How to Your Start Your Offline Business From Scratch

People always have ideas flying in their heads but what matters most is getting to make their ideas a reality. Little wonder, there is a saying that the grave is the richest resource on earth as people who had great, life transforming ideas had them either aborted prematurely, tried, failed and never tried again or just did nothing about them.

Despite all the pitfalls and challenges involved, there's been lots of success stories about businesses that started small and are doing pretty well today.

TIP: The businesses that usually thrive well are those built around the basic human needs - food, shelter, clothing etc. Find a need, provide a solution and you will be in for serious mega returns.

So let's get your offline business started

1. Get A Viable Business Idea

Coming up with an idea is not an issue, the real question is, 'how viable/workable is that business idea?' You need to be very realistic and not sentimental or emotional about the facts on your business idea. Will the business thrive in your environment? Is the market already saturated with your competitors? How much of the business do you know?

These and many other questions are what you need to answer.

2. Do Your Research

You can't just start your business without knowing the involvements. You need to do your research to know how many customers will be willing to buy or subscribe to your service. Ask questions, go on the internet, read, observe and learn. Get to know your target market, your competitors and your customers.

3. Develop A Business Plan For The Business

Virtually every successful business today has a business plan. A business plan is your blue print or your map. Here you make everything clear.

The basics of you business plan should include;

The Executive summary (say what the business is all about in a few words)

Your vision (What you intend to achieve from the business)

Mission (How you intend to go about achieving your goals)

Your unique selling proposition etc

4. Get A Business Name And Register It

Different laws are applicable to different areas. Here in Nigeria, apart from the general CAC (Corporate Affairs Commission) registration, if you were to go into products that are medicinal in nature, you would need to have a NAFDAC number or if you were to go into telecommunications, you would need to have registered with the NCC.

Be sure to be on the right side of the law, don't get caught up in it...it's enough distraction to get your business to fail.

5.Raise Your Start Up Capital

Every business needs capital to get started but most entreprenuer usually face challenges in this area. Here are a few tips on how you can raise capital for your business.

Sell some of your assets

Develop a good savings habit

Partner with investors

Talk to your friends and relatives

Talk to some suppliers who can give you credit facilities etc.

6. Select A Good Location For Your Business

This factor should not be overlooked as it is critical to saving you over-head cost on advertising.

If your sales office is located in a place that is hidden or difficult to access, you would be losing your customer-market share to other smart competitors who have theirs strategically placed.

Watch all well brand names and see where they locate there business, it is usually on the road or at the beginning of a street.

7. Advertise Strongly

Business experts say that you need to invest at least 50% of your capital into advertising. What is the use of opening shop when you don't have customers to buy or subscribe to your service?

Especially at the pioneering stage, your business needs 'Aggressive Marketing'. In online businesses, it is a well known fact that traffic is the life source of every website.

TIP:

At business start-up, what you should be bothered about most is getting more customers to subscribe to your service and not how beautiful your office looks.

8. Fix Your Prices Right

The price of your product or service has got to be set right or you would loose your customer base. When fixing your pricing(especially if you already have competitors), the wise thing to do would be to make your prices cheaper than that of your competitors (give your customers a good reason to patronize your service. The truth is, you might not be making profit at first but you will after you have gotten a good part of the market share.

9. Keep Accurate Records

You must have accurate financial records about your income and expenditure, your client database, your overhead costs etc.

These records will help you project for the future and have a grasp of your business' cash flow pattern.

10. Start Now

If after planning and planning, you don't give your business idea a shot, that would just be another dream in a man's heart that never saw the light of day; a dream that never got to impact lives or change people's financial status.

The Worth of Business Development Service For Professional Firms

Business development service is always used in a broader sense & enables the professional firms to strengthen ties with their existing customers as well as attracting new customers in other areas of the business market. In order to achieve this objective, the business development service providers go beyond the traditional means of marketing, sales, operations, customer care & business management to help their clients promote the business expansion at multiple levels. It needs the business development strategy maker to have certain level of expertise in different areas of business so that he could easily recognize & utilize the opportunities for business growth.

One of the basic requirements for business development is to evaluate the current business value as it is more related to the growth & maintenance of the business. For this, the development service providers appoint business development specialist who will work along with marketing & sales professionals to develop an effective strategy. This business strategy is based on the degree of popularity that the business is already enjoying in other areas of the customer base.

The business organizing specialist will sought for customer feedback from the customer care executives. These executives will help the strategy maker to gather data from the existing customers on their view about the company & its services. Such type of action often helps the development specialist to find out more effective ways of business promotion that can replace the current marketing strategy & target more number of customers in the market sector where the business is already present. Moreover, the acquisition of client testimonials through the channel of customer care executives will assist the business organizing specialist to identify the areas for the new range of products & develop a suitable marketing strategy for them. This strategy will lead to the quick promotion of new products & services later.

