Small businesses face big odds, but despite the risk, many determined entrepreneurs take the plunge to go into business for themselves. If you are considering starting your own business, you are going to want to avoid common pitfalls and make sure you are as prepared as you can be to succeed in this tough environment.
First, we advise getting a second opinion. A lot of ideas can sound great in our head but would fall flat when faced with the realities of the open market. If you are serious about launching a business, it is well worth the cost to have your idea analyzed by a professional consultant.
If your idea is sound and you decide to go ahead with your business idea, it’s a good idea to keep the consultant around – good consultants might not come cheap, but they can save you a lot of money in the long run by helping you weed out the things that will unnecessarily suck the time and money from your overall business plan before you launch. Having a lean and efficient plan when you are first starting out is crucial to the success of a new business.
Investing in the right tools before you launch is also essential. You can’t meet the needs of your customers if you don’t have the right tools in place before you launch your business. While it may seem counter-intuitive, the first tastes of success are often the undoing of many recently launched businesses. You don’t want orders to start rolling in only to discover that you don’t have the right tools to fulfill them.
Tools that deal with human resources, billing, payments, inventory, production, shipping, receiving, suppliers/vendors, customer relationship management, and the like are crucial to the success of your business. These tools must be in place before you offer your product to your customers or your business will fail.
At Oates & Company, our tools of choice are offered by the Sage Group. Their enterprise resource planning systems and customer relationship management software support all the aforementioned issues as well as any others your business needs to be successful.
For more information on what you need to launch your new business, contact Oates & Company today.
