How to Start a Business: Step-by-Step Guide for Female Entrepreneurs

Looking for a step-by-step guide to start a business?

This detailed post will walk you through how to start a business step-by-step.

You’ll see how to become an entrepreneur from clarifying your business idea all the way to launching your business.

This post is the most comprehensive guide you’ll find with details and examples about the following:

• Getting clear on your business idea

• How to build a brand, write a business plan, create a marketing strategy, and much more.

• How to figure out who your ideal client is.

• How to build a business around your life and not a life around your business.

• Exactly what to research so you don’t miss any important parts.

• A detailed strategy to launch your business so you can create positive momentum going into your first year in business.

Bookmark this post for continued guidance on how to start a business that lights you up inside. Welcome to the world of female entrepreneurship!

How to Become an Entrepreneur

At Founding Females, we celebrate the many ways women bring unique strengths to small business, like fierce intuition, heart-warming connection, and emotional intelligence.

These special traits are part of what make women capable of even the toughest feats.

As you begin to think about starting your business, let’s leverage what has already made you successful in life and apply it to your new business idea. 

As a woman who juggles countless responsibilities, it’s how critical to build a business around your life and not a life around your business.

You don’t need yet another thing setting your life out of balance. We’ll talk about creating a business with flow and one that lights you up inside.

'How to Start a Business' Book

The information inside this post closely aligns with the book I wrote to help female entrepreneurs start businesses called, “Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business.” Inside its pages, I get into insanely clear detail about how to bring your dream business to life.

Dream, Build, Grow: A Female's Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business

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The easy-to-understand business book guides readers to learn exact steps to bring their dream business to life. Guidance includes steps to take in the very beginning of the startup phase all the way to turning your business in a real thriving and profitable business.

Inside the how to start a business book for females are writing prompts and plenty of space to scratch thoughts and create plans that will make your heart leap for joy. There’s space to learn in whatever “language” speaks to your heart.

The book contains dedicated space for your ideas to flow as they come to mind. With space to pour out your ideas, you’ll build something real and fulfilling.

I designed this business book to be a journal of your ideas as much as it was an informational guide to empower you as a women.

Add to cart to receive free shipping and a signed note inside!

This post is a detailed synopsis based on my published book. However, I’ve spared few details in this post. You’ll soon see it’s the most comprehensive guide you’ll find to starting your business.

Detailed Guide for How to Start a Business

In this post, you’ll learn how to get started so you can take steps today to bring your business to life.

This post contains nearly 12,000 words written from a female perspective to empower other females to start businesses. I value our unique, often unspoken challenges and amazing strengths. This guide could very well be the most comprehensive guide you’ll find for how to start a business.

Take action: Take a moment to bookmark this post in your browser. While the post is incredibly comprehensive, it’s a pared down version of Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business.

The startup process felt messy and confusing for many business owners I know. That was my experience also. Female entrepreneurs tell me often that in hindsight, it feels like they started their business somewhere in the middle of the process. I can relate. I jumped into the middle before I had the clarity about how to start a business in a more streamlined, effective, and successful way.

That’s because many business owners missed the thoughtful planning to set them up for success. Thankfully, you’ll have all of that here. I’ll guide you through starting a business step-by-step so you can feel confident as you go through the process of building your dream business. 

This post will feel like you’re peeking behind the scenes because you’ll learn exactly how successful entrepreneurs would do it if they had wisdom from the hard-earned lessons and experience.

What you’ll read here will help you fast track the learning curve and put you on a straight path to building a meaningful business that lights you up inside.

Steps to Become an Entrepreneur

There are four important phases of starting your business:

1.     Clarify your business idea – Specific questions will help you build a more comprehensive version of the dream in your heart. They’ll also guide you to tailor your business around you so you can wake up loving the work you do.

2.     Research your business, industry, and competition – Here, you’ll gain insight about the environment around you to make the best decisions when it comes to how your business will function

3.     Build your business’s assets – This is where your idea comes to life with your online presence, business plan, and more giving your business an identity that others can recognize.

4.     Launch – You’ll learn the exact steps to take to create practical repeat touch points so you aren’t waiting around wondering why sales aren’t coming in.

Best Tips for Entrepreneurs

Sprinkled inside this post are lots of business tips. It’s natural to feel unsure when you’re new to something.

These business tips come from wisdom other business owners passed to me and from business books I’ve spent hundreds of hours reading.

You’ll gain guidance from someone who has built multiple businesses, made mistakes, and has the hindsight to know how to do it correctly.

Like this business tip…

Entrepreneur Tip

Build a business around your life and not a life around your business – This is a phrase we talk about often inside the Founding Females community. Creating processes that work with you as a unique person are important to enjoying your business through even the really hard stages.

For example, setting client expectations for when and how you respond to inquiries is important for preserving your own mental health and work/life harmony.

Take it with you! If you’d like a free printable with the business tips condensed into something you can take on the go, complete the form below and look for the instant download link after you click ‘submit.’

Business Tips PDF

*And VOILA! Your download will be available immediately after you hit “submit.”

Now that we’ve previewed what’s ahead, let’s dig into exactly how to build a business.

Phase 1 of Starting Your Business: Clarify Your Business Idea

“Thoughts become things. If you can see it in your mind, you will hold it in your hand.”

– Bob Proctor.

What’s the point of clarifying your business?

Clarifying your business idea is about creating a roadmap for your brain. The roadmap helps you see the whole picture rather than a small vantage point.

I’ve been there…The overwhelming excitement of something new makes it easy to fixate on one aspect of starting a business. The benefit of having a roadmap is to see your entire business from every angle for the best decisions possible.

For example, perhaps you want to start a clothing boutique. You feel really excited about designing the trailer you’ll use to haul your pop-up boutique to area markets. You dive straight into shopping for trailers without proper market research.

Without the proper research, you’re “putting the cart before the horse.” When this happens, it can be easy to make decisions based on the emotional pull and personal interest of designing the trailer rather than informed, calculated wisdom.

Instead, when you take the time to clarify your business idea as the first step to starting your business, you’ll be a much better decision maker when it comes to investing in the trailer and designing the brand of your business so that it appeals to the people most likely to buy from you.

Clarity Equals Faster Success in Business

Don’t worry, most people start this way and that’s why it takes most people much longer to turn a profit. We’ll make sure you’re not most people.

Creating your business blueprint by clarifying your business idea will help you see the whole picture.

Your business blueprint can and should change with time. Pinpointing a business blueprint isn’t about locking you into a specific plan forever. It’s about supporting you, as the CEO, through each step so you have purpose behind the decisions you make.

Understanding the decisions you make will help hedge the risk you’re taking to start a business.

How to Find Clarity in a Business Idea

 To find clarity in your business idea and how your business will fit snugly into your life, it’s important to answer a series of questions. Some of these questions might feel really hard, but I encourage you to push through and really reflect until you find answers you feel content with.

Questions to ask yourself when starting a business

1.     What’s your WHY? Your why is the deeper motivation (has to be more than money!) for creating your business. It speaks to the change you want to see in the world.

For example, my WHY is helping women design a life they love while running a business that lights them up inside.

Your WHY might be the positive impact you can make on clients as you enjoy the freedom that comes with starting a business from home.

Or, your WHY might be “meeting an unmet need to enhance the quality of life for people with disabilities.”  

2.     What makes your customers excited about your offering (your “offering” is your product or service)?

3.     What is the person like who uses your offering? In other words, who is your ideal customer?

4.     From start to finish, what does the customer experience look like? Think about what the customer’s life is like before he/she ever learns about your business.

Then, imagine what the experience is like to find out about your business. How does he/she research your business (i.e. a Google search, talking to friends? Browsing your website)?