The role of business development service provider is not limited to an increased sales or customer satisfaction. While these things come naturally with the development service, the development strategy maker will have to ensure the best utilization of company fund, refine the operation of management & different departments and address any legal issue that may arise as the business continues to grow. Many professional firms give the business development strategy maker the right to collect business related information from any level of business structure & utilize it to induce more business.

Every small to large scale business organization can opt for development in business service. It brings guaranteed success for every kind of corporate condition. Many small time companies have tried it out & achieved a firm footage in their own sector. In most of the cases, businesses have been able to capture the targeted sector & achieve growth due to the efforts of business development specialist. So, companies need to concentrate more on their development & hire for development professionals if it seems impossible for them.

Corporate maintains their own wing for business growth & development that will deal with all development related activities. But small businesses can't afford to do that. So, they may ask a development consultant to work for them. The consultant will help them assess the present situations & develop strategies for bringing more business growth in future.

Step by Step Guide to Creating an Effective Small Business Plan

Having a good small business plan will ensure that your journey to success is much smoother. All successful business owners know that having an organized, well thought plan is essential to see the results they expect. Even if the business plan doesn't give the results that you would have thought in the beginning, you can tweak and change different areas of your process to perfect it.

I thought I would go through a step by step guide to what you need for an effective small business plan. Many people try and start a business without any true expectations for the future other then 'oh this is going to work'. You have to know exactly what "should" happen so that the surprises are less. In most cases surprises in business aren't positive.

You must have a plan for many different areas of starting a small business. How are you going to fund the start up fees? How do you expect to sell your product/service? How do you expect to pay your employees? How are you going to promote your company effectively? Most importantly and what most business owners don't think about is where do you want your business to be in 5...10...20 years?

Creating the right small business plan is all about creating effective systems. A system is something that you can use over and over again in different situations to receive expected results. You at least have some idea of what's going to happen if you have the right systems in place.

The first step to your business plan is knowing exactly how much money it's going to take to start your company. None of this has to be a professionally written up small business plan that costs thousands and thousands of dollars hiring an "expert". Take out a piece of paper and write down your plan. The main thing is that you know exactly how you are going to fulfill your dream of being a successful small business owner.

So what are your opening expenses? Here are some questions you need to answer to find out your estimated dollar amount:

How much money does your product or service cost you?

How much money will you charge for your service/product?

How much money do you require to live for two years with no profit coming in from your business (safety precaution)?

How much will it cost for your employees for 2 years?

What are your legal fees?

What are your CPA fees?

How much will getting a physical location cost you (if needed)?

Every business is going to be different so think about anything that you need to spend money on to get it running. The next step you must consider is how are you going to get this start up money. Are you going to go to a bank for a loan? Are you considering finding a partner that can cover the costs with the agreement you can buy out the company later down the road? Do you want to talk with a wealthy family member about your business? Anyway you choose to get the money doesn't matter.

Having a thorough small business plan is going to help you get that start up money though. As long as you can show the lenders how you plan on getting a return on their investment, you will be set. It doesn't matter if you have horrible credit or don't know anybody that will lend you large amounts of money. You can always find a way. Think outside the box!

Alright the next step should be the simplest for you. You want to write down your complete sales funnel for how you plan to sell your product or service. Go through every step you expect a customer to go through to reach your bank account. What are you selling exactly? How are you packaging the items? Are you providing multiple services and products? What do you expect to be your number one seller? What's your specialty?

Once you have all these areas done, you have to know how you are going to promote your business and keep the business coming in. This seems to be the biggest problem most business owners have. You know everything there is to know about your products/services, but you know nothing about marketing. That's expected too. Marketing is an expertise in itself.

If you've read much of my blog, you know how I preach about smart marketing. Smart marketing is all about spending your hard earned dollar and getting more then you spent in return. In other words, big return on investment (ROI). Every market will be different and different marketing tactics will work in each of them. You have a huge list of options too.

Newspapers, Yellow Pages, Radio, Television Ads

Fliers, postcards, promotion coupons

Referral programs

Internet marketing

Email marketing

Holding seminars and special events

Business to business referral programs

These are just to name a few of the options you have. You can never go wrong working with other local businesses. It's beneficial for both businesses and can be something that explodes your business quickly. It should definitely be part of every small business plan.

No matter which direction you take your marketing in, remember to always be able to track your marketing method. You always want to know how effective each method is for your business. Don't spray and pray! In other words, don't just buy what that marketing salesman is selling you if they can't show you how many customers you are getting in return.

Creating your small business plan with all of these areas covered is a great start to having a successful business. You can go in deeper and deeper to have an even more effective plan and you should, but this is a great start for anyone. Once you have the plan, you just have to follow it step by step. It makes your job so much easier. You have too much to worry about already. There is no reason to have to constantly be wondering...'what am I going to do now?' You need to know what you're doing beforehand.