Don’t Forget These 5 Things When You Start Your Business

Starting up a business can be a hectic endeavor. There’s so much to get done, and your mind will be all over the place. From the existential to the bureaucratic, these are the five things you can’t afford to forget when you start your own company.

#1 Getting Investor-Ready

When you’re first starting a company, it’s all about the customer, right? Wrong. Or at least, not always. Whatever your company’s doing, in these early days, you should be thinking about making your business investor-ready. That means you know:

• What you offer that no other company can;
• All the essentials of your core financials;
• How you plan to grow your business and deliver investment returns.

#2 ID Card Printer

Depending on the nature of your business, workplace security may be an issue from Day One, or it may only be something you have to deal with as your office and the number of employees grows.

An important part of security is knowing who’s supposed to be there. Employee ID cards are an effective way to restrict access to parts of the office and make sure members of the general public don’t find themselves where they don’t belong. You can find ID card systems for your business that allow you to design and print and ID cards on the spot.

#3 Business Recovery Email

You’ll be signing up for a set of apps, tools, accounts, and software that will help your business run smoothly. But it can be easy to lose passwords or access to all these services you need, especially once your company starts to experience turnover and workers who set up accounts leave.

Create a recovery email that only the owner has access to and link all essential accounts and services to this account. Make sure you don’t use it for communications.

#4 A Contingency Plan

What happens if revenue doesn’t start coming in as soon as you thought it would? Where do you turn when you have to meet unexpected costs? It can take a long time before start-ups manage to earn revenue, and even longer before they start to make a profit. If you want your business to make it through its first year, you need a contingency plan for funding or raising revenue in a pinch.

#5 Getting a Business Permit

Are you even allowed to be open? It can feel like nothing more than a pain, but there are permits for just about any kind of business that you’ll have to get with the municipality where you’re operating. Not only do you need a license if you’re opening a store or a food truck, but you also need them for services that you offer out of your or another’s home.

Find out whether or not your business needs a license to operate and who provides that license. Even if you’re developing software in your garage, there may be zoning permits you need to get before you can apply for a general business license.

Don’t forget the details when you’re starting your own business!