Opening a small business is one of the most rewarding experiences you can have. However, business planning is a lot of work. There is the sheer amount of work required to write your business plan and to then write the financials for your business plan. Then, there is the worry of planning your business correctly. I don’t mean the worry that you will make a mistake, I mean the worry that you will start your business and then realize that it isn’t what you thought it was.
I have been a small business owner for 10 years and this article contains my top 10 top pieces of advice for small business owners.
1. Test the market before spending a lot of money
The first and most important step in starting a business is deciding if you want to go into business at all. Even if you have the best business idea in the world, if your target market is not willing to pay money for your product you will not make any money.
You can test the market in a number of ways. You can put a free offer out there, you can point people in the direction of your website, you can use social media ads and more. The important thing is that you simply start somewhere. If you do want to survey the market then there are easy ways to do this.
2. Protect The Idea
In the age of the internet, your ideas are yours with no one taking a stick. This means, if you are spending a lot of money and a lot of time designing and developing your business, then you need to make sure that your idea does not leak out. A simple way to do this is simply to use registered company accountants, or a company from online job portals or freelancers.
3. Hire an accountant
The number one mistake that small businesses make is not having enough money to pay for their essentials such as their insurance, their staff and their business stationery. This is why it is really important to understand how much money your business will make every month and how you are going to pay yourself.
4. Not diversifying
One of the biggest mistakes that small business owners make is focusing all their efforts on their one area of business, e.g. if they are selling suits, then all their efforts are going to be invested into suits. They may not have a good social media presence or a good website design. But, if your business sells suits, you will sell suits.
However, once you diversify you will not have that problem. A diversified business allows you to take advantage of a lot of different markets. For example, my wife is a knitting designer. She designs knitted clothes and accessories for women. This gives her the luxury of being able to pick and choose different markets according to her customer’s needs. There are a lot of markets that she can go into such as children’s wear, men’s wear, the decorative arts and many more.
5. Create a Business Plan
Having a business plan is imperative for any business. Writing a business plan is time consuming but on the other hand, it ensures that you have thought through every single aspect of your business.
If you don’t have time to write a business plan then you can write a brief outline of your business and what your business goals are, just make sure that you have thought this through. You can integrate your business strategy into your business plan later.
The problem with most entrepreneurs is that they think they know everything. They think that because they have a good idea and they want to succeed, that they will be successful. However, this is often not the case. The main reasons businesses fail is because they have not used their brains.
The first thing you need to do when planning your business is get expert advice. You need someone who is experienced and knowledgeable to give your business the best chance to succeed. Before you hire a business expert, make sure that you do your research, look at their portfolio and testimonials to ensure that they are the right choice for you and your business.
6. Educating Yourself
As a business professional, you have to remember that continuously learning is what makes you good at your job. Unfortunately, this is something that small business owners tend to overlook.
In order to succeed, you need to continuously educate yourself. If, as a business professional, you have not gained enough knowledge and skills, then you are not going to succeed.
7. Not Setting Goals and Targets
A business trip is not a vacation. You are going somewhere in order to accomplish a goal. Therefore, setting goals and targets with your business are of paramount importance. Small businesses are backbone of the any economy because they create jobs, revenue and taxes. Why small businesses are important you can find from our other blog. It is very detailed blog post. You must read this post.
One of the biggest problems small businesses have is that they set unrealistic targets.
TechnoKeen 
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