Calculating the Cost to Start Up
It’s often a good idea to determine how much money you’ll need to start your business, long before you intend to launch. Think of it as a reality check, as even if your business is the best idea ever, it’ll only succeed if you can find the funds to get going.
Calculating Your Break-Even Point
If you’re confident there’s a genuine demand for your potential product or service (and at the price you want), the next step is to work out how much you need to sell each month to make a profit (your ‘break-even’).
Choosing a Business Model
Deciding on a business model is one of the most important decisions you’ll need to make as a small business owner. The trick is finding those that suits your business best, that will make money and help to grow your business.
Four Reality Checks Your Business Will Succeed
Although the only real way to find out if your business idea will work is to actually start your business, there are a number of things you can do to help research your business idea before you take the leap.
Collaboration and Partnering
Joining with other businesses to pursue common goals is growing in popularity as a smart way to increase capability, share resources, costs and risks. The internet, sub-contracting and being able to access talent from around the world has made this even easier.
Bidding for US Government Contracts
The US government awards billions of dollars of business contracts for various projects, and their goal is to try and award 23% of the value to small business. If those projects are in your industry, gaining a contract is a great way to not only grow your business, but to enhance your reputation as well.
Avoiding Credit Card Fraud
Safeguarding your business against fraud is important, particularly if your business is accepting credit cards. Credit card fraud is something that can never be eliminated, but rather something that must be managed.