Small Business Startup Checklist & Tips

A well-thought-out business plan serves as the foundation for your small business. It outlines your goals, target market, competition, and strategies for growth. Without a solid plan, you risk operating blindly and making costly mistakes that could hamper your progress. REAL TALK: Sometimes the easiest way to make a business plan is to copy someone else's–and that's okay. For example, if you know you make the best lemonade in the world, you don't really need to lay out your target market, you just need to get selling. You should know in broad strokes what your growth strategy will be: start with a stand, offer to-go jugs, go to a farmers market, open an online store, get into retail, get acquired by Nestle and boom–you're a self-made lemonade scion! Don't get hung up on your plan. Point yourself in a direction and just start right now.

Even though it may not seem like it at first, effective financial management is key to the success of any business. You need to establish a system for tracking income and expenses, creating budgets, and projecting cash flow. Without proper financial management, you may encounter difficulties in meeting your financial obligations or identifying opportunities for growth. Make sure you know your unit economics. If you're selling physical products, know what they cost to make, ship, store and deliver. If you're a service provider selling time for money, make sure you know not just your hourly rate, but your cost of living per hour, too. Since you probably don't want to work 24 hours per day, you need to bring in well over three times your cost per hour to account for taxes and other hits to your net income if you want to work an eight hour day. (Good luck with that, but it'll be fun.)

In the digital age, having a robust online presence is non-negotiable. At a minimum, you'll probably want to set up social media profiles, and explore digital marketing channels to reach your target audience. Ignoring the online world will limit your visibility and hinder your growth potential, but you don't need to go all-in on a website when you're starting out. In fact, in many cases you probably don't need a website at all to grow your business. These days, your business can be up and running online in a few minutes with a free email address like Gmail, a few payment options like PayPal or Venmo, and a mobile phone. That's it. That's all you need. There's never been a more exciting time to be a small business owner. 

By focusing on these five points, your startup or small business will be well on its way to success. It's also important to remember that these are foundational concepts that will evolve over time. You absolutely should NOT have your entire marketing strategy fleshed out by the time you're ready to sell your first dance session or land your first accounting client. There's plenty you don't know yet, so don't waste time on planning with insufficient data.  

Leverage the power of social media platforms to connect with your target audience, build relationships, and promote your products or services. Engage with customers, respond to their queries, and share valuable content that showcases your expertise. Pay special attention to new features that social media platforms roll out. The early adopters of these are often (quietly) rewarded with increased reach and distribution of their content in exchange for the creator's adoption. 

Identify complementary businesses or industry influencers with whom you can collaborate. Strategic partnerships can provide access to new markets, extend your reach, and enhance your credibility. Partnerships are all about getting reach and building trust. You don't need to have a big audience, you just need to know who does and how to best engage and enable that influencer to vouch for you to their patrons.

Deliver outstanding customer service from the start. Word of mouth recommendations can be a powerful tool for small businesses. By going above and beyond to satisfy your customers, you can foster loyalty and gain a competitive edge. This is such an underrated growth hack for small businesses because it's hard to measure word of mouth, but if you seek to make every interaction a positive experience for your customers, you will absolutely get more business. And, don't forget, repeat business is how empires are built. Make them want to come back to you, and make it easy for them to do so.  

Actively seek and listen to customer feedback. Use it to improve your products, services, and overall customer experience. Engaging with customers and implementing their suggestions demonstrates that you value their opinions. When the feedback is good, don't forget to ask for a recommendation or a referral. This is a key step in the sales and follow-up process that many small business leaders forget about. Positive reviews market your business for you. This is the power of a strong small business brand. 

Stay flexible and adapt your marketing strategies based on real-time data and market trends. Experiment with different approaches and monitor the results to optimize your marketing and maximize the impact. Agility is a superpower of small business. Did the Lakers just win the NBA championship? Offer a Lakers fan discount for calling you right now. This topical relevance will reward you with new customers who appreciate your currency in the market. The fastest and most effective way to capitalize on agility is on social media and in email. These offer direct response and the ability for you to grow your business at the click of a button. This is how you win.