FAQ - Starting A Business
Starting a business is a multi-step process. It can be overwhelming, but it’s OK, you need to start somewhere and StartABusiness.Center will help you with each step.
Begin by reviewing these two pages, they will give you a great overview of the steps you need to start a business:
There’s no magic way to know absolutely.
The best thing you can do is to:
- Thoroughly consider and assess the business idea and whether you have the skills to make it succeed
- Take our free Business Evaluation Quiz to understand your strengths and weaknesses
- Remember to test and validate your idea as much as possible before committing all your time and money to it!
It depends on a lot of things. Short answer though: Many new founders start a business for $1000-$2000, particularly if it’s an online business. Certainly it can cost a lot more, there’s a wide range depending on how much you can do and how much you pay others to help you do.
If it’s a bricks and mortar store/restaurant/office type of thing you might need $10-$50K minimally.
These are wild ballpark figures because each business has it’s own requirements for personnel, hardware, software, licenses, products, tools, cost of goods, legal and other things.
Read the information here under Steps to Start A Business.
Take the Business Evaluation Quiz. It’s a great way to see what your chances of success are based on how well you are prepared – and to learn where your strengths and weaknessses are.
Sure. I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on the site and what information you still need help with.
I also provide Business Mentoring and Coaching Services if you like. Use the Contact page to send me a note.
Generally, there are a few ways to finance a new business: Self fund it (using your own money), loans, or investors.
I never recommend loans because many businesses fail and if you have to close your failed business, being stuck with a huge loan to pay back will really really sting.
Investors is a better route if you simply can’t afford to start things on a shoestring. Crowdsourcing, or ‘friends and family’ investment are the two easiest methods. More on financing your business here.
Read the information here under Steps to Start A Business.
Take the Business Evaluation Quiz. It’s a great way to see what your chances of success are based on how well you are prepared – and to learn where your strengths and weaknessses are.
This is a wonderful resource for all your startup education too: YCombinator Library
Impossible to answer this question. The only way to begin to get an idea is to create a Financial Projection Spreadsheet, which is fairly easy to do as long as you can use Google spreadsheets or Excel.
See our page here on How to create a financial projection spreadsheet.
Most business will want to incorporate legally before starting to conduct business. There are tax benefits to incorporating, and there is also something called a ‘corporate layer of liability’ which protects you personally from any liability that the company may be subject to.
In plain English, if someone sues your company for whatever reason and wins, they can’t come after your personal assets, they can only come after the assets of the company.
For most small businesses the choices are:
- sole proprietorship
- LLC, or
- S-Corporation
There are other choices too, you can learn more about all of them here.
What other business filings, registrations, licenses do you need? You should Google this for your city and state to see what local permits or licenses you may need, it can vary by business type. For the most part, your city will want you to get a business license (inexpensive). The state may want you to file your incorporation papers (in California, an LLC will cost you $800 annually!).
This varies state by state, county by county, so you need to Google it to make sure. Google questions like “What licenses do I need to start a business in Redondo Beach, CA?”
Most cities require a business license, it’s usually around $35.
Definitely learn about the question of “Do I need to incorporate my business, why is it important, and how do I do it?” This is a separate question from what other licenses do you need. It’s important to understand why incorporating is normal and gives you added legal protection, as well as tax benefits.
Probably yes. It’s the biggest online marketplace in the US. It’s not real hard to get your products for sale there either… But there’s a lot to learn about selling on Amazon – and I highly recommend you learn all you can before diving in.
Learn about the differences between Amazon drop shipping, Amazon FBA (Fulfilled By Amazon), and just selling and shipping your products through Amazon.
This is a huge topic and we will soon build out more info for you on this, but for now, please Google it extensively to learn more.
Luckily, building apps isn’t as costly or as difficult as it used to be. There are a lot of app developers online who will build an Android and or iOS (Apple) app for you for anywhere from $500 to $10K depending on the complexity.
A serious professional effort could run you upwards of $200K even – so you should understand that spending a few thousand on an app is basically the ‘bargain’ route. But for some apps it might be fine.
Check out Fiverr.com or Upwork.com for some app developers who will help you out.
But know that if you do not have experience in building software, there will be a LOT of difficulties as you learn about the ups and downs of software development, which is a complicated arena.
I help people with their business questions and goals. I've helped hundreds and I can give you the guidance and mentoring you need to figure out every step. Why learn the hard lessons yourself, when you can consult with an expert who can save you valuable time and money?