How does he/she decide to buy (based on price, unique characteristics, or something else)? How does he/she feel while waiting for the purchase to arrive?

5.     What transformation does your offering help your customer make? Remember, the customer really cares more about the transformation your offering promises rather than having product or service itself.

6.     What are your non-negotiables when it comes to your time, customer dynamic (i.e. can they call you on the weekends?), and other priorities?

7.     How will you build a business around your life and not a life around your business? To figure this out, think about your non-negotiable priorities.

8.     How will your day-to-day schedule differ when running your business than what it is now? How will your habits need to change when this happens?

9.     Is the timing right? Do you have the mental bandwidth, monetary resources (or access to resources), and help to make it happen? If not, what about your life must shift for the timing to be right?

10.  What does success look like to you? Time freedom? Making a positive impact on your customers? The ability to pay yourself on your terms?

Tips for clarifying your business idea

• Think through the entire journey a customer will take as they interact with your brand and put yourself in their shoes.

• Take several other perspectives and imagine what their perception and experience is like with your brand. For example, consider how the following might talk about your brand: an expert designing your brand, your supplier, your parents, a friendly, supportive competitor? These perspectives will help you step out from your own personal lens and step into the vantage point of others, giving you a more comprehensive way to view your business.

• Think about the uncomfortable place your customer is before he/she has the need you meet met. How might you write about your offering to accurately convey that your offering meets his/her need? *Hint* It’s important to have an expert’s understanding of their lifestyle – we’ll build that out in the sections ahead.

• How has your customer felt disappointed by competitors’ offerings and how can you tweak your offering to better meet your customers’ need?

Becoming an Entrepreneur

As you can see, diving deep to be well informed is important as you bring your concept to life. Finding clarity in the beginning stages of starting your business will lead to wiser and more efficient business decisions throughout your journey to start and grow your business.  

Clarify your business concept recap

• This stage of starting your business is about better understanding the why behind the business you’re about to start.

• This means looking at your life, needs, and priorities and shaping your business into something that will flow smoothly with you as a person.

• It also means looking at your business concept and clearly understanding how to deliver your offering competitively and efficiently in a way that satisfies your customer.

• The questions asked within this phase will help you see your exciting business through a new lens so you can make the best decisions possible as you build your business.

Now that you’ve gained clarity around your business idea, let’s dive into the second phase of starting a business: Research. Having a defined list of exactly what to research will provide a straight-forward path toward starting your business.

Phase 2 of Starting Your Business: Research 

My ideal client is in the very beginning stages of building a business.

I even have a name for her: DIY Dolly.

Dolly has endless ambition and spends lots of time researching what the shift into business ownership will be like for her.

Sometimes she asks Google the questions in her heart and other times she scrolls Instagram taking note of the person she aspires to be like.

She craves flexibility and freedom. She’s ready to be her own boss and she’s willing to take the risk to bet on herself. If this sounds like you, that’s because I’ve performed countless research to be connected with exactly you!

Understanding the constant dialogue in your ideal customer’s mind is a key strategy to building an offering that creates transformation for your audience. Your brand promise will eventually be to lead your ideal customer from where he/she is now to where he/she wants to be.

That delivery of transformation will give your business the traction and growth you’ll need to build something exceptional.

Business Research for New Entrepreneurs

One of the ways I’ve built a business that reaches my audience so well is by developing a detailed understanding of the life of a woman who begins a business. I deeply understand her unique challenges, the wishes in her heart, and her motivation behind starting a business.

I have gained this insight in two ways.

First, I started as DIY Dolly. Literally, in 2015, I was her. I entered an intense period of research about how to step outside the norm to start a business. I grabbed every free download I could find. I obsessed over my tiny little savings to see if I could make it work.

Second, I know Dolly so well is through well-constructed research. That’s what I’ll guide you to do, too.

Knowing who you’re selling to is just one example of the important data-gathering you need to build a business that will last.

In this phase of building your business, you are intentionally seeking answers to questions that will inform your ability to build something significant. Lots of unknowns come with building a business.

How to Prepare to Start a Business

That’s why Phase 2: Research helps you identify exactly what questions you should be asking as you prepare to start a business that lights you up inside.

This business startup phase is about having a defined list of what to research so hit the sweet spot that will propel you forward.

It’s easy to go overboard and use research to avoid taking action (it happens all the time because research feels productive). At the same time, a defined list will ensure you don’t miss any vital steps to starting your business.

How to Research a New Business

There are eight critical steps you need to take as you start your new business. Those steps are:

1. Create your ideal client avatar (sometimes called a “buyer persona”)

2. Trial your offering

3. Find your female entrepreneur community of support (don’t skip this step!)

4. Perform competitor research and industry research

5. Figure out startup costs and ongoing costs

6. Choose a business name

7. Choose your legal structure

8. Secure permits and licenses

Let’s get started researching your new business…

Create your ideal client avatar

Many new entrepreneurs assume “any” customer is better than none. I would agree, any customer is better than none…but that’s not why you create a client avatar. 

Full transparency: I was there once too. I resisted narrowing to a certain ideal client because I thought that would mean excluding customers when I was desperate to get my business up and running.

But this is also one reason why my business didn’t thrive as soon as I’d hoped. I call this the “before it worked” stage.

Two things can be true: You can define your ideal customer and you can decide to take on a customer who doesn’t fit that exact avatar if you choose.

The Benefit of Having Ideal Client Avatars

Having ideal client avatars helps you develop a message that resonates with a specific kind of person. It’s not because you have to exclude customers who don’t align with that exact avatar. 

As people in a digital world, we consume countless messages every day. Our brains must filter out what’s important and what’s not important. We filter out information we feel isn’t relevant to us. A message developed for a certain kind of person helps your message pierce that tight filter.

How to Grab Your Customer’s Attention

A message that speaks to your ideal customer’s life in specific ways will grab their attention repeatedly, developing familiarity and a greater likelihood that they’ll travel through the buying cycle to become your paying customer.

We’ll talk more about the buying cycle ahead. For now, just know there’s a psychological process we humans travel before we buy, which is called “the buying cycle.” It’s a fantastic marketing tool!

Back to grabbing your audience’s attention: If your message never passes through their filter, your audience won’t consider your offering as a solution for their needs.

If you can’t develop a message around the important context of their life, you’re far less likely to 1) gain new customers and 2) keep the customers you have.

Entrepreneur Tip

Keep in mind the person buying your offering and the person using your offering could be very different people.

A simple example is kids toys. Most of the time, the target customer is the parent who buys the toy for his/her child.

It’s important to recognize that women have the vast majority of buying power (I learned this from Bridget Brennen’s fantastic book “Why She Buys”).

With women having around 80% of the buying power, this means your target audience is most likely a female. Women even tend to make the buying decisions when it comes to typically male-dominated items like pest control and cars.

How to Use Ideal Client Avatars

You’ll use the client avatar’s details in meaningful ways in your business like creating your brand, choosing your writing tone, pricing your product, choosing a location, and much more.

Again, anyone can buy from you. Creating ideal client avatars isn’t about determining who can’t buy from you.

It’s about creating nuanced messages that are most likely to resonate with a specific kind of person based on their unique life circumstances and the way they experience the need you meet with your offering.

Create Your Ideal Client Avatar (Free Tool)

 In my business, I have three ideal client avatars. I call them DIY Dolly, Passionate Pearl, Full-Scale Fiona. Now it’s time to create your ideal client avatar(s). Download this Client Avatar Matrix to create avatars that are a good fit for your offering. I’ve included examples of my three avatars as a guide for you.

This tool will help you pinpoint meaningful details about your customers’ lives so you can create a strong marketing message fit for the exact type of person best suited for your offering.

