Tips to starting your own business #1

Starting a business can be a complicated task, with a myriad of decisions to make and key steps to take.  Here is a short list of tips that helped (or hurt) me tremendously.

Name your business something that will rank high alphabetically.
I made the decision (read: mistake) of calling my business “Z’s Café”, not realizing that every other café and catering business starting before the letter “Z” would rank higher if we were on a list of other food service vendors.  

It now makes sense why we see so many businesses called “AAA”. “Apple”, “A-1”, etc.  If people are looking for a service, they’ll usually contact someone higher first (they won’t compare businesses if the list is long) and you’ll likely never even have a chance.

Give Your Mom 51%
Many large companies give priority to Woman-Owned Businesses, as they have been “historically underutilized.”  So if you’re partnering up with a lady, consider structuring it 51% woman-owned and you’ll be much higher on the list for prospective clients. 

There’s a long application to fill out through a local certifying agency, but it’s worth it.  A couple months after we were certified, we were actually contacted by the NFL to cater at the 2011 Super Bowl because we were woman-owned.  There are also certifications for minority-owned, veteran-owned, and disabled-owned businesses.  You can be certified in multiple areas, too.

Barter.  Barter.  Barter.
When we started, we had very little cash but lots of food.  So we traded as much as we could – for menu design, accounting, printing, mechanic services, restaurant equipment, advertising, etc.  I’ve learned that most talented people also like good food.

For those in service-related industries (massage, janitorial, fitness), it’s always better to barter for your needs.  Product-related businesses might be tougher, but I ALWAYS ask if vendors would take all or part in trade.  It’s win-win to trade, just check to see if there are any tax ramifications for receiving fair-market goods or services.

Nowadays, so many businesses are started as a “side hustle”, people need hard-and-fast guidance to get their ideas off the drawing board.  A business can be started, complete with website and payment system, in a short weekend.  And every day longer you wait, it’s an additional day’s advantage for your competitor.