Easy Steps to Commencing Your Small Business

Yeah, sure it's easy, and needless to say, that title is a little tongue in cheek. It takes a lot of hard work to get a venture off the ground. But, it's worth every hour I've spent getting to where I'm now.
When I chose to start my connection and image consulting venture, I tried hard to find a great startup guide. I couldn't find any that had all of the steps. So, I chose to create one. So far, it's mostly just the bare-bones outline (that happens to be long enough as it's) you see in this write-up.
I'll be adding to it every week or two, and writing far more detailed articles on all of the steps, so try to stop by and check it out all the time. Let me know how I'm doing. Shoot off an email to me if I've forgotten something or you have questions.

Before you spend so much as a dollar, speak to a few experts. Go to the library or get on the online and research, research, research. Take a little time to make sure entrepreneurship is right for you.

Create a pro and con list of enterprise ownership, and evaluate yourself honestly. The number of characteristics do you have in common with productive business men? Is your financial position strong enough? Do you have the necessary technical and management skills?

You're not going to be the perfect entrepreneur. Nobody is. But so that you can make yourself the very best entrepreneur you could be, look into ways to compensate for almost any weaknesses you might have.

I'm from Canada, so the government agencies I've mentioned in this guide are Canadian, but really, it can certainly be used by anyone. All you need to do, if you're from somewhere other than Canada, is determine where you have to find some of the things I'll converse about. Some of the steps may be slightly different, and you may not have to worry about things like GST for instance, but I'm sure you'll find this discussion helpful all the same.

These steps to starting a business are in reasonably good order, but you might find yourself varying from it under your particular circumstances. That really isn't a big deal, as long as you get most of it done. One can find some steps you'll be able to skip as well, but please don't skip any of the "big ones", which I'm sure you'll pretty much figure out from taking a look at the list.


So, assuming you've done your evaluation and you still want to start a venture, take a deep breath, and let's get started.

1. Conduct a feasibility study of your venture. Describe your typical customer, your product and your competitors. Who will your suppliers be? What will you charge for your product? How will you market your product? These are just a few of the questions you have to answer.

2. Write a complete venture plan for your enterprise, using the information you gathered from your feasibility study. This vitally important, often overlooked step requires to include a description of your company, its goals, competitors, market, financial information, and obviously, how you intend to meet your goals.

3. Get your financing in place. You will find a lot of ways to finance your enterprise, from your own savings to personal credit cards to bank loans. If you need credit, know your enterprise plan from front to back and maybe even sideways.

4. Decide what kind of structure your company will have. From a legal standpoint, there are three fundamental choices, sole proprietorship, partnership and incorporation, each with advantages and disadvantages.

5. Choose a name for your corporation and check on name availability. Naming your company is highly individual, but it's the first thing associated with your business, so choose your name carefully. You'll must do a NUANS (Newly Upgraded Automated Name Search) report, which checks your name choices for uniqueness against a database of other business names. A reserved name is valid for 90 days.

6. Decide whether you want to register federally or provincially and register your corporation. Should you register federally, you'll also have to register provincially, which almost doubles the cost. You really do not have to have a lawyer process them for you, but it could be a good concept to at least consult with one. You can get the forms from your local government office, have them faxed to you or download them. You can fax or email printed copies, or complete the forms online

7. Contact Canada Revenue Agency Enterprise Window for your venture number, and to register for GST/HST, payroll, corporate income tax and import/export (if applicable). You can certainly also contact the CRA should you need general information about enterprise expenses. Chances are you'll have to collect GST, but you may want to register for a GST number even in the event you really don't have to collect it because of input tax credits.

8. Decide whether you need to collect PST. In the event you do, you must submit "Registration as a Vendor" documents with your province.

9. Determine whether there are actually special permits or licenses in your municipality. It's highly unlikely that your municipality doesn't have special permits or licenses.

10. Develop the marketing materials you decided on in your business plan. They should include at least a company identity package, press kit and site. Your identity package is your logo, venture card and letterhead. A press kit can certainly include letters of introduction, biography sheets, press releases, articles and a brochure. In today's electronic age, printed materials aren't enough. You will need an internet site that looks professional, matches your printed material and has great copy. You'll also want to make sure it's optimized for search engines.

11. Set up your venture lender account and record-keeping system. Your banker will have to see your incorporation documents, and you should possibly setup much more than one account so you could keep track of your finances better. Record-keeping is required, and can be done manually or with a computer plan.

12. Purchase insurance. You will find many different types of insurance, but most probably your business will need at least one. For instance, if you're going to have employees, you have to contact the Worker's Pay plans Board. Depending on your type of venture, you might want to contact them even if you don't have employees to insure yourself.

13. Contact potential creditors and build credit terms. You should have researched suppliers when you were doing your feasibility study. Now is the time to contact them.

14. Decide where your enterprise am goin to be located. Lease your business' space. Alternatively, you could choose to start your enterprise from home if it's feasible. You'll find advantages and disadvantages to starting your enterprise from home. You have tax write-offs for example, but sometimes your image suffers.

15. Purchase supplies and office equipment. You'll need too several things to list here, and of course, each business has different really needs. You might need a fax machine and printer. You'll likely need a computer. You'll absolutely need paper, pens, pencils and a calculator.

Congratulations! Go out, buy yourself a bottle of champagne and celebrate. You're about to embark on a most exciting journey. And may I be the 1st to wish you good luck and prosperous times in your enterprise venture.
As promised, here's my email address so you might ask questions, make comments or add steps to my list. Or, in the event you want, you could just drop me a line to ok, i'll know how your small enterprise is doing. I'd really like to know.





The author is the founder of online advertising firm nyc and A NJ Search Enginer Marketing services firm. For more on small businesses, visit the author's blog.