How to Build an Enterprise?
You have an idea to create a business and you want to know how to build an enterprise? Building an enterprise can be a challenging but rewarding experience. It involves creating a sustainable business model and a strong team to execute it. To start a business, you must first do a market study, determine if your project is viable. Then, you have to draw up a business plan, to evaluate your project over the long term. Following this, you must begin the administrative procedures corresponding to the company you want to create.
Another point of this first chapter: we summarize all the essential steps to carry out your project, from the initial idea to the marketing of your solution, including the marketing strategy and the different legal forms to consider before get started. Finally, we specify in this chapter which skills you must mobilize for each of these stages.
How to start a business? The steps to follow
The process of building a business creation is logical and iterative. Your research and reflections will gradually lead you to:
– detect opportunities,
– validate or not the hypotheses,
– adapt to better “stick to the needs of your future customers”,
– modify the ambition of your project…
Many backtracking will therefore be inevitable to make the necessary changes and adjustments.
Find in this document all the advice and conditions to create your business.
Steps to follow in order to build a successful enterprise
In order to build a successful enterprise, it is important to follow a series of essential steps, including identifying a viable business idea, developing a comprehensive business plan, securing funding, building a strong and capable team, developing and refining your product or service, launching your offering with a solid marketing strategy, and consistently monitoring your progress and making necessary adjustments to your business strategy along the way. Here are the steps:
1 – Define, valuate your idea and make sure you have customers
An idea often takes the form of a hunch (feeling or guess) or a simple desire that deepens and matures over time. The more new or original the idea, the more you will have to question the ability of future customers to accept it. The more banal it is, the more you will have to think about its real usefulness compared to the offer already existing on the market.
This is a crucial element because without customers, there is no business possible! Indeed a “great idea” can become a bad project, for lack of customers. On the other hand, a “banal idea”, under the right conditions, can turn out to be very lucrative.
Start by precisely defining your idea in writing. If it presents a new character, take precautions to be able to prove that you are indeed at the origin. For example, file a Soleau envelope with the Inpi, which will allow you to constitute proof of creation and give a certain date to your idea or project.
Finally, make sure that there is consistency between your personality, your motivations, your objectives, your know-how, your personal resources and constraints… and the requirements of your project. If incompatibilities appear, you will have to look for solutions: train yourself, find partners, form a work team with complementary skills, adapt your project, etc.
Let’s start by laying the foundations… In this chapter, we first explain to you what vocabulary an entrepreneur must master: “market study, business model”, “business plan”, “market study”…
These are all terms which you need to familiarize yourself with. On the one hand, because you will need to give them substance, and on the other hand, because the world of companies and startups has it at their fingertips. If you want to evolve in this environment like a fish in water, you must be able to put a reality on these terms.
By doing these:
A. Market research or Market study
The goals of market research are: early and timely recognition of trends, opportunities and risks in the markets relevant to the company.
The main objectives of carrying out market research are:
- precisely define who your customers will be, their expectations,
- position yourself against the competition,
- and thus to adapt your product or your service according to the elements collected.
- In addition, the analysis of these elements will allow you to:
- define a price level acceptable to your future customers,
- determine your strategy and quantify the first commercial and communication actions that will be necessary to capture and then retain your customers,
- set a forecast turnover.
Read more: Why do you need a Market Research? Key Points: Goals, Process, Classification
B. Business model
Business model innovation involves finding new ways to create, capture and deliver value to customers.
Read more: Business Model Examples for Your Inspiration
C. Make a business plan
This is like your “Bible”. The business plan is an essential tool for making any business creation project a reality. It allows you to define your project’s strategy and action plan with a clear head. It is therefore a step that should not be taken lightly.
Read more: Business Plan steps and examples, tips for contents and creating it
2 – Develop a business plan
A business plan outlines your company’s goals, objectives, and strategies for achieving success. It also includes financial projections, market analysis, and an overview of your management team. A well-written business plan can help you secure funding from investors.
A business plan outlines your company’s goals, objectives, and strategies for achieving success. It also includes financial projections, market analysis, and an overview of your management team. A well-written business plan can help you secure funding from investors.
3 – Cost your project estimation
Normally, you will find the financial projection in your business plan. This step consists of answering three essential questions:
A. Will your business be profitable, and when?
B. What capital is needed to launch the project under good conditions and ensure its development?
C. Will the revenue collected (sale of products and/or services) by your company throughout the year allow it to permanently meet the expenses for the same period (payment of current charges, suppliers, etc.)?
In other words, how to prevent cash flow problems and determine the turnover conditions to be met to generate a positive result? The average payment terms of suppliers and customers in your sector of activity, regulated by law, are elements that you must take into account.
