Checklist for Starting Your Startup

Startups are among the most popular means of doing business, mainly because they promise a quick development without too much investment. On the other hand, if things aren’t done properly from the inception, it’s likely to crash and burn, which is why many believe that rising fast and failing quickly is the very point behind the majority of small businesses. In order to get things going properly and avoid becoming a cautionary tale, outlining and following a checklist during the planning stage is of vital importance.

The Main Idea

Of course, aiming towards achieving success is something all businesses strive for, but getting into something solely for the sake of starting a business is the most common contributor to the modern startup wasteland. This is exactly why thoroughly outlining your main idea is so important – your startup should be your legacy, not just a way to earn cash. Of course, innovation and novelty play an important role in developing a rock-solid and lucrative main idea, but this is also the hardest part. This is largely owing to the fact that there are so many small businesses currently in existence – no matter how revolutionary you think your idea is, chances are that there’s another entrepreneur somewhere who has thought of it before you. Luckily, there is another way to develop your main idea, without it having to be completely innovative – if you can’t invent something new, work on improving an existing idea, which essentially means finding ways to make it cheaper and more efficient. Let Google be your example – even though this is by far the most popular search engine, it isn’t the world’s first one – Google simply analyzed the downsides of Yahoo and made its way to the top of the business food chain.

Hiring

There are startup ideas which you can run on your own, but the truth is – these examples are rare. Chances are that you’re going to have to hire personnel; and the main advice to take here is this: your business is only as strong as your workforce is. Hiring, however, isn’t easy – even if you employ a professional HR team, shuffling through CVs and recommendation lessons only tells half a story about an individual. Using big data is absolutely essential; it boils down to researching your potential employees by means of social media websites, such as LinkedIn, but also Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Warehouse

If you are planning on running a business that doesn’t require a warehouse, this advice won’t be of too much help. If this isn’t the case, storage will be an integral part of your company, so you should pay attention to this part before setting things in motion. Make sure that your warehouse is equipped with all the necessary paraphernalia – from pallet racking to lifts and cherry pickers.

Financing

This is the step the majority of young entrepreneurs dread, and for a valid reason – it takes a lot to obtain financing. If you’re willing and able to set aside a huge part of your personal budget for your business idea, you are lucky, but most aspiring businessmen will have to enter a partnership to share expenses, take out a loan from friends and family, or, most likely, find an investor. It is of absolute essence that you develop a solid and thorough financial plan – no investor is going to take you seriously without one. Be careful however, you need to be able to sell it; so, if they ask you to send them your financial plan via email, you should insist that you show it to them in person – without you actually being physically there to carefully outline it to them, they might not share your vision and your financing will never get through.

This checklist will help you set things into motion, but, when it comes to running a startup, you’ve got a long road ahead of you. Develop your main idea carefully, use the power of the internet when hiring, timely equip your warehouse and come up with a solid financial plan; but make sure that you keep in touch with webzines and entrepreneur websites if you want to make the great!