Take it with you! If you’d like a free client avatar matrix to make figuring out your ideal clients a breeze, complete the form below and look for the instant download link after you click ‘submit.’ This tool will help you pinpoint meaningful details about your customers’ lives so you can envision who the person is you’re building your business to serve.

*And VOILA! Your download will be available immediately after you hit “submit.”

How to Do Market Research for a Startup

Now that you know how to design your ideal client avatars, it’s time to move on to the next step in your market research: Trial your offering

Trial your offering

The best way to see if your business idea will work involves putting your business concept out into the world in the most realistic way possible.  

“Trial your offering” means become a curious observer to see how your customer talks about, thinks about, uses, and values your offering. Many times our expectations for our customers’ needs differs from how they actually experience them.

Convincing someone to buy your offering starts with the experience they want, not the experience you think they want. 

Testing your business idea will help to you tap into insight so you can develop several aspects of your business later on, including your brand, location, offering, and relationship with your customer. 

How to trial an offering for your new business

Surveys

Surveys can be beneficial because they’re time-efficient. They can be tailored to the specific information you want to gather.

Keep in mind that people often answer surveys from an “ideal” viewpoint rather than how they would behave if given the opportunity. That’s why it’s important to ask questions about how survey responders have behaved in the past, rather than how they would behave in a hypothetical situation.

Remember to survey only people whose experience matters to your offering (revisit your ideal client avatars). It’s not useful to survey a sample of people who wouldn’t use your offering.

When selecting your respondents, keep in mind important details like gender, buying power, and experience with an offering like yours.

Interviews

Interviews are similar to surveys and an effective way to gather detailed information from people you believe are most likely to use your offering.

Even better than surveys, interviews allow you to tailor the conversation with follow up questions important to providing even deeper insight into the behavior of your ideal audience.

Many “start your business” programs suggest interviewing 100 people or more to gather sufficient data to make decisions. In an ideal world with unlimited time and money, securing 100 interviews would be wonderful. The reality for women is that our resources are extremely limited.

My suggestion is to aim for as many interviews as feels like a healthy stretch for you, paying close attention to quality over quantity of respondents.

Offer the product or service at a low cost in exchange for constructive feedback

I don’t believe female entrepreneurs should work for free - ever. With that said, gaining valuable insight from seeing how someone actually uses or interacts with your product or service can be invaluable.

Consider offering the product or service at whatever it costs you in exchange for access to the golden insight and a more accurate understanding of someone’s experience.

Observe people using an offering like yours

If you can’t interact with someone using your offering, consider positioning yourself to observe customers using a competitors’ offering. The insight you gain won’t likely be as nuanced as direct interaction would be, but you could still gather important data to inform your own business decisions.

That’s a wrap on trialing your offering

Through trialing your offering – the second research step – you’ll gain feedback that will help you create the product or service and the business your customer actually wants, rather than the offering and business you think they want. This important step alone could be the difference between a “meh” business  with “meh” sales and a wildly successful business. It’s time to talk about finding your female entrepreneur community.

Founding Females Business Bootcamp

Do you feel like tailored guidance would be helpful as you build your business?

Consider the Founding Females Business Bootcamp. The Bootcamp program is a 6-week intensive where you’ll receive tailored guidance with a community of support. The Business Bootcamp covers all four phases: Clarify, Research, Build, and Launch. Plus, you’ll get 6 1-hour group coaching calls, a template of resources, and encouragement each time you hit frustrating snags.

Find your female entrepreneur community

“You can tell who the strong women are. They are the ones you see building up one another instead of tearing each other down.” – Anonymous

The next piece of research you need to do to start your business is finding your support system. I’m certain you’re up for the challenges that come with building a business. That’s why you’re reading this article.

It’s hard to imagine, however, just how difficult building a business is in the beginning stages. Picture this…

Imagine running out of cash and feeling unsure how to keep going.

Imagine finding out the name of your business and domain you claimed are infringing on someone’s trademark and you must start over…after two years of building your business.

Imagine needing to a banker or attorney you can trust but need a referral from someone with experience.

Imagine going a whole year without sales and having no idea where you’re missing the mark.

These are very real challenges female entrepreneurs I know face. The answer? Turn to your community of support. Having a warm community of people who deeply understand what it’s like to build a business can help you through any entrepreneur challenge. A female entrepreneur community is the anecdote to quitting.

Entrepreneur Tip

Start your business surrounded with a community who gets what it’s like to do something out of the ordinary.

Most people go through life worrying about what others think, staying in the bounds, and making decisions about what will get them liked the most.

Entrepreneurship isn’t always like that. It can feel like no one understands your struggles when you step outside the norm all by yourself.

You’ll find there’s a gap when you try to share excitement with family and friends who aren’t business owners. I’ve been there. It’s really disappointing.

But when you’re with a community of people who are also making the decision to do something hard, you’ll be uplifted and feel motivated to keep going.

Not everyone is wired with the ambition in your heart, so find your tribe who is wired that way. You are unique and you’re looking to create something that never existed before. Surrounding yourself with people who are inspired by bringing value to the world through business.

Female Entrepreneur Community

Your community of support could look like any of the following:

• In-person Meet Ups local to your geographic location – Founding Females offers local Meet Ups of female entrepreneurs, or you could start one of your own.

• Women’s mastermind group – A woman’s mastermind group is an organized group of women who meet on a regular basis to discuss ideas, ask questions, and seek support.

• Women’s business-related groups – Women’s business groups like NAWBO (National Association of Women Business Owners) or Women in Leadership are great places to seek support and be part of something bigger than yourself.

Craving community is in our wiring as female entrepreneurs. It’s why I created my very first mastermind group several years ago. I was craving a safe space to share knowledge and wisdom with other business owners. I wanted connection with like-minded and like-hearted women.

Now, I’ve seen incredibly growth in myself by being part of a community of female entrepreneur. Our Mastermind at Founding Females is called the Founding Females Mastermind.

Inside the private space with desktop and app access, we have specific business topics we use to deep dive conversation that are important to female entrepreneurs. We have a beautiful balance of accountability and engagement so women can learn and grow as a business owner and person.

You’re in the perfect place to lean into community as you grow your business with our Founding Females women’s business mastermind community. It’s a pillar to the resources we provide for women looking to start, build, and grow successful businesses.

Now that you’ve got the details on exactly how to create your ideal client avatars, trial your offering, and find your female entrepreneur tribe, let’s move on to researching your competitors and your industry. 

Research your business’s competitors and industry

There’s a delicate balance between researching other companies and carving your own path without outside influence. Be aware that the purpose of competitor and industry research is to gain awareness and inspiration. The goal is not to replicate what already exists.  

What to consider as you perform competitor research

Researching competitors isn’t about having a competitive mindset toward other female business owners.

At Founding Females, a rising tide lifts all boats. Many “competitors” I know find creative ways to collaborate and support one another, even though they’re technically in direct competition. They have an abundance mindset knowing there’s enough success to be had for everyone.

When they collaborate, both companies draw a bigger and more qualified audience and show their true, empowering nature. It’s authenticity customers appreciate.

Why it’s important to research your business competition

With that said, researching your competition means staying aware of how businesses like yours meet customer expectations to to help you understand how you might enhance your business with each passing day.

As you research your competitors, review the specific characteristics listed below about your competitors to understand the alternative options your customers have to choose from while making a buying decision. When they’re buying, customers go through a process called “the buying cycle,” which we’ll talk more about in Phase 3: Build.   

In one of the phases of the buying cycle, customers tend to compare two or more businesses’ offerings. That means your customers will be comparing your offering to your competitors’ offerings to find out which is the best fit. It’s one of the ways people aim to lessen the risk that comes with spending money.

By knowing what alternative experiences your customers can choose from, you can develop competitive advantages what make your offering more appealing and a better overall experience.

