utilize, and come up with a clear strategy on how to make your marketing work.

2. Don’t Forget to Look at the Downside

Obviously, everyone starts a business with a goal of becoming successful. However, that often lead to many business owners ignoring the downside. You need to look through your numbers and figure out how much you’ll be losing every month, what could possibly go wrong, and how long you can hold out financially.

3. Hiring Great Employees is Critical

It’s vital that you hire an employee that has the experience, expertise, and/or attitude that’s required to not only do the job right, but to perform at a high level. For example, a retail sales representative that has the experience but a bad attitude can lose you sales on a daily basis. You won't always make the right choice but the point is that you need to build a great team.

4. Cash Flow Can Make or Break Your Business

Cash flow is often overlooked by new business owners because most of the focus is on actually generating profit and staying afloat. But having cash during the right time will allow you to invest in advertising, pay your employees on time, pay vendors on schedule, take care of your overhead on time, and more. Managing cash flow will reduce risk, accelerate growth, and offer your business flexibility.

5. Try to Get a Good Merchant Account Running

Many new business owners go with third party credit card processing solutions because they are easy to set up and get running. However, it is a better idea to open a merchant account to accept credit card payments. Third party companies can charge you higher fees for a larger sales volume since they’re acting as a middle man. They also have many undesirable policies you have to adhere to. With a merchant account like merchant solutions, you can save money on large volumes and have more control on how to handle customer payment disputes and payment options.

As you can see, these five factors can easily be overlooked during the process of starting a business. While it'll probably extend your to-do list, they are vital to the success of your new venture. They'll allow you to minimize your risk, take control of your business finances, and ensure that your business can quickly bring in new customers.