What were the first steps you took? (literally)

[on_my_own]

For those that own your own business, what did you do the first few weeks? I'm talking about getting customers, legal and accounting issues, setting up, etc. Did you feel overwhelmed? Sorry for so many questions, I just can't find any other really helpful sites on starting a business...

[Russ in Vancouver]

Hi omo

Have you already checked the competition, completed a BP ?

What type business are you running?

[Harold Mansfield]

The first few months I combed freelancer boards for work. I had no money for advertising, knew no one in the business, had no one to call on for referrals. Nothing. And I knew even less about Marketing. I took every BS job I could get my hands on for what ever money I could get out of them.
It sucked.

Legal and accounting questions are going to be specific to you and your business, and location.
What are your legal and accounting questions specifically?

[PayForWords]

1. I got together a little bit of money (a few hundred dollars to be exact)

2. I purchased a local business license, a domain, web hosting, and some business cards

3. I used the little bit of money I had leftover to buy ad spots (I got my hands on free ones as well such as spend $25, get $100)

4. I blindly contacted any potential client offering my services

5. As Harold said, I took anything I could get just to establish a client base


*One way of not screwing yourself by taking any job you can get is to offer them 30% off their first order or something of the sort.

**These aren't the steps that you need to take necessarily but it is exactly and all I did.

[tallen]

1) drew up a "business plan" with some rough numbers to see if the business might be viable; determined that the cost of insurance was the big unknown.
2) searched for insurance companies who insure this type of business, identified agent, made appointment to meet with them. Once I got the quote, revisited my business plan.
3) contacted an attorney to begin process of incorporation and filing for EIN. drew up draft customer agreements and other forms associated with the business
4) began building website and facebook page; face-to-face networking with other businesses in town that could refer business to me.
5) once incorporated and with EIN, opened bank account. Once account was verified, I paid the insurance, joined the chamber of commerce, paid the attorney, established accounting system (Quickbooks), transferred titles/registrations on equipment to the business entity, hung out the "open for business" sign, designed and printed rack cards (distributed them to the chamber of commerce and other sites), printed copies of customer agreement and other forms/paperwork needed, investigate merchant account (credit card processing) from bank or other providers (e.g. Square, PayPal), etc....
6) opened a charge account at the local hardware store (go-to place for supplies and materials needed for repair and maintenance of my equipment, etc...); know the staff there well -- probably another source of referrals.
7) customers started coming by word-of-mouth; helps that we are the only business in the region offering the service that we offer. Keep good records
8) we don't have any employees (yet), but will need to register with the state Dept. of Labor, get waivers from the Worker's Comp Board, register with the state tax collectors (although the service we sell is not subject to a sales or use tax). I suspect most states have a "how to start a business in the state of XXX" section on their website, that typically will walk you through what kinds of licenses and things you need for your particular kind of business.

Edited to add: Do you need a location? A place from which to operate the business? We're co-located with another business that provides us the facilities we need to provide our service (another agreement that has to be drafted) -- they have the facilities, we have the equipment. If you need a location, look carefully at your lease terms, make sure you have the insurance coverage you need, and are in compliance with local zoning and other codes, etc...

What about a telephone number? Right now we're using the phone of the other business (they answer it for us, as it were). We could have our own phone number (using Google Voice, for example), but for reasons not worth going into here it was easier to just publish the same number.

If you are using a social media platform (like FB) for marketing, you need to keep up with that.

[on_my_own]

Great stuff everyone! I started this thread because I've seen so many articles on how to start a business etc, but not many on the very first steps successful entrepreneurs take when starting out..

[Harold Mansfield]

I should also mention that I failed twice before. I dabbled part time in two other business models before. Although I wrote great business plans for them, I wasn't as knowledgeable as I needed to be, and was unrealistic about what it really takes to grow them.

I was also lacking some crucial communication skills that I didn't learn until I was forced to find a job. That job unexpectedly taught me the last piece of the puzzle.

[Freelancier]

For the very first time I got started... the first step seemed to be getting fired from my previous job. Everything before that was just dabbling, but really being out there focused my mind on the most important first step: finding someone to pay you for something you want to do. Everything really flowed from that.

Legal, accounting, all that came AFTER I had money flowing in. But that's for the kind of job I am doing, not the kinds of jobs you might be doing.

For example, if you were starting a retail business, your first steps would be securing your location (whether bricks or online), making deals with suppliers and vendors, etc. All of that would force you to eventually find legal help (especially if you went the bricks path), an accountant to help you make sure you had the money to do what you wanted to do, etc.

So really, the first steps are very business-specific.

[Wozcreative]

First step was quitting a job that i wasn't happy with anymore. The company went in a different direction, and I wanted more control over what I was doing. I already had a website done, and had some clients that I was freelancing on the side with, so It was a simple transition.

[billbenson]

Step 1, career ended in the 98 dot com crash
Step 2, registered the business with the state and got an EIN number from the IRS.
Step 3, built a couple of websites to sell product.
Step 4 Adwords on what was successful.

Mind you, this was a several year process until I was making money.