Competitor research involves evaluating the following:

• online presence,

• brand personality,

• pricing,

• value proposition (the value customers see in their offering),

• competitive advantage (how they gain an edge over competitors), and

• customer reviews.

Keep a spreadsheet so you can compare your top three competitors. Knowing what’s already available will help you create a unique space all your own within your industry.

Research your business’s industry

Your business industry is the larger ecosystem your business fits into. Often there are trends and similarities within an industry that tend to affect how you run your business.

For example, the availability of chips affected the car manufacturing supply chain. Trends like these tend to impact many competitors.

Your industry is also where you can find emerging trends that will impact how you do business. For example, a new emerging technology like artificial intelligence could really shift how competitors within an industry do business.

Having an awareness of what’s going on in your industry and the changes taking place will help you build a business set up well to weather upcoming shifts.

Researching your industry is also a helpful way to make sure you’re able to keep costs down. Sourcing goods from new suppliers or investing in a platform that manages many separate tasks rather than several platforms that each handle a single task is a great way to impact overall profitability.

Entrepreneur Tip

The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) is valuable a small business resource. Many cities have their own SBDC, especially cities with mid-sized to large universities. If this is applicable to you, it might be worth reaching out.

Often the SBDC has access to databases with highly reliable industry information. You can tell your SBDC representative what you’re looking to find out and he/she can pull accurate information for you based on criteria like what you’ll find below.

Here is a short list of what to research about your industry to get you started:

• How many competitors are in your industry?

• What kind of market share can you expect? (Market share is the portion of total business one particular business has)

• What do profit margins look like for the industry? (Profit margin is the amount that revenue exceeds costs. For example, the restaurant industry is notorious for having low profit margins of 3-5%. That means 95-97% of what restaurants make goes to covering rent, food, labor, and other costs.)

• What new technology is in the works?

• What upcoming trends are impacting the industry?

Now that you know how to perform competitor and industry research, let’s move on to figuring out how much it will costs to start and run your business.

Figure out startup costs and future costs in your business

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Cash is king”? It’s a well-known phase used in the business ecosystem to mean having cash accessible in your business provides flexibility.

That’s because running out of cash is the number one reason businesses fail.

Having cash on hand can provide flexibility as a business owner because it will allow you to solve challenging entrepreneur problems or cover your expenses during down periods of business.

Compare having access to cash in your personal life. For example, the general recommendation is to keep three to six months’ worth of cash for an emergency.

The padding of having cash gives you flexibility to stay afloat even if something life-altering happens, like job loss, totaling a car, or having a medical emergency.

It works the same in business.

Business Startup Costs

Knowing how much it will cost to start your business and keep the doors open is vital to building something that will last. It’s important to know startup and on-going costs, but beyond that, having a soft cushion of cash for emergencies is vital.

Consider what startup expenses will help you open the doors to your business. Examples for a mobile boutique include but certainly aren’t limited to a trailer, inventory, point of sale software, establishing your business as an LLC, and purchasing a printer.

Business Costs

Next consider which recurring expenses will allow you to keep your doors open. These expenses include monthly website service, Canva subscription, email marketing platform, seasonal inventory, and membership in the Founding Females Mastermind. A complete costs spreadsheet comes with your copy of Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business.

Did you know? Free business templates, like a complete costs spreadsheet and business plan come with your copy of Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business written by me, Francie Hinrichsen.

The book guides readers to understand how to bring their dream business to life including steps to take in the startup phase all the way to turning your business into an asset. Purchase your copy on Amazon or on the Founding Females website (choose this option for a signed copy).

How to Pick a Business Name

When I started my first business in 2015, naming the business felt like the trickiest part of the startup process. It seemed like no business name I “tried on” felt on-brand.

I spent countless hours researching, plugging words into the thesaurus, and agonizing over finding the right fit.

I wish I could say I loved the name I finally chose, but almost a decade later, I don’t. I took away some hard lessons learned that I’ll share with you here.

When it came time to name Founding Females, I felt the same dread creep back. I teamed up with my brand designer and outsourced the task to her. Personally, I think she nailed it and it was one of the best investments I made.

If you’re having trouble choosing a name, a brand designer’s creative brain might do the trick.

Important Considerations When Choosing a Business Name

When it comes to choosing a business name, here are some important considerations.

1. Copyright Infringement - Make sure to choose a business name carefully so you don’t infringe on existing copyrights. If you establish your business as a legal entity, it’s important you don’t choose the same name as another business in your state. The IRS website can help you do that.

2. Descriptive - Next, try to choose a name that is descriptive of your offering. For example, I chose “Simply Integrated” as my virtual assistance business name, which really didn’t clearly convey what my services were. When I introduced my business, I had to first say the name and then talk about what kind of service I actually offered. Let’s say you’re starting a cyber security company, naming your business “Lock and Key Cyber Security” would tell customers exactly what you do. If your business name doesn’t clearly explain what you do, you’ll have to spend marketing dollars first educating your audience about what you do. If your name clearly conveys your offering, you’ll be able to focus marketing dollars on why your services are a good fit for their needs, more efficiently moving customers through the process of buying from you.

3. See how it feels - Try your name on. Write it under a pretend email signature. Practice introducing yourself as your business name in the mirror. Tell close family and friends about the name you’re considering so you can see if it feels “on brand” for you.

4. Consider the length. You’ll write your business name countless times when you sign up for events, submit proposals, and in your email address. See if you can keep it as succinct as possible so it looks and fits into an email signature or URL easily.

5. Consider whether the URL is available. Warning! Don’t search the availability of URLs inside a domain name registrar until you’re ready to buy. I’ve heard horror stories of people who snatch URLs up in searches in a domain registrar like GoDaddy, only to hold it hostage so the buyer pays much higher fees. If you search for a URL you love, be ready to buy it.

Choosing a business name is a very personal process. Now that you have important considerations in mind, let’s move on to researching your legal structure.

 Business Legal Structure

I could dedicate an entire post to choosing a legal structure for your business. The entity you select affects many aspects of your business, like hiring, taxes, and annual paperwork. I am not a lawyer and the information you find below is for information purposes only and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for a more comprehensive review of choosing a legal structure for your business, order your copy of Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business and dive into Phase 2: Build, Step 6: Get Legal Like Elle Woods. For now, we’ll cover the basics of what you need to know.

If the legal aspect feels overwhelming, you aren’t alone. This is a common step in starting a business many small business owners hire an attorney to complete. We cover “building your team,” including choosing an attorney, in more detail in Phase 3: Build, Step 1: Assemble Your A-Team coming up in the next phase.

FYI If you choose a sole proprietorship, your tax ID will be your social security number. Registering your business under any other legal entity will establish a new tax ID also known as an EIN (employer identification number), which you’ll need for some business activities like hiring employees, securing licenses and permits, opening a business checking account, and filing taxes.

Most Common Legal Entities

Sole Proprietorship

A sole proprietorship is one of the most basic forms of legal structure. Should you operate a business and not register your business as a legal entity, it will be considered a sole proprietorship as a default.

With this legal structure, there is no separation between which assets and liabilities are the business’s and which are yours personally.

While this structure can work well for low-risk businesses, the owner is personally responsible for debts and obligations of the business, along with any legal suits brought against the business.

Limited Liability Company (LLC)

An LLC allows business owners to benefit from some of the advantages provided to corporations and partnership structures, including tax rates and protection from personal liability. This is the legal structure I chose.

With LLCs, profits and losses are passed through as personal income. LLCs are the most common business structure as they are relatively flexible, inexpensive to set up and maintain (in most cases), and offer a clear boundary between business assets and personal assets.

Limited Partnership

A partnership is appropriate when there are two or more people who own a business together. The two kinds of partnerships are limited partnerships (LPs) and limited liability partnerships (LLPs), with the difference being how much liability (and generally also control) each partner has.

