Many people give up their intention to do business because they don’t know where to start. Through this article, you will get a guide on how to start a business from scratch.
Of course the process is full of struggle and is different for each person. However, as a rule of thumb, you can rely on the following tips!
How to Start a Business from Zero
For someone who is entering the business world for the first time, there is certainly a feeling of anxiety about starting. Especially for those who are starting from scratch and still have minimal experience.
But now you don’t need to worry because there are the following tips.
1. Determine the Product
The first thing to do is determine the product or service to be sold. There are two approaches that you can use, namely based on current needs or the passion you have.
2. Determine the Business Concept
Next, determine the business concept that you will carry out. Are you going to start something completely new or follow what is already on the market.
Regarding which is better, of course both have their own risks and you will understand them after doing market research. Therefore, don’t skip that part.
3. Determine Target Consumers
By conducting market research, you can study business dynamics. Starting from product relevance, potential customer behavior, to competitor characteristics.
After that, you can determine who the target market you will target is. Are you competing with market leaders, targeting niche markets, or others. These are all important stages that form the foundation of the brand and products you will sell.
4. Create a Business Plan
Next, pour all the knowledge and information you have collected into a comprehensive business plan. In it, also include the vision, mission and business model that you will run. This is useful as a guide for determining direction and strategy for your business.
5. Focus on One Business
You may have many ideas and dreams that you want to make come true. However, as a first step, try to focus on one business first. This will keep you from being easily distracted by the promise of short-term profits but actually threatening the stability of the newly built business.
6. Optimize the capital you have
Large capital does provide more convenience and freedom. However, this is not everything. Optimize what you have now.
Once the foundation is built, you can slowly organize your business finances and perhaps apply for a bank loan, collaborate with investors, or adopt other methods to increase business capital to develop your business.
7. Perform Financial Analysis
So that the capital you have can be used optimally, carry out a financial analysis before starting a business. Make sure your calculations are realistic and use current market prices.
Instead of using assumptions, use ratios to make financial projections, such as BEP, PP, profit margin, and so on.
8. Find and Show Uniqueness
An equally important way to start a business from scratch is to find and highlight your unique selling point. Use this as an added selling value to make potential customers confident in choosing your product over your competitors’ products.
9. Pay attention to consumer satisfaction
You need to understand that customer satisfaction is one of the things that determines whether your business will last or not. Satisfied consumers will not hesitate to come back and choose you again when they are looking for the product they need.
Therefore, build good relationships with customers and get feedback from them to improve product and service quality.
10. Improve personal and product quality
Use the feedback you get to continue improving the quality of yourself and your products. As a businessman, you certainly have to continue to learn and develop yourself to support you in becoming a successful businessman.
This good self-quality will then be reflected in the increasingly better quality of products and services.
11. Join a Business Community
So, one place to learn and improve yourself is by joining a community or business association. It is possible that you will get lots of ideas, lessons, even mentors and business partners who can help your business grow and be successful.
12. Build a Digital Presence
This step also cannot be missed because now you are in the digital era. Where potential consumers, investors and your business partners will look for all the information they need about your business and products via the internet.
Therefore, build a digital presence to display a positive image. You can use the official website, social media or other digital channels.
13. Explore Opportunities to Develop Business
As someone who is learning how to start a business from scratch, you need to understand that every opportunity has risks. Vice versa, every risk definitely has an opportunity. Therefore, be careful and afraid to explore new opportunities that can bring your business to greater growth.
14. Conduct regular evaluations
Next, carry out regular business evaluations. This will help you track, assess, and correct errors as well as steps that are appropriate so they should be continued. Only then, you can create a better business strategy.
15. Manage Business Finances Well
Terakhir, disiplin dan bijak mengelola keuangan bisnis adalah kunci keberhasilan. Sebaiknya kamu tidak mencampurkan keuangan pribadi dan keuangan bisnis dalam satu rekening. Apart from that, make sure all income, expenses and inventory are neatly recorded so that whenever needed, you can easily track them.
For this, you can entrust everything to Labamu, a multi-purpose application that really helps MSME entrepreneurs to document transaction records and business administration in real time.
To check out Labamu’s best features, immediately download the application via Google Play or the App Store!
