7 Steps to Eating an Elephant (or 7 Steps to Starting a Business)

I've heard it said, 

"How do you eat an elephant?"  

Answer: "One step at a time."

The same answer is true in starting a business.  Take it one step at a time!

This past weekend I was spent some time looking back at this past year and the company I started at the beginning of 2008.  In less than a year, this company has become a big success and has the potential to have a nationwide footprint in the next few years!  While many are intimidated by starting their own business, I thought I'd go thru the steps I took to get my business started ("eat my elephant").

To give a little background, I had come up with my business idea while talking with one of my friends when he came to visit.  He was in a position to help me test the idea and within a couple of weeks the testing began.  I conducted the test for 5 months and concluded that I was on to something so I began to research how best to spread the word and expand.  In my case trade shows appeared to be the best option as I'm still working full time as an employee for someone else.  A couple of friends and I got together to share the cost of the trade show and we were off!  Since late February 2008, we've expanded exponentially and are now in over 75 locations across the state.  Four trade shows later and lots of word-of-mouth advertising and we're poised to grow 200%+ in 2009 with the foundation for franchising in 2010!!!

What I fail to mention above is that I found out about that first trade show only 2 weeks before it was scheduled.  Needless to say, those couple of weeks were a whirlwind of activity.  There were 6 steps I took during this 2 week period of time in order to make the business a reality.

1. Setup a Bank Account

This is an extremely important step for tax purposes.  The IRS requires a separate account specifically for your business.  This may be a "business"  or "personal" checking account to start out with.  Some banks charge higher fees for business checking accounts, so in this case a personal account may be sufficient.  Since I setup a LLC, my bank required a specific business checking account be set up for this business entity.

2. Register a Domain Name

This is an extremely important step.  A good Domain Name (or domain names) can make our break your business in today's world!  Even though you may not have plans to go online, it's important reserve this URL if possible so you can use it in the future.  If nothing else, you can setup a basic website that acts as an online business card.  I believe you achieve additional credibility today with your own domain and with your own domain's email address.

My website is where our potential clients go in order to get a variety of information to include testimonials, photos, and a thorough explanation of our program.  Being that most of my interaction is at a distance, the website is a huge time saver!!  

I have no expertise in website design, etc but through networking, I was able to hire a friend to handle all of this for me.

3. Register DBA (Doing Business As)

I went to my local county courthouse to do this initially.  It cost $35 and announces to everyone in the county my business name.  Once again this is protection for your name and brand as you move forward and grow your business.  

The setup of my LLC accomplished this on a statewide basis and the trademark of the business name will protect it nationally.  Trademarking can be quite expensive ($1500) and take upwards of 6 months to complete.  I expect my trademark registration to be completed within the next couple of weeks.

4. Establish Funding Options

I didn't have alot of money to get started, so I used a couple of credit cards, initially.  While this is an extremely expensive form of funding, I had no choice to begin with.  Later, I was able to take out a couple of loans from a micro lending community called prosper.com.  This site worked extremely well for me, but of course your local bank will work well also.

5. Legal Assistance

I made a couple of phone calls to some friends who were lawyers and they referred me to an acquaintance from church.  I gave him a call, we sat down for coffee, and he was able to give me guidance on the type of business he recommended as well as some intellectual property stuff.  This one hour consultation gave me the contacts and information I needed in order to setup my LLC, trademark the business name, and create a variety of legal documents needed for my business.  I've been able to make monthly payments on all these things so that I didn't need to have all the capital up front for these necessities.

6. Accountant/Book Keeper

My wife has done our book keeping in past businesses that I've run, but this time I decided that it was time to pay an expert so that we don't have to mess with these details (Being a Type A personality, they give me a headache!).  Once again networking with friends and business associates got me set up with a local accountant who is doing the book keeping, accounting, and tax preparation for me.  This is definitely an added expense that may not be necessary in every case, but I'm glad that I don't have to spend alot of time on these details.

7. Graphic Design Work

Not required, but definitely important in order to create a professional image.  This process has evolved for use as we've expanded.  To begin, we hired a designer for logo design and for the design of all the literature, etc used for our business.  Since then, we've purchased an iMac and the Adobe Design Suite so that we can do more and more of this work in house.  My 12 year old son has traded some time working around a graphic designer friend's house for some design lessons.  We hope to send him to classes at the local community college soon, but in the mean time he's been a quick study and now does much of this work for us!  We save some money because he's not professionally trained and he makes great money as a 12 year old and is learning skills that he'll be able to use his entire life!

There are lots of other steps that you may have to take in starting your business.  These 7 are the ones that I had to take care of in order to get my latest venture off the ground.  While much of these steps seemed next to impossible due to my ignorance, the entire process has been much easier than I ever thought possible!  I look back a year later and wonder what took me so long!

Take a minute to share some other steps you've found important in your business.  Join the conversation!

Stumble It!

Comments

[Javier G Longo]

Great advice!

Tell your son to take a look at this great book: http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Typographic-Principles/dp/1566091594
and others from Robin Williams. He can also subscribe (paid) to a couple of magazines (Print Magazine)

[MWM]

Javier,

Thanks for the recommendation. I just ordered the book used on Amazon and look forward to us using it! Fortunately I've got 9 years of print advertising experience that he can benefit from, but any other expertise is greatly appreciated!

Pizza