Everything you need to do to create your business

When you're considering creating your own business, know that you must first take plenty of time for preparation and reflection, both for yourself and for your project. Finding good ideas for this creation is not enough, it's essential that you ask yourself many questions and design an effective plan.

Certainly, all these good things require time from you and especially will undoubtedly need a special investment, but also considerable financing. Moreover, even before carrying out your work, you must also respect certain steps in order to launch your activity with peace of mind.

To help you successfully complete this more or less difficult task, discover in this article some important tips to give you every chance of success.

Step 1: Have an idea for creation

The first thing you must have for a business creation project is the idea, but also the personal ambition to create something special. There are many ways to find an idea. Here are a few:

Through your current work

This is obvious because when you work in a sector that you know and master perfectly, your sense of creativity can push you to create your own business linked to this type of activity. In any case, it's better that you pay attention to better understand the evolution of your activity and the sector in which you are.

By taking an interest in new styles

Sometimes, by trying to find new trends in the work field, you can quite easily find the best idea. An activity that hasn't been used yet.

Generally, the appearance of a new idea for business creation comes from the publication of new products, new ways of consumption, cutting-edge ecological trends, etc.

However, it's not necessarily essential to find a new idea to create a business. Often, taking up an idea is also a better way to achieve this.

Step 2: Think carefully about your motivation

After you've listed all the sectors you know perfectly, but also the new trends, now you need to try to bring all this together while answering many questions. All these questions that you must answer at all costs are more subjective and individual. Here are some of these questions:

• What do you want to do? During the creation of your business, know that you must devote a lot of energy and time.
• What are your particular skills? Know that it's really essential to know exactly what you could use in order to get the maximum benefit when creating your business.
• What are the sector and type of activity that you know best? When you have experience, know that it can allow you to have perspective and also have a much sharper critical eye.

For business creation, in addition to these elements, you must also consider all your personal obligations, your motivations, as well as the connection with your personal life.

For this, you must then answer a question, which seems simple at first, but deep down, it's actually more complex: "Why do I really want to create my business?" Know that this question allows you to measure of course your motivation as well as your responsibility within your project.

This particularly helps to rule out immature projects and also avoid launching yourself into a useless adventure without having estimated all the consequences in advance.

Step 3: You must challenge your idea

Review your creation idea a bit

Once you've found the idea, all you have to do is challenge it. To do this, you must put yourself in the shoes of an investor and try to imagine all the questions they might ask you to know exactly if your business idea is sustainable, productive and can be exploited in the long term. Here are some questions that could help you do this:

• Is your idea the same as one that already existed before or completely new and different?
• Can it really provide answers to certain problems or needs?
• Are your future customers aware of the existence of these problems or needs?
• To solve it, are they ready to spend money?
• What are you doing to test your idea before the process of creating your business?

You may find this step a bit discouraging, but the important thing is that you never give up. A failure can only mean that you will have to readjust your project, clarify certain points, etc. This reasoning is essential, since it will prevent you from venturing into a project that cannot be exploited.

You also have the possibility to ask for the opinion of some of your entourage. Know that their opinions can be positive to help you decide to move forward. You can also ask them to give criticism on your project. Their negative comments can allow you to avoid any potential difficulties.

Do a market study

Before creating your business, the market study is a really important step. It allows you to get answers to certain questions such as:

• Where will your future business be located, according to today's market trends?
• Are there requirements related to your market? If so, which ones?
• Who are your competitors? What is their current position? And their outlook for the future?
• What is the benefit for your future customers?

Besides these various questions, the list of which is not yet complete, you must also draw your conclusions and be able to determine figures as well as strategies that will then be integrated into your business plan.

Moreover, your tactics to achieve these objectives must be set in advance, since they will also be included in your business plan. It's still crucial to be able to project yourself economically upstream of launching your activity.

Step 4: Focus on financial resources for your activity

Before venturing into creating your own business, it's essential that you focus on the question of its financing, which is surely the most precious point.

Indeed, you must study as a first step the costs of your future activity, and subsequently, make a provisional plan for financing your activity. After all this, you must have an exact figure. Finally, you must now focus on seeking investment.

What do you do to plan financing for your activity?

Through the market study, you have the possibility to study whether your activity is feasible and can really last.

Therefore, you must establish a financial forecast plan. Initially, this consists of organizing in advance all the expenses as well as the gains from your activity.

With regard to the market study that you will have done, know that the financial forecast plan will certainly highlight the state of what can sustain the financing of your project as well as its economic production.

Look for financing

This is a more than essential step. There are many ways to seek financing. Here are 4:

• Internal financing: this is financing by associates.
• External financing: this type of financing is provided by venture capital, investment funds, etc.
• Bank financing: many banks offer entrepreneurs a certain number of loans as well as various means to create their business.
• Government financing: this type of financing brings together aid to the unemployed for business creation and other aid offered by government institutions.

Step 5: Move on to writing your business plan

Certainly, the business plan is a really essential document for creating your business. But even before writing this important document, it's essential to ask yourself some questions. There are certain mistakes to avoid when writing your business plan. Thus, it will force you to ask yourself some questions such as:

• Who are your consumers or customers and how do you plan to communicate your products or services?
• How many customers do you expect to have during the successive years of your activity?
• What resources do you need to trigger the creation of your business?
• What will be the various obstacles you might encounter? What do you do to overcome them?

Know that the business plan must absolutely be appropriate to your business, to its structure, its content as well as your wishes for its development.

Always try to remember this: the business plan is the showcase of your business for your investors.

Step 6: Choose the legal form of your business

The legal form of your business will have an impact in terms of taxation, liability, social regime and remuneration, which is why the choice must be thought through and adapted to your project.

There are 2 types of independent activities:

• sole proprietorship (self-employed as a natural person);
• company (with or without legal personality).

Each formula has advantages and disadvantages to consider such as:

• The tax regime;
• the type of activity;
• equity capital;
• the financial contribution of associates;
• the nature of the activity carried out;
• creating your company alone or with others

Step 7: Don't forget to draft your articles of association

This step is also really important when creating a business. Know that the articles of association constitute the backbone of your business, since all the rules relating to it are laid down there such as the determination of hierarchies, the corporate purpose of your business, its contributions, the amount of your share capital, the registered office of your business, its company name, etc.

The articles of association resemble a company contract. They must therefore be established in writing. It is strongly advised to establish articles of association in a fairly short manner and to complete them by writing a shareholders' agreement, since changing the articles of association is a very complex formality, which must be avoided at all costs if possible.

In order to carry out the drafting of the articles of association, as well as the shareholders' agreement in proper form, and which perfectly corresponds to your expectations and your future business, it is recommended to consult a professional in the matter.

And you, have you already created your business? Perhaps you needed help with the creation? Has this article helped you see things more clearly? Come share your experiences and impressions in the comments, we'll be happy to answer you. Don't forget to come test our online invoicing software for 15 days. If you have questions or need tips, you can also contact us.