This approach will lead you to build a coherent and viable project presented in a file, called a business plan. Each option will find its financial translation and its impact on financial balances. If the imbalance is too great, your project will have to be redesigned and its financial structure adapted accordingly.
Comprehensive Business Startup Checklist: From Idea to Launch + Excel and Word Free Download
Tips
Don’t underestimate your financial needs! Do not hesitate to think “big”: your project may have more potential than you imagine!
Don’t stay alone, get closer to a business creation support organization to help you build your project and pitch it. Also get advice and validation of your business plan from your accountant.
Read also: Startup Basics | Basic steps to consider when starting a new business
4 – Choose an appropriate legal status
The legal status corresponds to the legal framework in which you will carry out your activity. Several possibilities are available to you, it will be necessary to take into account different criteria to choose the best legal form for your company.
Decide on a legal structure for your business such as a sole proprietorship, partnership, or limited liability company (LLC). Each legal structure has its own advantages and disadvantages, so consider which one is best suited for your business needs.
If you create alone, you will have to choose between the sole proprietorship, ie in your own name (micro-entrepreneur regime or “classic” sole proprietorship) or a company Private limited (LLC in the U.S., GmbH in Germany, Perseroan Terbatas in Indonesia, Privat Aktiebolag in Sweden, Besloten Vennootschap in the Netherlands). If you set up your project with one or more partners, several types of companies will be available to you.
In any case, do not neglect this step and choose your structure with the help of a legal professional, lawyer or other, who can also advise you on the drafting of the partnership agreement (the capital contribution, the type taxation, etc.). Your choice will have repercussions for you, both at the financial, social and fiscal level. It can also engage the future of the company.
Read more: 4 Major Business Formation Types
It is recommended not to start with a preconceived idea, but to look into the different statuses in order to analyze their advantages and disadvantages in relation to your project and your personal situation.
Register your business
Register your business with your state and obtain any necessary licenses and permits. This step ensures that you are operating your business legally.
5 – Look for funding and secure it
The correct financing of a business creation project is one of its conditions for success. You will need to find enough capital so that the needs you have identified are fully funded.
After having identified these needs and assessed the resources that you can easily mobilize, you will need to identify and request one or more financial solutions for the missing capital: honor loans at zero interest and without guarantee, crowdfunding, micro-credit, bank loans, factoring, search for investors in the company’s share capital, etc.
The support of an organization with perfect knowledge of the existing financing tools for creators and assistance for business creation can be invaluable at this stage.
Secure funding
There are many ways to secure funding for your enterprise, such as taking out a business loan, finding investors, or crowdfunding. Consider which options are best suited to your business needs and financial goals.
5 – Bring your business to life
For your business to have a legal existence, you must file your registration file with the competent bureau in your country.
Your business will be set up and you can then start your new life as a young entrepreneur by following the advice in the moments of life I manage and I develop.
Develop your product or service
Create a prototype or minimum viable product (MVP) to test the market and gather feedback. Refine your product or service based on customer feedback to ensure it meets their needs.
To define a business strategy
The various elements mentioned above will give you the necessary insight to take the right strategic options for your business. Already think about the communication actions that you will undertake to make yourself known. Developing an effective business strategy gives you the tools to achieve the estimated revenue. Always keep in mind your objectives and the means you have set for yourself: therein lies the key to success!
Launch your product or service
Once you have refined your product or service, it’s time to launch it. Develop a marketing strategy to create awareness and generate interest in your product or service.
Monitor your progress
Keep track of your business metrics such as revenue, expenses, and customer satisfaction. Use this data to make informed decisions about your business strategy and make adjustments as necessary.
A failure become experience
If you fail, repeat but don’t make the same mistake!
The fall is not a failure. Failure is staying where you fell – Socrates
It’s a reality: success depends on several factors.
It’s also a reality: we don’t all start from the same starting point, we don’t all have the same advantages, we don’t all encounter the same obstacles, we don’t all have the same support.
Welcome failure
First of all, it is essential to welcome disappointment and possible suffering.
Some will immediately move on to something else, it’s a question of character, neurological functioning and experiences! Easier to bounce back when life is going well and/or when failures are not too close together.
Change the way we look at the world
Only then can failure become experience. Accepting failure prepares you for this eventuality. This allows you to find the right solution at the right time. So you learn from failure and move on.
In conclusion, building an enterprise or starting a business requires careful planning, hard work, and dedication. Following these steps can help you create a successful business and achieve your goals.
Read also: How to Bring Your Business to Life | Ways to revitalize your business
Photo credit: athree23 via Pixabay
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