Starting your own business and choosing to live an entrepreneur’s life will be a bumpy road and there is no guarantee for anything in life anyway, but with a proper approach and extensive research, you can save yourself from lots of unnecessary stress, headaches and late night sleeplessness. That’s why we’ve made this list - to prepare you for almost anything. Let’s get right into what you need to know when starting your own business, whether you are familiar with the basics of it or are a beginner who has not much more than confidence.

Giving Your Dream a Name that it Deserves

Let’s assume you already have a basic idea of what your business might be, but knowing the direction you are heading in is just half of the battle (but also the most important one). It’s like naming your first-born: you will undoubtedly have more ideas than you know what to do with. You should check on the internet whether the name you want is already taken, and if not - awesome! Make sure you purchase the domain as soon as you can, and set up social media accounts as well. That way you will not go into a lot of planning only to find out the name is no longer available.

Also, don’t make it too long. Rather, go for something that will be easy for people to remember. Also make sure another company similar to your does not already have a similar name, and try to stay clear of punctuation marks in the domain name.

Doing Proper Research

You will need to find everything you can get your hands on regarding the field you want to be involved in. What’s more perfect than the internet to do that? Bear in mind that you can’t completely trust everything you read online, so make sure to consult more than one source.

Checking out similar businesses in your area, comparing them to similar businesses around the world could be a great place to start. Understanding what difficulties people walking in your shoes have faced can help you avoid some of the rookie mistakes every entrepreneur is bound to make. Exploring the market and your target audience can help you focus your efforts and get a clear vision of which direction you should be heading to.

Creating a Business Plan

Once you have a clear goal of what you are trying to accomplish and you are aware of the setbacks that may occur, your next step would be to create a business plan.

Some of the main checkboxes your business plan needs to fill in should be:

- Creating a space for your business (virtual or real-world, you can go for either or both)

- Setting specific but realistic goals, tasks, deadlines

- Coming up with an initial budget for the endeavor

These three points will help you stay focused on what you are trying to accomplish without rushing into things like a headless chicken. Essentially, after the first step you will have a vision of how everything should look like and it is extremely important to write your vision down in the form of a business plan. Try to be as thorough as possible, and go into as much detail as possible. That will help you recognize what your priorities are, and help you manage your time and resources better.

Everything You don’t Know, Someone Else does

You are an expert in one field, but you shouldn’t expect to be an expert in everything that will make up your daily business operations. Concentrate on the most important thing – leading and focusing on the direction of the company. Even if you are going to be a one man team for starters, you can surely still outsource at least some parts of your work, the ones you are least familiar with.

For starters, find a reliable accountant to help with the financial side of business. You can also consult a lawyer to make sure all your paperwork is in order. Unless you come from this line of work yourself, you can hardly be expected to master everything you need to know in a reasonable timeframe, as well as work on the actual business at the same time. Find people you can trust, and save yourself some stress and potential hardship.

Personal Health Advice

Nothing in life comes without sacrifice. Starting your own business will force you to give up many things: your calm, your time for yourself and your loved ones, your money. Forcing yourself too hard will have an adverse effect on the success of your project. The more you work, you will be more exhausted, and that will not be making you more productive.

Remember to prioritize your wellbeing first – even at the cost of not getting everything on your to do list done in a single day. You have to have fight left in you for the upcoming days, and burning out in your first year of business is a sure recipe for failure.