The Road to Entrepreneurship: The Ultimate Guide to Starting a Small Business
In October of 2012, I decided that my freelancing had become such a big part of my work life that I needed to create a legitimate business. After teaming up with my brother, Corey, I started documenting everything I did business-wise, hoping that it would help another aspiring entrepreneur.
After recently finishing the series (although, really, a business owner’s job is never done), I wanted to create a single Ultimate Guide where each step was defined. And, voila, this post is born!
Note: I’d like to note that this series is my personal journey on becoming a business owner. I’m neither recommending nor suggesting you take the exact same steps I did. Rather, I’m sharing the story of how red vine came to be, including the trials and tribulations along the way.
So I give you: the Ultimate Guide to Starting a Small Business.
Step 1: What’s in a Business Anyway?
Where do you start? What is your business going to be? Will you need startup capitol? Employees? A storefront? Are the numbers going to work?
Grab a pad of paper and a pen, folks, it’s brainstorming time.
Step 2: How’s About the Business Name?
One of my least favorite steps of the process; but looking back, a necessary and creativity infused process. Get some helpful hints and sources for inspiration from this post.
Step 3: Let’s Get Legal
Eww. Legality.
Again, another necessary step, but a far less creative one than your business name. I’m no go-to source for legal business advice, but I share a lot of them that are!
Step 4: Back to the Fun: Logos
Once you’ve got your business name, creating the logo is a fun process. It’s a good idea to get to know a good graphic designer and spend the money or check out some of the resources to get a better sense of your artistic style.
Step 5: Design and the Website
Since it’s our bread and butter, this step was pretty straight forward. If it’s not what you do, though, make sure you find a web designer/developer that works for you. It can be a stressful process, but well worth it in the end!
Think of your website as being a huge investment in the future of your business; because that’s exactly what it is!
Step 6: The Business Card and Using It
Once your website is designed, you (or your designer) can create a cohesive design when it comes to your business card. Then, get ready to start carrying that puppy everywhere with you; it’ll only lead to business!
Step 7: Snap Up Those Social Media Profiles and Start Using Them
It’s important to have well-lived-in social profiles. So make sure you 1) have the usernames you want, 2) start creating content, and 3) get followers/likes/comments galore!
Check out this post for even more helpful tips on the subject.
Step 8: Get the Right Small Business Tools
From project management to accounting/invoicing/billing to storage/backup to merchant services, this post gives a rundown on all the major services for small business.
Step 9: Launch the Business!
You’re never going to be 100% happy with where you’re at. Whether your website needs tweaking or you’re not quite happy with your Merchant Services. These things can all be tweaked over time – as they should be – because your business is constantly evolving.
There you have it: the ultimate guide to starting a small business! We want to hear about your small business stories, so feel free to talk about them in the comment section below!