I’m seeing a lot of people asking and overthinking the first stages:
- What should my business be about?
- What should I name my business?
- How do I get clients?
- How do I incorporate?
- How do we split ownership?
There are no reasons this step should take more than the actual business, it’s true that these tasks lay the foundation of your company, have a lot of impact and are irreversible, but this is true of every business decision you make! you will have this dilemma at every turn of your venture.
To be frank, you will fail, and you will start a second time with more info and make better decisions, but you’ll do them fast and better next time.
That said there’s two reasons you should aim to solve these challenges fast.
The first is that you don’t want to be stuck here, you are not making money at this stage, you are not gaining any experience, getting any clients, it’s all costs and wasted time. Just do it, do it fast and get to the meat of the business.
The second is that you face when starting a business, your challenges will be the most common ones, so you are very likely to find resources on how to solve them. When you face challenges specific to your industry, it will be harder, and you will have to ask more specific questions, so don’t waste your time-budget on the first steps, this is a marathon, the middle part of running a business is much longer and harder than the start, so save your breath!
Finally, you guys are making the same questions over and over again, they have been answered time and time again, let’s see some questions from actual businesses not just people who want to start out.
In lieu of actually solving the questions you may have at the start, I’ll post some answers to the common first step questions, feel free to add others in the comments. Remember any of these work, if you don’t know which to pick flip a coin, don’t get caught in analysis paralysis.
Good luck, Tom
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- What should my business be about? It should relate personally to you as a founder, so that you have an advantage, so that you don’t quit, and so that if we all follow this rule, we will cover a wide share of the industry instead of cannibalize each other.
- What should I name my business? If you can’t think of a name, go with the old and tested: INITIALS INDUSTRY LOCATION LLC. e.g: JD Plumbing Miami LLC
- How do I get clients? Ask your contacts if they know anyone who would be interested. Or get a list of contacts and start calling. Or pay for advertising in any platform, preferably Google Search.
- How do I incorporate? In the US, check the website of your State Department for instructions. OR consult with a commercial lawyer OR consult with an accountant OR hire a Registered Agent OR hire a business formation company.
- How do we split ownership? If 2 founders, one can provide funds, the other work, 50/50. Otherwise split based on amount of capital contributed, if a mix of capital investment and work, assign an hourly or monthly value to the work.All of these are achievable in a week. Especially if you think of it as just your first company.
Nice Points