Questions to Ask Yourself When Starting a New Home Business
I love the excitement of starting up a new home based business. I enjoy trying out new ideas and approaches with the new venture. I dream the big dreams and hope to obtain some of them (if not all of them). I am sure you have those same feelings as well. Organization is imperative when starting any business. Some say that a well funded business has the best chance to sustain losses until it's profitable. However, if you are on a shoe string budget like me, money management is the key.
The place you need to start with your home business is with the pen and paper or word processing software and a PC. One thing I learned about starting businesses is there are so many variables involved it is not possible to "keep it simple" if you try to run the entire business without some type of plan. Not knowing or not being able to prioritize your needs with your business can result in bad money management and eventually failure.
Writing down what your business is about helps put your business into perspective and helps you define your immediate needs and hold off on spending on items you don't need right away. Most recommend you write a business plan. You can buy software to write a plan and go through a set of questions to write one. You could always research how to write a business plan online.
Whether you use software or not to write a business plan you could always ask yourself the basic questions. Getting to the basics means a lot to me. It provides a foundation to your ever evolving business plan.
If you are starting your own home business, try asking yourself these questions. They may help you in the same manner as they help me:
1. What is your business name?
2. Is your business registered as a "Doing Business As" (DBA) or Corporation? - This is very important for tax purposes and banking.
2. Explain what you business does in one short paragraph. - Describing your business in a few sentences helps define the main focus of your business.
3. What products does your business sell? - List any product your business is selling and any variations of its availability.
4. Who does your business sell to? - This will help you define your market (if any) Try to describe the personality of the market and why they would want to buy your product. It may provide a starting point for your business's marketing strategy.
5. How do you want prospects and customers to contact you in regards to the product your business is selling? - You may decide that you don't want prospects to call your home number and you may need a separate phone line or a toll free number. This is part of defining your daily operations and costs.
6. Does your business need a web site? - If the answer is "Yes", then you will want to think about what type of site you want and how you are going to build it.
7. How is the business to receive money? - A very important question! Do you have a business checking account to receive checks? Does your business accept Credit Cards? Pay Pal?
8. How does your business make money? - You should know how you can make a profit on the product you sell. You should know all of your costs to run the business. This way you know how much product you need to sell each month.
9. How much money are you going to spend on marketing? - Marketing your business should be the priority and you should realize that you will need a budget to market your product. You cannot sell your product if your market does not know about it. Also, you may want to start out with a very small amount and try different methods until you learn how to market your product correctly.
Asking yourself these basic questions may help you shed light on areas of your business that you may have not taken into account. After all, it can be overwhelming running a home based business. Asking basic but tough questions about your business can help you identify the immediate and long term focus of your business and most of all sustain your business until it reaches profitability.
Topher John is a webmaster for http://www.mybenefitsavings.com and http://beinbusiness.net. He specializes in building internet small businesses. His interests are the healthcare industry, specifically how it relates to the family and physical fitness.
More Resources
Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exitingMore Strategic Planning Information:
Related Articles
10 Ways To Make Your Business Unique
1. Largest Selection -One way that you can make your product or service stand out is to offer the largest selection of products, services or programs.
Seasonality: Whats the Big Deal?
Do you work in or own a business that's affected by seasonal cycles? Do you live in a community whose population changes significantly during the year (e.g.
Sample Business Plan Outline
If you are looking for a partner, funding, angle investor or venture capital you will be asked for a business plan. Even if you are not in need of capital in the formation of your new business endeavor you will still be glad you prepared a business plan to help you prove to yourself that you have the right stuff and that the business is economically viable.
Advice To Manufacturers Creating A Business Plan
If you are a manufacturer wanting to use your business plan to attract investors, then your plan must do two things. It must:Comfort prospective investors with putting their money into your hands, andShow why potential customers will award business to you rather than your competitors.
