Small Business Loans - My Charmed Mom

photo credit : www.fairfaxnews.com

Like you, I have a dream of not being an employee my whole life. {As of now I am a stay at home mom because of some certain limitations. My husband and I decided for me to ‘temporarily’ stop working while taking care of our daughter, we feel that it doesn’t make sense for me to work then find a nanny.} So why temporarily? Because I know that once we have joined him in another place it will not be practical anymore to stay at home as much as I’d like to. Whether I like it or not, anytime soon I will be part of the work force again. But just the same my dream of having my own business and being my own boss someday doesn’t falter.

Right now I wanted to share some essential steps on how to start your small business. It may still be far off for now but it pays to be prepared.

1. Identify your business opportunity. When confronted with the dilemma of coming up with a business, there are actually a multitude of ideas that are going to come up. It is said that it’s difficult to do the things you don’t like that’s why it is essential to go after where your passion and personality type lies. An equally important thing also are yours skills-things that you can do. From there you can identify the products that you will sell or the services that you will render.

2. Build a business plan. Writing a business plan just makes good business sense, actually those that have, have 50% more profits and revenue than those that went non-planned. In starting up, a business plan allows you to gain better understanding of the structure of the industry you’re going to penetrate, it will give you an idea of the competitive landscape and most importantly the capital requirements of starting a small business.

It’s also important that you have a plan for your marketing because if you don’t get any customers then your business won’t be able to succeed. You used to be able to put some ads in the newspaper and leave it at that. But times have changed and you’ll now need much more elaborate marketing strategies to succeed. Both traditional and social media outlets can be utilized for market coverage. This is possible with the help of a PR agency like Treble (a tech pr firm austin). A successful PR can augment your marketing team in communicating openly, seeing the big picture, and creating lasting ripples in the media. Besides these, it can be hard for new businesses to be seen online so be sure to look for an SEO agency that can help you. It might be best for your business if you find an agency specialized within your niche because they know exactly what to do to grow your audience. For example, if you are going to set up a home service business then be sure to look for a tree service SEO agency so you know your advertising money is going to the best possible place. Understanding the necessity of an SEO Company in the world of digital marketing today is important to not only expand the reach of your business but also to increase your sales and improve on customer experience! It might seem a bit early to be focusing on your marketing but trust me, it’s important.

3. Find start up money. To start a business means investing in the business. Each individual has different means of finding start up funds, all of course depending on the amount needed. Some turn to small business administration loans while for some they use hard earned savings (or money from retirement) and of course income from sold properties for others. Finding the money needed may sometimes come from a source that you never thought of. If you do consider applying for a business loan, you’ll need to make sure that you have a decent credit score so that you’re deemed as a reliable borrower. There are some useful tips available on SMBCEO.com that can help you increase your credit rating and get you financially prepared for owning your own business.

Now from here, after doing the steps mentioned and completing each you can start your next step which is implementation-that is having your business name, developing business structure, acquiring license & permits, setting up and determining business location, getting business insurance and the list goes on. But don’t get afraid if the list seems to be long, once you’re there you will not notice anymore. I hope this will inspire you in one way or another to be your own boss someday. That is my dream.

This post is in participation of a blogger campaign by Bucks2Blog for SBA Loans and was compensated, however, the views and opinions are 100% my own.