How to start a business from scratch (in 9 steps)

Carrying out a thorough market study and choosing the best organizational structure are just some of the steps to starting a business from scratch.

Starting a business is exciting, but it can bring unexpected challenges if you don’t prepare for what may come.

In this article, we offer a step-by-step guide for aspiring entrepreneurs on how to start the business of their dreams, from developing a business idea to keeping your customers satisfied.

Here are the 9 steps to starting a business:

1. Start with a business idea.
2. Conduct a market study.
3. Make a business plan.
4. Get financing.
5. Build the foundation of your business.
6. Take care of the paperwork.
7. Create a website for your business.
8. Launch your business and focus on growth.
9. Listen to your customers, optimize and modify when necessary.

Next, let’s look at these steps in detail.

1. Start with a business idea

When formulating a business idea, start by determining your strengths, skills, and interests.

Choose something that you are passionate about. Passion drives you to success because it allows you to fully commit to your goals despite the obstacles you may encounter when starting a business.

For example, if you enjoy writing and teaching, you can turn your skills into a successful business by creating educational content and online courses.

Tools like help you evaluate and validate your business ideas as potential ways to . It allows you to see if the trend of your market is growing or declining. All you need to do is enter keywords relevant to your business and the results will show the interest of search engine users over time.

Observing them can help you determine if it is a sustainable business idea. Continually refine and refine the idea until you find the most suitable one.

Once you have specific products or services in mind, choose the sector you want to target: research existing companies, their products and the target market they cover.

Find out what their current processes are and detect what they lack. Think about how you could fill that gap with a business that offers a more valuable product or service.

You can also get to know your competitors by doing a . This will help you formulate business strategies to benefit from their experiences.

Understand what they do right, what they do wrong, and avoid making the same mistakes with your new business.

2. Carry out a market study

The is essential as it provides insights into competitor practices, your potential customers’ preferences, market trends, consumer behavior and demographics.

Start by knowing who your customers are. Create that they reflect those who are going to buy your product or service.

A well-designed customer profile can reveal information about the buying behaviors of consumers. You can use this information to help you visualize the people who will buy your product or service, plan your communication campaigns and create marketing strategies.

It can also give you ideas to improve existing products and find new solutions to address specific market challenges.

Collect customer data

Once you have a clear picture of your target audience, it’s time to get to know their real characteristics, their challenges and their buying habits.

There are different ways to get market data before starting a business. One of them is to determine the opinions of your public about your products through online surveys or debates in focus groups.

For example, it collects and analyzes user data. Once you’ve created the survey and provided information about your target audience, Google Surveys will find people who match your criteria, have them fill out the survey, and present the results to you within a few days.

is another useful tool that helps you get to know your customers better, including age, gender, and interests. You can install this free tool as a plugin on your website and view this information about the people who visit your site.

Another option is to hire a market research company that offers expert research data on your target market. However, these services may cost more or less depending on your location.

Summarize the results

To summarize the data, include the background of the study, the list of participants, and the results of the research. Having all the information organized will give context to the findings and will facilitate a logical development of the ideas.

Organize participants into separate groups to better understand who your target audience is and what they are looking for in a product or service.

Be sure to analyze the information collected and evaluate how you can use your results to create a brand and business plan.

proof of concept

The (POC) is the validation that your business idea is effective and commercially viable.

For example, you propose to produce a self-published e-book. The goal of the proof of concept may be to get 10 pre-orders of your writing project before mass production.

Getting at least 10 people to pay for an unpublished book will give you the confidence to keep writing and producing.

Therefore, a proof of concept is like a confirmation signal to continue with the development of the product. Once this stage is over, you can move on to the (MVP) stage.

3. Make a business plan

To learn how to start a business, there are different that you should take into account.

They all have different goals, but making a traditional business plan will be more than enough for your new business.

A traditional business plan addresses various issues necessary to finance a business, calculate future projections, and connect with customers.

It usually includes the following sections.

Executive Summary

A describes your business, its vision, the problems it seeks to solve, and financial predictions.

Start with a mission statement to explain the purpose of your business. You can then mention the brief history of the business, the management team, the location, and the number of employees to build credibility.

Similarly, key achievements and milestones are necessary to track the progress of the business and measure its success.

Choose to show the products and talk about their features and benefits.

If you want to attract investors to your new project, it is also advisable to include financial history and forecasts.

Finally, take the opportunity to talk about your business goals. Explain in your business plan how you plan to grow your company in the coming years.

Business Description

Include the name of your business and introduce the owners in the .

If you’re looking for investors, explain why your products are valuable to your clearly defined target market.

Then, briefly discuss what you intend to achieve in a given time, whether it is to maintain profits or increase market share.

To demonstrate your desire to succeed, submit your business plan along with your projected start date and a 12-month or so timeline.

Also indicate the .

Finally, it mentions the necessary steps envisaged to achieve success. Include a vision statement that outlines the company’s future goals.

Products and services offered

Explain your products and services in detail. Highlight how they meet the needs of your customers.

Indicate the in this section. It will serve as a guide when formulating the product strategy to achieve success in the sector.

Also, if your product has already been the subject of a market study or competitive analysis, include the details and conclusions of your business plan.

Market analysis

Perform a market analysis to better understand the performance of your competitors. Learn more about its strengths and analyze trends to keep your small business up to date.

Start by deciding the goal of your study. It can be to assess risks, reduce potential problems, or create opportunities.

The next step should be to determine the current state of your sector and its address.

Provide metrics such as size, trends and expected growth, supporting your claims with relevant information.

Once you know the perspectives of the sector, analyze the market and visualize your potential clients.

Take note of data such as their age, income, gender, location and occupation.

Now it’s time to make a list of your competitors and compare their results.

Carefully evaluate your competitors and perform a SWOT analysis. This process can help you define your main strengths and your current position in the market.

Now you should be ready to collect factual, relevant and valuable data: the best decisions are made with well-documented information.

You can obtain additional information directly from reliable sources such as the official statistics of your country and specialized magazines.

is a tool free competitor research that you can use to access information about your competition’s traffic and marketing strategy.

To make the business plan format easily understandable, include the following points in your market analysis:

• Industry overview: Research the industry to assess your competitors and understand current demand. It includes parameters such as size, trends and expected growth.
• Target market: Describe the group of consumers your products are targeting and analyze their needs, demographics, market size, location, behaviors and trends.
• Price and sales forecast: Indicates the cost of the products, the estimated number of products that your business will sell, and the expected profit. The must estimate the future sales of each month for the following year.
• Competition: Analyze the market share, strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. Summarize the results through differentiation and explain why your products stand out in the market.
• Barriers: Identify any obstacles your small business may face, such as ineffective systems and inadequate resources.

Organization and management team

Describe the legal structure of your company: the three basic types of legal entities are the sole proprietorship, the partnership and the corporation.

The most popular type of business is the sole proprietorship, which gives you full control of your business. It is a simple structure and easy to create with minimal cost. However, under this structure, you will be personally responsible for all financial obligations of the company.

If your business has multiple owners, you can structure it as a partnership. Despite its simplicity and flexibility, the downside is that partners are personally…