There are important tax implications with partnerships regarding how profits are reported on tax returns.

Multi-member LLCs are usually taxed as partnerships unless you make other arrangements.

Corporation

While there are several forms of corporations, the important thing to note is corporations are legal entities separate from owners and can be held legally liable.

The differing forms of corporations include C-corporations, B-corporations, close corporations, and nonprofit corporations.

S-corporations are a tax designation you can select by filling out an IRS form allowing you to stay organized as an LLC, but be taxed as a corporation.

There are some increased expenses with S-corps, so check with your accountant about when it makes sense to switch to this tax election and put yourself on a reasonable salary.

Each structure is characterized differently in how profits are taxed, what kind of recordkeeping is required, the cost of forming the entity, the risk that’s appropriate, and ownership.

Since this is a complex topic and the implications of which business entity you choose are many, consider The Small Business Administration as another great resource for guidance on choosing a legal entity.

Now that we’ve covered choosing a legal entity, let’s talk through how to secure permits and license, if you need them.

How to Secure Permits and Licenses for a New Business

One last task to consider is securing permits and licenses.

Not every business needs permits or licenses to operate, but if yours does, it’s definitely not a step you want to skip.

Here are some examples of permits and licenses your business might need:

• Fire department permit

• Liquor license

• Sign permit

• Parking permits

• County permit

• State licenses

• Sales tax license or reseller’s permit

• Health department permit or food handling permit.

For specific instructions regarding which licenses and permits your business will need, contact your city’s business license department.

Having a specific list of what to research as you start your new business will help make sure you’re on track and efficient with your time and resources.

Starting a business can feel daunting and confusing. It’s one of the reasons starting a business is such a big undertaking. It’s also why not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur. When you know how to find out what you don’t know, you’ll be one step ahead.

In case I haven’t told you yet, I’m so proud of you for doing the hard work. Keep it up! Next up, we’re moving on the Phase 3: Build your business.

Phase 3 of Starting Your Business: Build Your Business

This is the phase most people jump directly into as they start a business. That’s why many new business owners feel confused about whether they’re doing it “right” – they missed the due diligence we all need to clarify a business idea and research important aspects ahead of time.

You have clarity and a defined list of items to research to inform your decisions moving forward. It’s time to take steps to build out your business concept so you can build something that lights you up inside.

In this phase, you’ll take the following steps:

• Build your team of support (*Hint* these are not employees you hire)

• Build your brand

• Create your marketing plan

• Build out your online space

• Create your business plan

Business Templates

This phase of starting your business invovles building lots of different assets in your business like your marketing plan and business plan.

Keep in mind I’ve already created templates you can use so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Digital downloads of these templates are included with your copy of Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business. Pick your copy up on Amazon or in here in the Founding Females store and I’ll send a signed copy.

This post will help you understand what details are important to include as you create these assets for your own business.

Entrepreneur Tip

Follow this business wisdom: “Build assets, not paychecks.” Here’s what that means…When you build your business, you’ll be tempted to do everything yourself. Limited resources in the startup phase push you to be scrappy and learn to new skills.

That’s a good thing in the beginning. As you grow, look for opportunities to automate your processes or outsource tasks to someone who can do it better than you.

Doing this means you’re building a business that doesn’t rely on you do to everything. When you build a business that doesn’t require you to turn every key, you’ll build something with tremendous value that can operate whether you’re there or not.

This will eventually give you freedom to be involved in your business on tasks that give you life and on your timeline.

Build Your Business’s Team of Support

The first step of building your business is creating your A-Team. Building a successful business has less to do with being everything your business needs and more to do with surrounding yourself with people who have the skillset that can help make your business successful.

Your team of support consists of people who are experts in their own fields who you can lean on to lend their support to you.

The seats on your business’s support team include the following:

• Attorney

• Banker

• Insurance Agent

• Accountant

• Graphic Designer

• Web Developer

• Business Coach

• Marketing Expert

• Mentor

• Human Resources Consultant

Depending on the complexity of your business, you may not need all of these roles filled. As you already know, business owners wear many hats, so it may be that you actually feel comfortable filling some of these roles.

However, outsourcing tasks in your business is a great way to leverage professionals’ strengths, skip the learning curve, and save time. It just might be the best investment you could make in your business, just like outsourcing the naming of my business was for me.

The best time to create a good team is before you actually need them. I know that sounds confusing. Let me explain.

Business Relationships

Relationships are everything in business. There will never be a time you don’t need them.

Let’s say you need a loan to start or continue running your business. A banker who already knows you and has developed a relationship with you is more likely to vouch for your character before the board approving or denying your loan than a banker who doesn’t know you at all.

Developing a relationship with a banker, perhaps when you create your business checking account, is a smart move that will pay dividends throughout your business journey.

The same goes for developing relationships with your entire team of experts. Pick up the phone, email, or set up an in-person interview to sit down and talk.

Opportunities come to those who develop relationships. It’s one of the best skills you can develop as a business owner.

For detailed guidance on creating your team, including questions to ask during your interviews with them, pick up a copy of Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business (here on the website for a signed copy) or from Amazon.

Reading Financial Statements

Knowing your financial picture is one of the best things you can to set yourself up for success as a business owner.

I’m not the best at math or reading financial projections, so I can understand how confusing numbers can feel. At the same time, we can’t afford NOT to know the financial picture of our businesses.

Managing the numbers in our business is a great opportunity to grow. It’s one of those uncomfortable skillsets you lean into as a business owner. Be ready to start as a beginner. Keep at it and it will get easier.

The important financial documents you need to grow your business are the following:

• Profit and Loss Statement (sometimes called an Income Statement)

• Balance Sheet

• Cash Flow Statement

• Costs Spreadsheet

This is one of those topics whose scope stretches beyond capability of this post.

I want to empower you with the tools to be financially savvy in your small business, so pick up a copy of Dream, Build, Grow on our website or on Amazon which comes with templates you can download and adapt for your small business’s needs.

Plus, there’s a chapter dedicated to teaching you how to read these financial statements and using them to keep your business in the black.

Now that you know the importance of financial statements, let’s move on to building your brand.

Small Business Branding

“Successful brands are an experience, not an entity.” – Melissa Bolton

Creating a brand is more than choosing colors and designing a logo. Designing a brand means being intentional with the nuanced details to evoke emotion around your offering.

Creating a memorable brand for your business is a non-negotiable. People will forget what you do or say, but they will never forget how you make them feel. Your brand is a chance to positively impact the way they feel about buying from you.

Develop Your Brand Identity

As you build out your brand, you’ll want to create brand standards document like a standard operating procedure that you can refer to again and again. Standard operating procedures (SOPs are step-by-step written processes or instructions which contain important details about an aspect of the company that guide decisions.).

Your brand standards are non-negotiable. They should guide every message you communicate with your audience visually, orally, or in writing.

Team members should be intimately familiar with your brand standards and be responsible for never veering from your brand standards.

As you hash out your brand, keep the details documented someplace that will be easy to share in the future. If someone has a question about how you speak to your audience or how to create a visual asset for your company, direct them to the brand standards.

What is a Brand Identity?

Here are the details you’ll want to make sure you include when designing a brand for your new business:

• Color scheme – Your color scheme is made up of three to five colors that are appropriate to the feelings you want to evoke. Exact color codes are critical.

• Logo and logo specifications – make sure you have a logo that looks high quality against a light and dark background

• Font – choose two to three fonts that appropriately evoke the emotions you want to be associated with your brand. Choose a combination that compliments each other, such as one serif, one sans serif, and a calligraphy option.

