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MenuHow do I start a company?
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How to start a company:
1) Come up with an idea (one that can make money)
2) Build a prototype (hardware, software, whatever)
3) Get evidence that people want it
4) Further refine the prototype and start selling it
5) When you've sold your first thing you now have, "a company"
At some point in that path you'll probably want to
A) Register your company (usually before step 4)
B) Get a cofounder (usually some time before step 4)
C) Get investment (usually not until after step 3) to be able to grow faster
Don't forget the business plan. Even if you aren't looking for funding or investors, taking the time to write this up will help you get a realistic picture of what to expect as far as revenue, costs, profitability, goals, etc. And if you are looking for any type of capital, having this is a requirement.
Hi, this is Ann, a business coach for startups and entrepreneurs.
Starting up equals giving birth. It involves a lot of passion, time, energy, consideration and so on. Since your question is a little vague, I would love to suggest some deep inner work that you might want to work on:
1. How much do you love that company? How long do you expect to stay with it? A year? 5 years? 10 years? Or entire life?
2. How long after running your company do you expect to get back your initial investment?
3. If it could not get any financial support from investors, what would you do? Just give it up or think of plan B, C, D....?
After that, you may want to skim through the various types of company to choose one that fits your intention (sole proprietor, LLC, corporation) and read some effective strategies for the chosen one.
And the last thing is from my personal experience. You should have some co-founder or at least someone as passionate as you are since the start up path is never and will never be easy.
Hope that I have answered all of your questions. Should you need any help, feel free to contact me. Ann is always all ears!
Related Questions
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What is essential for the skeleton of a business plan?
1. Lucid understanding of the objective behind business plan development 2. Customizing the content plan (skeleton) per objective 3. Adopting planning the business approach than writing a business plan 4. Knowing "How-To" and "What-If" Hope above to be of some help. Looking for anything specific? Feel free to reach out.SB
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Business partner I want to bring on will invest more money than me, but will be less involved in operations, how do I split the company?
Cash money should be treated separately than sweat equity. There are practical reasons for this namely that sweat equity should always be granted in conjunction with a vesting agreement (standard in tech is 4 year but in other sectors, 3 is often the standard) but that cash money should not be subjected to vesting. Typically, if you're at the idea stage, the valuation of the actual cash going in (again for software) is anywhere between $300,000 and $1m (pre-money). If you're operating in any other type of industry, valuations would be much lower at the earliest stage. The best way to calculate sweat equity (in my experience) is to use this calculator as a guide: http://foundrs.com/. If you message me privately (via Clarity) with some more info on what the business is, I can tell you whether I would be helpful to you in a call.TW
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How do you determine if a business idea is worth pursuing?
You ask the customers, and gauge their level of interest. Better yet, get yourself in front of some customers, and instead of telling them what you make or do, ask them what they need. When you notice that many of them need the same thing, and if it is something you can make or provide, you then have a business idea worth pursing.DF
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Is it possible to start a Social Media Marketing Agency with not much experience in Social Media and not much money?
I have to ask why you would start an agency in an area you don't have much experience in. Perhaps you'd be better off getting at least a little experience first?AV
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Any advice on starting up small businesses in two countries at the same time?
Please realize that my suggestion would be slightly different if I knew which two countries. However, without knowing that here's what I'd suggestion: 1. Since you're just getting started figure out which country provides the best legal benefits for starting a company. This should include tax benefits, legal protection, and ease when it comes to filing paperwork (incorporating, managing payroll, taxes, etc.). This will undoubtedly save you time and money moving forward, and staying lean. 2. Once you've established your home base country, you'll still need to hire people in the other country as you scale. You may want to think about using a service like oDesk or Elance, not necessarily to recruit people but to manage ALL the paperwork associated with hiring international people. They will of course be given contract status. If you are going to be providing employees equity then I'd suggest consulting a lawyer for how people in the non-home base country will be treated. 3. Reporting revenue. You need to be very careful about whether you are providing goods and services. If it's goods keep in mind that you might be subject to tariffs. If you're providing services then I think you might be in the clear, but please double check. Finally, some countries might have an issue with where the revenue was actually made i.e. are you sitting in your office in your home based country while servicing clients in the non-home base country, or are you actually in the non-home base country. 4. No matter what you'll need to setup a remote working environment for yourself. Invest in the best technology you can, and find clients who are willing to utilize your services on a remote basis. Here are a few additional posts on running a remote team that I've written: http://femgineer.com/2013/09/running-remote-and-making-progress/ http://femgineer.com/2013/03/how-to-transition-to-a-remote-team/PV
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