William D King: The Cry of the Self-Employed: From Startup to Successful Business in Just 5 Steps!

Entrepreneurship is one of life’s great lessons in paradox: it requires all the passion, risk and patience necessary to succeed; however, it also requires rationality and discipline. So many people dream about “starting their own thing,” but very few actually do something about it. It takes a lot of hard work, drive and dedication-and possibly some luck-to get from the day you have an idea for a business to the point where your company becomes successful enough that you can consider yourself self-employed.

Everyone’s journey to self-employment has its unique beginnings. I left a well-paying job at a major airline company with the dream of being my own boss someday. This ‘someday’ finally arrived after years of working hard, making smart decisions and consistently reinvesting in my business. Today I don’t have to worry about sharing office space with other people or wondering how much vacation time I’ll get this year.

The mission of my company is to help others be successful, so I’m excited that you’re taking the first step toward achieving your own dreams by reading this article!

Now it’s time to focus on your business plan. You should start this plan at least six months before you officially launch your new company. This will give you plenty of time to write, fine-tune and revise your strategy so that when it comes time for investors to read over your proposal they won’t be daunted by an unorganized presentation. 

Some things that should definitely go into your brand new business plan include: William D King

• A detailed description of the industry you’re working in and your competitors
• Your company’s mission statement
• The names, backgrounds and roles within your organization
• How much money you’ll need to start your company (including how the funds will be used) Your funding requirements list should also be included here. If you require outside investment to get started this is where you should mention the type of investors you are seeking out as well as how much money they can expect to make if they invest in your business. Some other points that should be included on this list are how long potential funders have to wait for a return on their initial investments once they give you what you need to start running your new business, what percentage of ownership or control they can expect to acquire if you accept their funding and whether or not the money will be given as a loan, an equity investment or some other kind of transaction.
• The first thing you’ll need to do once your business plan is complete (and it should only take about 30-40 hours total) is found stable, consistent clients that are willing to pay you for ongoing services. If your first clients don’t work out then your new company will probably fail before it even gets started.
• Now it’s time to pick the name of your company! This may seem like a trivial step in the process of starting up a brand new business but having the right one could mean all the difference between success and failure Your choice of name should be original, easy to remember and, most importantly, it should represent the purpose of your business. If you already have a logo or slogan in mind make sure that they are included on your list of company assets because you’ll need them later.
• The next thing you’re going to need before officially starting up your company is an office space! This may be difficult to get for young, upstart operations but there are ways around this issue. You can work from home until you’ve made enough money to secure a commercial property or you could see if any of the owners of successful businesses that are located near where you plan on opening yours are looking for someone to share their offices with. Make sure that your new office has everything you’ll need so consider asking yourself the following questions:

Does the office have a land line and/or internet? Will I have access to these resources 24 hours a day?

Would I be able to store any excess equipment in the office overnight or will I need somewhere else to put it? Can I park my car there for free or inexpensively? Is there space for extra employees to work from when they’re not out on jobs with me?

If you think that answering ‘yes’ to all of these questions is going to be difficult then you might want to reconsider starting up your own business. 

Conclusion by William D King:

Starting up a brand new company requires a lot of work but the payoff makes everything you’ve done so far totally worth it. If you follow these nine steps carefully then your chances of being successful are exponentially higher than if you tried to wing it on your own. Good luck!