• Attributes – Brand attributes are characteristics that give your business depth, such as colorful, cheerful, minimalist, or luxury appeal. They take the emotion you want to evoke and expand a moment into an experience.

• Word choice and communication tone – How you write and speak to your audience matters. For example, do your emails read as “Hey girl, I’ve got news for you!” or a more serious tone like “…it is with deep appreciation I write to inform you…”. Make sure you’re descriptive enough of the tone that someone could learn how to write in the way you intend.

• Description of your company history – Having  a story to tell is a compelling way to help customers want to buy from you. Spend time pairing your company history with your “why.” Since our brains are wired for stories, it’s an effective way to give people a reason to care.

• Statement of purpose – What are you looking to accomplish?

• Mission – Why does your company exist?

• Core values – What values are important to your company culture?

• Big vision goals – What specific goals are you looking to achieve?

• Ideal experience – Specifically, what experience would you like every customer to have?

• Target audience – Remember the client avatar(s) you created in Phase 1: Clarify? Include those details here.

• Elevator Speech – Be able to explain what you do and who you do it for concisely, and preferably in multiple ways because that will ensure you have a comprehensive idea of why your business matters.

• Positioning – How would you describe the standards for your brand? For example, Saks Fifth Avenue, Target, and Walmart all have different brand positioning. So do Tesla, Toyota, and Kia. What’s yours?

• Feelings and emotions – Now we’re getting down to the nitty gritty. What specific emotions and feelings do you want to evoke when a customer interacts with your brand? For example, how do you feel when you hold a cup of Starbucks in your hand or browse the aisles at Target? How do you feel while wearing lululemon?

• Social media guide and policy – How should your social presence play a role in your customers’ lives online?

• Web guidelines – How often does your presence get updated? What can customers expect from your brand online?

If you choose to work with a designer, he/she can guide you through these details from an expert’s perspective. Alternatively, Canva is a lifesaver for entrepreneurs. It’s a creation tool you can use to design a vast array of visual elements in your business. Do you research first to make sure Canva is a good fit for your needs.

Entrepreneur Tip

One of the best ways to keep costs down in your business is to use the free version first to evaluate whether a tool is a good fit for you.

That means trying out memberships like Chamber of Commerce events or Women in Leadership luncheons before you pay the annual fee. It also means using the free version of tools, like Canva, to see if they’re a good fit for your needs.

How to Make a Small Business Marketing Plan

New business owners tend to think exclusively about social media when they think of small business marketing. I get that. It’s free, easy to access, and personal use makes us think we should be pros at marketing a business. However, a solid marketing strategy is much more dynamic than posts on a social profile.

In fact, many experienced business owners I know are beginning to resist being tied solely to social media because of the high price of mental health and time it takes to market a business well. It’s never been more important to build an intentional, multi-faceted marketing plan.

To create your marketing strategy, think of it like having several pieces of a “marketing pie.” This means social media can take up one slice of the “marketing pie,” but it shouldn’t be your whole marketing strategy. Your marketing pie should consist of several meaningful ways you reach your target audience all based on where they already spend time.

Marketing Strategy for Small Business

To create a marketing mix best suited for your business, first think about where your ideal clients spend time online and in person. Refer back to your ideal client avatar for this. Your most effective marketing strategy will hinge on positioning yourself where customers already spend time.

Another important consideration for marketing a small business is the concept of “repeat touch points.” It’s generally accepted in marketing that we have to create lots of touch points in order for someone to feel comfortable buying.

Specifically, it takes 7-21 repeat touch points for a lead (meaning, not yet a customer) to buy from you. Repeat touch points build familiarity and a relationship. That means your marketing message can’t always sound like, “BUY MY STUFF!!” all the time. Successful marketing happens way before you ever ask for the sale.

The Marketing Messaging Process

The conversation should first give customers a high level overview of what you do. Then give specific details as they journey deeper into the process of buying from you. Then you introduce specific calls to action to buy. After that, it’s important to continue the relationship with existing customers.

The Buying Cycle

Here’s where the buying cycle comes in. The buying cycle is the psychological process a customer goes through as they decide to buy. That looks like this:

Awareness – they first find out about you

Consideration – they consider buying from you

Purchase – they actually buy from you

After-sale – they buy from you repeatedly

Entrepreneur Tip

The people who are easiest and least expensive to sell to are the ones who have already bought from you. Paying customers have already traveled through the psychological process of deciding that your offering is worth experiencing. After that first sale, they experience less friction and “risk” than someone who has never experienced your offering before. That’s why it’s important to massage the relationship with people you’ve already sold to rather than always focus on the next new customer.

Each of these phases require intentional messaging to help the customer move to the next phase. It’s a cycle you can’t ignore if you want to earn and keep valuable customers.

Keep these basic marketing concepts in mind as you build your business’s marketing plan.

How to Write a Marketing Plan

Your marketing plan contains the guidelines for how you’ll talk about your business and offering to potential customers to guide them from lead to repeat paying customer.

Inside your business plan, you’ll outline the nuanced details for how to affectively guide leads into paying customers and through which mediums, like social media, email marketing, SEO (search engine optimization), networking, and more.

Remember that an effective marketing plan hinges on who you’re trying to reach. A blanket marketing plan aimed at appealing to “everyone” will be incredibly ineffective because it won’t cut through the distractions your audience is inundated with.

In Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business starting on page 185, I list over 20 marketing channels you can use to reach your audience.

What’s included in the marketing discussion?

“Marketing” can feel like an obscure word. When we talk about “marketing,” we’re talking about the following. Soon you’ll see exactly what’s included in your marketing plan.

• Marketing channels, such as social media, email marketing, networking events, content marketing, etc.

• Metrics you’ll use to gauge growth and effectiveness, such as conversion rate, website visits, monthly recurring revenue (MRR), followers, profitability, etc.

• Marketing budget – typically a marketing budget of 7-8% of total revenue is a good target. In the beginning stages of building a business when you have little to no marketing budget, your marketing mix might look a little more scrappy than it will as your business grows.

• Sales strategy – at the end of the day, people just want to do business with people they know, like, and trust. What are you doing to build trust and help customers feel like your brand deserves a spot in their personal life?

• Marketing roles – If you’ll outsource marketing efforts to a contractor or if you’ll hire someone internally, what do those marketing roles and responsibilities look like?

Entrepreneur Tip

Your marketing plan (and business plan, for that matter) might look differently depending on how it will be used. If you plan to apply for a loan from the bank or seek funding in some way, you’ll likely need an airtight marketing plan and business plan.

This will convey your forethought in starting a business and help justify that you’re a good customer to loan to. However, if your marketing plan will be used primarily for internal guidance, you may be able to pare down your marketing plan to a more succinct plan, like what you see below.

Single-Page Marketing Plan

A free template of the following is included in your copy of Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business.

A single-page marketing plan is a simple version of a marketing plan and could be sufficient for your needs as a new business owner. It consists of the following:

• Market research synopsis

• Marketing objectives

• SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats)

• Marketing channels

• Main marketing metrics (KPIs or Key Performance Indicators)

• Annual marketing budget

• Sales strategy synopsis

• Marketing Roles

A marketing plan will guide you in how and where you’ll position your offering. It will also include details about how you’ll talk about your offering so potential customers see why it’s a good fit for their needs.

As you can see, marketing your business is much more than creating posts on social media. It’s a comprehensive, multi-faceted plan that requires forethought and organization.

Now that we’ve covered marketing extensively, let’s move on to building your online presence.

How to Build an Online Presence for Your Business

One key to crushing it in your new business is your willingness and ability to evolve. You must grow into the person capable of running the business in your vision. This means growing pains and includes building out an online space in an ever-evolving digital space.

The online space has become increasingly inter-mingled with how we function in our day to day lives.

