Starting A Business – The Three 'Ps'

There are a lot of factors to consider when starting a business. Primary among these are the three “P”s – Plan, Prepare and Persist.

Plan

After you have selected some ideas from your brainstorming to base your business around, create a plan of attack. List what you'll need before your business starts. What will your ongoing expenses be? Factors include rent, utilities, permits, licensing, legal fees, inventory, staff, design, marketing collateral, mailing lists, software, advertising and more. Get as much as you can out on paper and set deadlines to get things accomplished. This will allow you to evaluate your pace.

Prepare

Once you have a plan, carry it out. Preparing to start a business can be a lot of work. Tasks include getting an identity designed, creating business cards, brochures, web sites and other marketing material, consulting with CPA's, lawyers, and HR professionals, in some cases finding and renting or buying a storefront or office, furnishing the business space, getting utilities in place, receiving and organizing inventory, getting a database for your customers and leads and any number of other tasks. By running a home business, some of these steps will already be taken care of, yet opening a business of any kind can be an enormous task. While planning your business make sure to leave plenty of time to get up and running. Better to plan your setup time too long than too short and finding yourself running out of money.

Persist

This is the most important step of running a business. Without persistence, you won't even be able to finish your business plan. Hang on like a pit-bull. When the going gets tough, get tougher. Have worst case scenario plans to fall back on, as well as best case scenario plans.

Some businesses become over-night successes, while other take year to develop. If you plan, prepare and persist, you’ve got a very good chance of making it.