How to Successfully Begin a Small Business

culled from:wikihow.com

Over 90% of small businesses fail within the first two years. Why? Many owners fail to plan their needs appropriately. There are some simple steps that one can follow to ensure long-term success.

Steps

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Entrepreneurs know how much raw material and just plain hard work it takes to start up a business, to take the idea from your head and make that dream turn into a reality. The first thing to do is have a business plan and an idea of the direction of where you want to go. Ask yourself these questions:

• "How can I take my business there?"
• "Where is the right place for me?"
• "Should I open this idea up to others?"
• "How is my service or business different from other businesses?"
• "How can others help me with my business?"
• "When the business is making profit, should I sell it?"

These are only a few of the many questions that run through a small business owner’s head.

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To be successful, start-ups come from a combination of talents. For example, one might want to be in the car industry and is great with building cars, customizing them and making them look better. But he might need more than that if he is to be truly successful. One may know that he is good at what he does - and have a great talent for he work - but does he have what it takes?

• Can he sell himself to potential clients?
• Can he manage the accounts?
• Can he hire the right people to help him with the work he wants to do?

He needs to know if his talent is enough to make this idea work, and if he can build the additional kinds of skill sets and relationships he needs with vendors, clients, and employees. It can be a daunting proposition. Raw talent and a willingness to learn those extra skills are at the heart of a successful entrepreneurial venture.

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   Another one of the most critical parts of being a successful start-up is to have good ideas, and to be willing to act on them. The successful entrepreneur is the one who works harder than anyone else, who learns from the mistakes of others who have already tried and failed, and who follows the lead of others who have succeeded already. Pay attention to the successes and failures of others, and learn how to avoid the pitfalls and how to use the history of others’ successes as a model for your own endeavors.
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   If you have the talent you need to run your business, good ideas to get it off the ground, have done your research and understand what others before you have done well, and finally, if you have a good, solid set of ethics behind you, you are half way there. You've got a solid foundation to build upon.