Are you ready to take the steps to Starting your own Business quickly?

Whether compelled by need or just magnetically drawn by your passion for creating a solution, many people are in a position where they need to start a business today. One of the most pivotal keys to success is getting your own business up and running quickly. 

Some people spend years in the planning and mulling one Idea after the other. They never get off the ground after they have a great business idea. Or at least miss out on the real opportunity. While there is wisdom in doing things well, there are many businesses which can be launched in just days. You can get going with one product, start selling, and use your profits to grow and expand to realizing your full vision. Here’s how to do it.

1) Pick An Idea

When you are thinking about the steps to starting your own business quickly, you may have many ideas, or at least service, product and feature ideas. A lack of focus will slow you down, confuse your customers and potential investors, and may derail this opportunity.

Hone in on one great idea. 

If you need to get a business up and running quickly, and income in the door, you will want to hone in on an idea which is ripe for the world. One that isn’t too ahead of its time. At least not if you want sales in the next couple of months. Make sure you are also choosing one that will last for the long run. You don’t want to have to start over from scratch again.

2) Test Your Idea

It may make perfect sense in your own mind, but if you want sales and revenues, it also has to make sense to others. 

Even at this stage, you can start getting vital feedback. Float your idea to ex-coworkers, bosses, peers, coaches, and potential customers.

Just be wary of the trap when it comes to the steps to starting your own business quickly. Many people will say they love it so they don’t offend you. The real test is if they will invest in it, either as a backer or to pre-order as a customer. If they won’t, you may want to keep tweaking until they do. The easiest way to streamline these iterations is to ask them what they would pay for. Have them back it up with a credit card.

3) Create A Pitch Deck

Create a simple pitch deck to organize your solution and business idea. This will help you think through any questions you may have overlooked so far. 

It will also force you to get clear and simple on what’s next and most important. All while giving you a recruiting and fundraising tool to gain the capital and team you need to make this happen.

Remember that storytelling plays a key role in fundraising and you will need capital to scale things up. This is being able to capture the essence of the business in 15 to 20 slides. For a winning deck, take a look at the template created by Silicon Valley legend, Peter Thiel (see it here) that I recently covered. Thiel was the first angel investor in Facebook with a $500K check that turned into more than $1 billion in cash.

Remember to unlock the pitch deck template that is being used by founders around the world to raise millions below.

4) Create A One Page Business Plan

Don’t get lost in making it complicated. You can always do that later when you have the luxury of more spare time.

If you want to start a business quickly, use a one page business plan.

Outline the basic thesis in bullets. Then bullet point out your next important milestones and to-do items. The simpler the better.

5) Secure Your Online Assets

You don’t want a fragmented online presence when you are thinking about the steps to starting your own business quickly. Or one that leaves you exposed to fast-moving competitors benefiting from all of your PR and marketing efforts and spend.

This is a common newbie mistake. One which can cost you a lot of business, having to write big checks to acquire matching assets you forgot about, or the pain and disruption of a rebrand.

Make sure you can reserve matching website domain names, corporate email addresses, social media handles and your business name.

Incorporate your business and acquire all of these assets at the same time.

6) Open A Business Bank Account

You need a way to get paid and to make payments that will give you the most tax breaks and legal protections when it comes down to the steps to starting your own business quickly. 

When picking a bank for your business account consider who:

• Offers all the online and mobile banking tools you need
• Has a good reputation for helping their customers in tough times
• May offer SBA loans or business lines of credit
• Is startup friendly

7) Recruit Help

You are not going to do this all alone. You are going to need help. Source those individuals and organizations now. 

This may include:

• Cofounders
• Core hires
• Informal advisors
• Fundraising consultants
• Business coaches

8) Get Your Store Live

You need a way to take orders and process payments from customers and this a key ingredient when considering the steps to starting your own business quickly. There are countless platforms to choose from. Use the one which is simplest and fastest to get up and running today. This is where you’ll also add credibility building factors and the information needed to convert prospects into sales in the most streamlined and efficient way.

9) Finish Your Product

It’s okay to do all of the above before finishing polishing your product. As long as you are 100% confident you can and on time. Now finish coding it. Don’t wait for perfection. They say if you are not embarrassed by your first version, you waited too long to launch. 

10) Launch

Don’t waste any more time and take action on the steps to starting your own business quickly. Hit publish, go live, make those sales calls and start actually doing business. 

Once you have money coming in the door you can improve on the product, add features and services, raise more startup capital, expand your hiring and everything else.

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