Your Entrepreneur Journey – What Do You Need to Know to Get Started?
Most dictionaries define an entrepreneur as a businessperson who finances or initiates emerging commercial enterprise. So any persons who finances, manages and/or organizes a business venture can be called an entrepreneur.
Although you are reading this article online, keep in mind that the same basic principles apply to both online and offline entrepreneurship. The following are 5 things you need to get started on your entrepreneur journey:
1. Identifying Your Market: This involves reasearching carefully to determine what products or service you will promote by balancing what the market is in need of with what you are passionate about.
2. Deciding on a name for your business: This is often ignored or regarded as less important in offline marketing, but keep in mind that the name of your business will be reflected on your business cards and should be a marketing tool. It's a critical component of your online marketing as it involves search engines and should quickly identify the nature of your business. Online attention span is even shorter than offline and readers should not have to wonder what you do.
3. Determining the Form of Business: Depending on the type of business, this is something you may or may not need to focus on immediately, but your tax accountant or attorney can advise you on where to start, whether as a Sole Proprietor or a Corporation.
4. Permits and Licenses: Depending on where you live, you may be required to obtain a permit or license. Your local city hall, county government or even your local Chamber of Commerce are valuable
resources. If you will be selling a product that requires you to collect sales tax, you'll need a seller's permit or whatever term is unique to your area.
5. Find People Who Need Your Product or Service: Most people who made the decision to become entrepreneurs have never had training in marketing so this is one of the areas they find most challenging. Mary Kay Ash was fond of saying, "Nothing happens until you sell something." So finding customers is an essential part of your entrepreneur journey.