A sustainable business will have a good mix of developing real in-person relationships paired with providing an intuitive online experience that helps potential customers easily evaluate whether your business is a good fit for their needs.

Maintaining Your Online Presence

Keep in mind that maintaining an online presence can feel like a full-time job. The more maintaining your online presence requires you to do all the things, the more your time will be tied to non-revenue generating activities.

Being intentional about how you operate online will be important for using your limited resources effectively. For example, the average social media post lasts for days, whereas the average Pin on Pinterest or long-form blog post has a much longer half life. In my opinion, long-form content on platforms you own is a much more effective and efficient use of time.

How you spend your time matters. Become intentional about how you create your online strategy now. What’s a realistic amount of content for you to manage as a solopreneur or with your small team?

Your bulk of your online presence will consist of:

• Website, including SEO to help drive organic, qualified traffic to your website

• Social media channels

• Email marketing

• Business listings like a Google Business Profile, listings in industry memberships, and Yelp, for example

Can you see your business coming to life? Now that we’ve covered your online presence, let’s move on to how to build your business plan.

How to Write a Business Plan

Wondering what information to include in your business plan? Here’s what to consider as you create your business plan.

When starting a new business, it’s easy to get excited about the fun parts you anticipate enjoying without dedicating sufficient energy into the parts you aren’t quite so jazzed about. That’s normal, but it’s not a wise business strategy. To build something meaningful, it’s important to lean into even the challenging, confusing parts you aren’t quite sure about yet. That’s where a business plan comes in.

Entrepreneur Tip

Pour your resources into online platforms you have control of, like your website and email marketing (rather than social media profiles that can change or disappear overnight). This allows you to control the message and capture leads to remarket to them on your terms.

I’ve listed strategic tips and best practices for each of these spaces in Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business starting on page 201.

Why is a business plan important?

A business plan paints a complete picture of how your business will work.

In Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business, I shared how badly I needed the guidance when I started my business that I’m sharing with you now because I skipped the financial planning of my business altogether. Don’t judge! Six years later, I can whole-heartedly see the value in creating a blueprint to guide your decisions as your business evolves.

Just like your marketing plan, your business plan may look differently depending on how you’ll use it. If you’ll use it for internal purposes only, a simple single-page business plan may be sufficient to guide you forward. However, if you’ll be asking the bank for money or applying for grants, an airtight business plan is a must to be considered a good candidate to lend or give to.

Create a Business Plan

For the most part, you’ve already done the hard work in the previous steps for your business plan sections – YAY!

Your business plan will consist of the following list.

• Executive Summary – A concise description of your offering and the value your business provides

• Company Description – Detail what you do and who you do it for

• Market Analysis – Describe your industry, competition, and your ideal client (aren’t you glad you did this work in Phase 2: Research? Now all you have to do is copy that information over to your business plan.)

• Organization and Management – Explain how your company will operate, including its legal structure and an organizational chart of which team members answer to whom if you have employees. If you plan to consistently use contractors instead of hired employees (there’s a very important difference for tax purposes), this would be a good place to explain your standards.

• Marketing and Sales – Yay! You already did this too. Include your marketing strategy, how you’ll gain and retain customers, what the buyer journey looks like, and what your sales process looks like.

• Financial projections – Include your sales forecast and all financial documents that help show how your business will become profitable (The free digital download templates included with Dream, Build, Grow will help make this much easier!).

• Appendix – This section is for you to include graphics, charts, and additional resources to show how your business will become viable.

Free Business Plan Template

A downloadable simple business plan template is included in your copy of Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business (Grab a signed copy or order from Amazon)

You did it! You took the steps to set yourself up for success in your new business. Let’s celebrate!!

You just learned how to build your business plan. Now all you need to do is tell the world about your business with a solid launch strategy.

Next, I’ll share the exact process you can use to help your audience learn about your business, consider buying from you, and finally take the leap to buy your offering.

Let’s continue to Phase 4: Launch

Phase 4 of Starting Your Business: Launch Your Business

The strategy I’ll outline to help you launch your business is closely connected to the marketing strategy you outlined in Phase 3: Build.

The old adage “If you build it, they will come” does NOT apply to building a successful business. If you build it, do nothing, and expect customers to find out about you, it’ll be only a matter of time before you close shop.

The truth is, you must tell people about your business again and again and again to build familiarity, trust, and eventually a strong relationship with your customers.

It’s first the awareness about your business, and later the familiarity, trust, and relationship, that will convince customers to buy and keep coming back.

Making a Plan to Launch a Business

Phase 4: Launch your business is about creating a plan for your business to build repeat touch points over time to help customers feel ready to buy. That means you must start talking about your business and repeat your message often.

This process may take less work as your business becomes more established, but in the beginning it’s easy to feel like a broken record. If that’s how you feel, you’re doing it correctly.

At this point, you’ll apply the outlined new business launch strategy to bring your new business to life. Later, you can use these same principles to introduce something new in your business, like a website revamp, bringing a new team member on board, or changing locations.

In my own business and when I consult with my clients, I’m always looking for potential buzz opportunities. Buzz opportunities are shifts in your business you can create to get your audience excited and intrigued to listen to your message.

For now, we’ll walk through how to complete the process to launch your new business and generate forward momentum that can carry you through your first year of business.

Steps to Launching a New Business

The steps to launching a new business include:

• Design your new business launch – This is where you plan the moving pieces of your launch, like events, content pieces, news interviews, and your ribbon cutting

• Prep your new business launch – This is where you create and automate in advance as many details as possible, such as your email series, reminders, and social media posts.

• Execute your new business launch – Your launch will likely take place of a week’s time. You’re prep work will allow you to be present and troubleshoot in real time if any challenges arise.

Sprinkle on the compassion because this is where imposter syndrome tends to creep in. It’s okay if your email list consists of 20 of your closest family and friends. It’s okay if your Instagram account only has a handful of posts and a few followers.

Everyone starts somewhere. Don’t procrastinate until you feel ready to launch. It’s more important to put a plan forth, execute, and tweak as you go.

Design Your Launch Message

In the same way you put pen to paper to gain clarity in planning your new business, I’ll help you develop clarity around what your business launch will be like.

Designing your launch involves first creating realistic goals and objectives. Based on the marketing channels you’ve chosen and your immediate network, think about what your launch efforts might translate to in metrics.

When you begin to think about how you’ll talk about your business, remember the marketing concept of the buying cycle. Your audience will first need to clearly understand what you do and who you do it for from a high level before they consider buying from you.

They’ll need to consider buying from you before they actually complete the transaction. Your message should lead them through that process with carefully positioned calls to action.

I’ve provided in-depth examples of what this looks like inside Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business. Click to grab your copy from Amazon, Target, or from the Founding Females website (I’ll sign your copy!)

Launch Planning Tips

Tell your audience what to expect in advance. Repeat it early and often. A good marketing strategy takes weeks, not days.

Reach out to your immediate network and share the exciting news. Your circle of family, community, and friends are cheering for you and can help you build positive momentum by sharing your posts, telling others, and showing up to events like your ribbon cutting. Their help will expand your reach.

Be the hype girl – create anticipation by previewing upcoming excitement or showing sneak peeks of what’s to come.

Build rest into the schedule you’re creating. Launches can feel exhausting!

Remember, you are part of your brand. As you set the precedent for what others can expect from your business, it’s important to look the part especially now where you’re creating first impressions.

Prep your launch

One note from friend-to-friend before we move forward: Imposter syndrome is very real for new female entrepreneurs. I have been there. Imposter syndrome can keep women from taking the best steps to tell the world about their business.

Please know that you’ll get very few opportunities to make a big splash with your business like you have with your business launch, so don’t let imposter syndrome steal the opportunity. Take a big deep breath and go for it!

