Creating a Startup: What You Need for Success

Lizzie Weakley

August 05, 2016

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While you imagine that your company is going to be worth millions of dollars someday, the truth is that most businesses fail. A company may fail even if it has a great product or service and is run by capable people. Let's take a look at what you need to do if you want your startup to beat the odds and be a success.

Don't Forget Your Business Plan

Your company is less likely to succeed unless you have a coherent vision. While your business plan only needs to be about 10 pages or so, it will help guide all the important decisions that you make during your growth phase. It will also help guide decisions that you may need to make if a new competitor enters the market or an economic downturn dampens demand for what your business offers.

Make Sure That You Have Sufficient Capital

Funding from your business can come from a variety of sources. It is common to ask friends or family members for a loan or fund operations using your own savings. You may also sell assets or borrow against them to raise funds. If that isn't enough, you should go to banks or other small business lenders to maintain a minimum level of liquidity. Getting a loan from a company like Loan Builder or other small business lenders in your area can help you build your credit while helping to build your company.

Be Ready to Do All the Work

When you first start your company, it is likely that you and your other founders will be the ones doing most or all of the work. Therefore, you may have to work up to 18 hours a day or more to make sure that everything gets done. To save time and money, you may want to use software programs that can do basic accounting tasks and handle other administrative duties. Outsourcing to independent contractors may also be helpful if you don't want to write your own blog posts or handle your own marketing efforts.

Starting a new company can be an exciting challenge. However, you need to make sure that you are ready for everything being a business owner means. Good planning, multiple sources of financing and a solid work ethic are all tools that you will need to make sure that you know where your company is going and that it will be able to get there.