Starting a small business is an exciting venture, especially if you dream of having your own company or becoming an entrepreneur. Having the opportunity to improve your finances and pursue a career that fulfills your personal goals is indeed exhilarating. Unfortunately, running a business is not that easy. Some people, especially first-time business owners, struggle to achieve their goals. If you want to aim for business growth and success, you need to make all the necessary preparations to prevent failure.
According to research conducted by the Small Business Administration, only 50% of new brands continue operating in five years. After ten years, only a third of the small business population survives. Considering these figures, you have to find the best solutions to ensure that your business will continue making growth and improvement. To help you avoid business setbacks and failure, here are some common factors that directly affect business survival:
- Business idea—Some people believe that as long as they come up with an excellent business idea, it will automatically lead to company success. Unfortunately, you need to understand that you need to ensure that your business concept will receive positive feedback from target customers. First, you need to ensure that there is enough market demand for your product or service. Next, you have to develop a plan so your business will get proper recognition. This is why doing research and forming an excellent business plan is crucial.
- Funding and financial management—The next major factor that makes or breaks a company is its ability to get enough funds to continue running. Thus, as a business owner, you need to ensure that you have enough funds to continue with your business.
- Customer trust—You also need to come up with a plan to ensure customers will stay loyal to your brand. To achieve this, you first need to convince them that they can trust your business. You have to prove to them that you are offering high-quality and reliable products and services.
- Leadership—The next factor that determines business success is your ability to lead your team. You have to equip yourself with the right knowledge and skills to delegate tasks. Aside from this, you need to lead by example so that your employees will feel inspired to do their best whenever they are asked to perform certain tasks.
- Hiring the right team—It’s also crucial to invest in hiring the right people for your business. Some company owners make the mistake of limiting their hires to reduce costs. However, you need to spend your funds to ensure that you can build the right team for your company. Remember, hiring and recruiting the right people will help you find better and quicker ways to grow and improve your business.
Legal Reminders in Running Your Business
You also need to understand the importance of submitting and accomplishing legal requirements when running a business. Remember, your business may receive positive feedback from customers, but this does not automatically guarantee business survival. If authorities find out that you are illegally operating your business, your company may be forced to shut down. To avoid this, you need to accomplish the following requirements:
- Choose a business structure— You need to find out the type of business structure that fits your company. Popular options include sole proprietorship, partnership, and corporation.
- Submit business permits and licenses—You need to secure business permits and licenses. This will depend on your business location, type of industry, and other business factors.
- Fulfill financial obligations—Running a business requires you to pay taxes and other financial obligations such as employee salary or business fees. Ensure that you pay these required fees on time to avoid any legal trouble.
- Get insurance—You have to get insurance for your business to protect your assets and your team. This includes business insurance, disability insurance for employees, or asset and liability insurance.
If you don’t submit these legal requirements, your company will be placed in a complicated situation. You will be putting your team and the entire company in danger as well. Thus, you have to fulfill these basic requirements so your business can continue operating legally. If you don’t have any idea about the legal process of running a business, you can always ask for help from a business lawyer. Try searching for terms like “small business attorney near me” so that you can find reliable lawyers located in your area.
You need to spend enough time to develop strategies that can help you address challenges and prepare for possible business issues. The key is to keep revisiting your goals and check if you need to perform changes so you can achieve them. You also have to continue finding better ways and more effective solutions for your business. You have to fulfill all your legal responsibilities so that you avoid facing legal complaints, resulting in business closure.