Prepping your launch is about taking steps to schedule or plan as many aspects of your launch as possible so that when it comes time to execute, efforts will happen automatically so you can be present and focus on engaging with your audience.

What to do while prepping your launch

• Developing a launch team – Your launch team is your circle of friends who will help spread the message. The key here is to clearly communicate your expectations are. Especially if your close circle doesn’t include many entrepreneurs, people won’t know how to help unless you tell them clearly. Define an exact list of how they can be helpful as you move through your launch season. Remember, they’re busy too, so keep the conversation flowing by popping into their inbox or text thread often.

• Create a calendar of events for the next four weeks that will include important events like a grand opening, online giveaways, a ribbon cutting, and other exciting events you can use to get your audience excited.

• Create a press kit – A press kit is a visual synopsis of your business (Canva is a great resource to create this!). Send your press kit to the actual press, as well as potential podcast interviewers, local collaborations, and your audience to help them develop an accurate concept of your business. A complete list of what to include in your press kit is included in Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business

• Content strategy – Create your content and schedule it in advance knowing you’ll be tied up with lots of other launch activities during launch week.

• Lead magnet – Through this process, you’ll create tons of buzz. Naturally, your audience will want to know more and will likely be visiting your online presence to learn more. Use this opportunity to build your email list. Incentivize email opt-ins with a small token of value like a downloadable checklist or coupon code. These are warm leads who already know about your business and want to hear more as your business develops.

Execute Your New Business Launch

Now that you’ve carefully planned your new business launch and prepped necessary assets to make it happen, this step is mainly about following through. Your launch plan likely consists of about four weeks of excitement and activities to lead potential customers through the buying cycle to consider buying from you.

You are building a business around your life and not a life around your business. Of course there will be heavier seasons of involvement and stress from time to time. Your launch is certainly one of those times. At the same time, remember to pace yourself, get sleep, and pile on the self-care during and after your launch. The excitement is real, but truthfully, after your launch ends, it’s only the beginning of your hard work ahead. At that point, you must actually serve the customers you worked so hard to earn.

Make a list of all the places you must “check in” to make sure the many different components are all working together during launch week. Examples might include:

• The venue where you’re holding your ribbon cutting

• Scheduled emails, blog content, and social media posts

• Companies you’re collaborating with

• Podcast interviews

• News stations

• The local printer responsible for creating printed material

Remember that your launch message at this point should include calls to action to buy. In the beginning of your launch period, your goal was to inform and entertain.

As you come closer to your grand opening, you’ll want to shift your language to help your audience understand how they’ll actually obtain the transformation your offering promises.

Comprehensive Launch Strategy

A comprehensive launch strategy may seem like lots of hard work. That’s because this phase of business is rich with opportunity to help create an identity in your customers minds. Putting the hard work in now will create momentum that will last through the often tumultuous first year of business.

By that point, you’ll have an entire year under your belt. You’ll allow your business to ebb and flow. As you gain more insight and clarity about delivering an offering your customer raves about, it’s a good strategy to adjust as you go. To do that, revisit the assets you created in the startup process, like your ideal client avatars, marketing plan, financial statements, business plan, and team of support.

Entrepreneur Tip

Entrepreneurship is like planting seeds: We’re well aware that planting seeds is an investment of time and care. When we add the seeds to soil and water them in anticipation of something beautiful, we know it’ll be a matter of time before we see the result. Entrepreneurship is the same way. It takes quality soil and an investment of time and resources to finally see the beautiful result of hard work. If you ever find yourself asking, “Why isn’t my business working?” remember it very well might be working.

Congrats, you’re open for business!

You did it! The big undertaking of starting a business is nothing short of amazing. Your hard work will surely help you bring something meaningful into the world. You are equipped with the step-by-step guidance to start a business and now you get to build your dream life as a female entrepreneur.

One of the many qualities that make female intuition amazing is our ability to gather information. Use the insight in this post to lead you forward into becoming an empowered entrepreneur.

Let’s revisit the tools and resources sprinkled throughout this post:

• Business Tips PDF and Ideal Client Avatar Matrix (snag them both at the opt in below!)

• Tools and templates free with your copy of Dream, Build, Grow

• Founding Females Female Entrepreneur Mastermind Community

• Business Bootcamp 6-week program for guidance to start your business

• Local Founding Females Meet Ups (join a chapter or start your own!)
  

Free Business Tools

Snag the free business tips pdf and ideal client avatar matrix.

*And VOILA! Your downloads will be available with a clickable link immediately after you hit “submit.”

To recap your hard work, let’s take a look at the steps to starting your business.

Phase 1: Clarify your business idea recap

Here, you explored how your business will work. You also looked at your motivation behind starting a business and how your business will align with your ideal lifestyle. You asked yourself important questions to gain clarity about your business idea.

Phase 2: Research your business recap

In Phase 2: Research your business, you followed an exact formula to explore information that will help you build a business catered to your needs and vision.

Here, you took the following steps to prepare to start your business:

• Designed your ideal client avatars

• Trialed your offering

• Found your community of support as a female entrepreneur

• Researched your competition and industry

• Figured out what it will cost to start your business

• Chose a business name

• Picked your legal structure

• Figured out which permits and licenses you’ll need to operate legally

These important steps set you up for success to move on to Phase 3: Build your business.

Phase 3: Build your business recap

Phase 3: Build your business is all about making it happen. Most people dive right in, but not you. You planned and designed your business. That means the work you did in Phase 3 was intentional and purposeful. Here, you completed the following to build your business:

• Built your team of support

• Became familiar with financial statements, like a profit and loss statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, and costs spreadsheet (templates are included in your copy of Dream, Build, Grow)

• Developed your business’s brand

• Created your marketing plan

• Built your online presence

• Wrote your business plan

The work you did in this phase likely helped bring your business idea to life! These are exciting steps, but you didn’t stop there because you’re smart! Last, we talked about launching your business idea. Let’s recap:

Phase 4: Launch your business

You now know the importance of carefully telling the world about your business. It’s all about creating intentional repeat touch points with your audience. You took the following steps to spread the good news about your new business:

• Designed your launch

• Prepped your launch

• Executed your launch

With this comprehensive strategy for starting your business, you can feel confident bringing your idea to life.

Don’t stop there! Come interact with other women who have taken this empowering step to design a life they love waking up to inside the Founding Females Mastermind. We can’t wait to celebrate with you!

Female business resources

• Founding Females Female Entrepreneurship Mastermind

• Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business (with free access to the resource suite)

• The Profit Plan $10 Mini Course

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Hi, I’m Francie!

Nice to meet you. I’m the founder of Founding Females®. Some call me a business sage because I love to empower female entrepreneurs to breathe life into the business dreams God called them to. 

After feeling like a misfit in the corporate world, I discovered a life I loved waking up to through business ownership. 

I’m the author of Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business, a guided journal helping hundreds of women start and grow their businesses.

I’m also a passionate entrepreneurship hype girl, female leader, public speaker, and community enthusiast. 

My MBA and 10 years in a corporate career and in business ownership positioned me as an entrepreneurship educator with forward-thinking strategies for starting and growing successful businesses.

As a community leader, I realized other women could thrive with the right guidance and support. I created the Founding Females® Mastermind Community that provides a safe space for women to build better businesses.

I believe that anyone with a dream on their heart can pull up a seat to change the world through entrepreneurship. Looking to grow your own business? Click for info about how to work with me.

About Founding Females®

The mission of Founding Females® is to help build a better future for female entrepreneurs through education, encouragement, and shared wisdom. We create safe spaces for women to share business challenges and receive peer support. 

In addition, Founding Females® offers an online female business mastermind, a how-to guidebook for female entrepreneurs called Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business, and in-person events, like an annual women’s business conference and local Founding Females Meet Ups.