The most important things you should consider for your business in order of priority are:

  1. Do you have an offer/product that is solving a real pain or problem? Will be VALUED? Will people pay for it?

There is no point in developing something if you’re the only person passionate about it.  You’ll just spend your life savings trying to promote it, so it is important that you validate your business idea or product by getting out of the house (or office) and speaking to people who would be in your ideal customer segment. 

  1. Can you make money?  
    If you can’t provide your product or service at a price the market will bear and still make enough profit to MORE than cover expenses, then don’t start.
    Understanding your numbers is an absolute priority. The easiest way to approach this is to work backwards. Begin by understanding what costs you will have to meet just to establish your business, then work out what profit you will take from each sale that can go towards paying these costs. The costs must include paying yourself and staff.  The next step is to calculate how many sales you will have to make to cover these costs – this is your breakeven point.  But you don’t want to be in business just to breakeven, so up the anti and work out how many sales you would need to achieve to provide a decent return i.e. more than you would earn from putting your dollars in the bank.
    Are these sales realistic – if not, do not proceed! If yes, start planning.

  2. A sound business plan.  Once you have met conditions 1 & 2 you must spend some time developing a business plan.  I have a business plan tool I use that is only two pages long, but gets the results every time!  If you don’t plan, you are in danger of becoming distracted from what really matters and you’ll waste time and resources.

  3. Clearly defined marketing strategy with quantifiable objectives & a simple message. Your marketing strategy underpins the execution of your business strategy.  You’ll find in building this that key focuses come into sight that will need to be tended to before you get underway.  For instance, if you decide you want to offer a same-day response to customer enquiries, you will need processes and or people in place to enable this. You also need to be able communicate simply what you do, so your customers understand your offer at a glance.

  4. Rules that are never broken.  In order to build a strong brand culture, customer experience and enduring business, you will need to set some ground rules that you and your staff must always adhere to.   By doing this your business becomes scaleable as it’s easy for your business to be repeated over and over and provide a consistent experience.   You will also be able to rely on staff to deliver your customer promise without you being involved in every sale.