Changing Strategy Without Losing Your Customers - Three Vital Steps to Refining Your Strategy
American Eagle Outfitters and Wet Seal Stores have issued statements about company turnarounds needed to cut sales loses. This kind of story occurs far too often: a business disconnects from their customers because the company either wants to sell to a larger customer base or they want to upgrade to a more prestigious look.
Thinking Like A Farmer
One of the difficulties we face in our industrialized age is the fact we've lost our sense of seasons. Unlike the farmer whose priorities change with the seasons, we have become impervious to the natural rhythm of life.
Vendor Relations Strategies Sample Outline
One of the quintessential parts to any business is your supply chain. To insure that the supplies are there when you need them; in this new day and age of "just in time" distribution where very little sits on warehouse shelves until you order it you will need excellent vendor relations.
The 7 Critical Steps to Formulating Your Annual Strategic Business Plan
Businesses tend to avoid doing their annual business plan thinking that it is an arduous task that does not accomplish much. Formulating your annual plan is, however, critical to your business success and if done correctly should be quick, easy and generate bottom line results.
Cost-cutting Essential to Maintaining Profits
Why cut costs now?
Efforts are multiplying to cut costs wherever possible in order to achieve or preserve high profits. The resulting benefits for all of a company's employees should be obvious.
The Impact of Price Popularity on Profits
The goal of almost every business owner is to generate a profit either for themselves or their shareholders. This can be challenging at best.
The Six Sigma Method and Design of Experiments
Six Sigma is becoming a proven approach for businesses and organizations to
improve their performance. The spectrum of companies actively engaging in Six Sigma today is wide from industrials like Celanese, Caterpillar, GE, Honeywell, and 3M to service/retail organizations like Starwood Hotels, Sears, and Home Depot.
2 Simple Steps Before Starting Your Business
There is so much small business information available today that it's easy to be bogged down by the sheer volume of it all. Where does one start? Well, it's safe to say not all the information you'll receive will be of equal value.
Microsoft Great Plains Implementation: Healthcare/Hospital example - overview for consultant
Microsoft Great Plains fits multiple services market niche and healthcare is not exemption. In the case of Healthcare/Hospital there is usually healthcare patient history tracking system in place and backoffice or accounting application should be integrated on the ongoing basis with the above mentioned system plus often Hospital or association is non-profit organization and non-for-profit accounting specifics should be taken into consideration.
Why Do a Business Plan?
To Grow (Catapult) Your Business That's Why.When it's in your head it's not as likely to happen--too much missed.
Is Your Company Growing Fast Enough for You?
Are you frustrated by the lack of growth in your firm, or the effort required to squeeze any up-tick in performance? Are inadequate policies and procedures a root cause? To find out, take this simple self assessment to see if this may be inhibiting real growth at your company.Q.
Don't Allow Yourself to Get Burned
I am not a big fisherman, but I do enjoy it whenever the opportunity comes my way. I have some friends who are fanatics and occasionally I will go out with one of them.
The Power of Strategic Thinking: Creating Meaningful Success
Too much goal setting and strategic planning can leave you
feeling like you're working against the forces of nature;
too little and you end up where you never intended to
be-with a life or business that is bigger, smaller, or
different than what you genuinely desire. Though getting you
and your organization where you most want them to be at any
given time can be hard work it can also be exhilarating.
Describing Intellectual Property in Your Business Plan
Most companies that are worthy of raising venture capital have proprietary Intellectual Property (IP). In fact, the quality of the IP and the management team are often the two most important aspects of a venture capitalist's investment decision.
Be Like Bill - Think!
Twice a year, Bill Gates goes to a remote island hide-a-way for a week at a time. No, he's not going for a fishing vacation; instead of rods, reels, and lures he takes market analyses, position reports, engineering reports, and opportunity papers.
Three Steps to Give Your Strategic Plan Traction
We all agree Strategic Planning is a critical part of a company's success. All too often, however, strategic plans stall before they ever make it to execution - or they gradually lose momentum.
Writing Your Business Plan is Actually Storytelling
Storytelling and writing a business plan actually go hand in hand. The same ingredients used in telling a story are also used in writing a business plan.