Hello Everyone,

I have a great idea for starting up a new business. I have the name picked out and the general idea for my small business. However, I am absolutley clueless on how to get started. There are a million questions running in mmy head like where to hire employees, where to order supplies, how to go about payroll, insuranse, liscense etc. etc. If anyone can take the tim eto help out just to give me a general blue print, I would be so greatful.

Sincerely,
Nichole

nichole

Hi Nicole,

It's a daunting task when you're trying to start a business without any background knowledge, not to mention a huge leap of faith, but keep telling yourself "If thousands of other clueless people have done it before me, so can I".

1. First of all, it's a really good idea to write yourself a business plan. This is useful not only so <i>you</i> know where you want the business to go in the future, but it shows banks or investors or even suppliers that you're serious about how you run things.

2. It takes a lot of time to research what you need in terms of licensing and registrations etc. I had a crack at a small online business once and all I remember is scanning through pages and pages on the internet and writing a lot of emails to people asking questions.
Where do you live? I used to have a small online business in the state of ACT in Australia. I researched what and how much I could and couldn't stock in my own home, plus (not that this applied to me but was interesting to note) I found out I wasn't allowed to have a store front for people in my house because it broke some of the rules for stock storage and parking accessability for customers.
There should be a government website for your state that deals specifically for business start ups, and should also tell you about tax do's and don'ts. It may even have links to government funding.

3. Register your business name (it may cost a little bit, I think mine was only about $100) and register the type of business you will run. After all, you could be a supplier, a partnership, a sole trader etc. You should then receive a business registration type number which will allow you to register with suppliers.

4. Find other business similar to yours and ask if they could point you in the direction of a good supplier. Some businesses are quite willing to help. If not, the internet is virtually a HUGE database of suppliers willing to trade. Business2business marketplace websites are set up specifically for suppliers looking to sell their wares at wholesale prices to business owners. An example is http://www.alibaba.com

Because I only ran a very small online business (an not very successfully because I wasn't passionate about the product), I only have this much advice to give. If you need to rent or buy a shop front there will no doubt be other rules and regulations involved with that, which I unfortunately cannot help you with. Like I said, search your local government website. It's usually a good starting off point.
Hope this helps a little.