Starting a business is not as easy as it sounds. The smallest misstep can cause your dream of entrepreneurship to come crashing down. Fortunately, Gus Dahleh is here to provide a detailed guide on how to start a business in 2020. This will help avoid many of the most common mistakes and put you on the right path to a successful enterprise.
This guide will focus on the critical aspects of starting a business, including a foundation, management, planning, operations, and more. It’s worth noting that too new business owners tend to miss some of the steps discussed here, which can be lethal for their budding operation.
Table of Contents
Step 1. Develop a Business Attitude
The first step to starting a business is obviously to have the right attitude. Without that, no amount of market research, preparation, or backing will prevent failure. Or, at the very least, less desirable results.
By business attitude, this pertains to how you look at costs and return. How you judge taking risks. And how you follow market trends and consumer habits. Those are natural thought processes that a business person would have, Gus Dahleh notes.
Step 2. Be Thorough With Your Research
With a business attitude, it becomes quite a bit easier to know what to look for when conducting market research. You need to identify your target demographic, your niche, your products and/or services, your required capital, and many others.
When looking into those matters, you need to be stupendously thorough. Go through the details with a fine-toothed comb. Leave no rocks unturned. If you need assistance, go ahead and get it.
You must have a fine understanding of all the relevant details before even thinking about going into business. At the very least, there should be no critical information that would confuse you.
Step 3. Build a Solid Business Model
A business model will be the framework of your entire enterprise. It is what will guide your decisions, influence your operations, and determine your objectives. Having a solid business model is half the battle.
This is where you pour all of the data that you get from your market research into action. Using the information you gained, you can create a business model that works. It needs to be adaptable, easily implemented, and forward-looking, Gus Dahleh explains.
Step 4. Create a Prototype and Proposal
The next step is to create a prototype of the product or service you want to offer. You will need to draft a proposal, at the same time. This is necessary for two reasons.
- To determine the feasibility of your venture.
- To present to potential business partners, investors, and financial institutions.
Step 5. Conduct Tests
Once you have your prototype ready, it’s time to conduct some tests. This will iron out any remaining issues and will also help refine your business model some more. The data you collect from this test will also go a long way towards convincing financial backers.
Step 6. Market Far and Wide
It’s incredibly important to spread the word about your product and business before it opens. Use every resource that you can access. Social media, streaming sites, Google, newspapers, and whatever else.
Hype and excitement are useful for gaining exposure. If done right, it can be a self-reinforcing cycle that will make your business more prominent.
Step 7. Establish Business Relations
Aside from business partners and investors, you also need to create connections with people, groups, and establishments related to your niche. This includes suppliers, talent agencies, marketers, and more. If, for example, you own a property, you might have been approached by a wireless carrier representative to possibly build a cell tower on your property. Terabonne suggests getting help from a team of experts that can help with all aspects related to cell tower lease negotiations to ensure a stress-free process. Establishing connections with people who can help you carry out your business plans is critical.
Networking is an effective way to lay down the groundwork for future plans, Gus Dahleh notes. Even if it is months or years down the road, when your connections already know about you, concluding deals can become smoother.
Step 8. Assemble a Crack Team
Once your business reaches a certain size, you won’t be able to run it on your own. So instead of waiting until the last minute, it would be best to assemble a competent team ahead of time. It doesn’t need to be big since you’re just starting out.
The reason for this is two-fold. One, they will make the operation more efficient. Two, they will gain experience and improve their skills, which they can then teach to new personnel that you will eventually hire.
Step 9. Launch with Huge Fanfare
When it is time to open your business, make it loud and visible. Announce the launch to the utmost limit of your budget. The more people know that you are operational, the more customers you can bring in and impress early.
Step 10. Predict, Adjust, Evolve
Once your business is operational, you never stop learning and researching. Markets and trends always change. In order to survive, you must stay ahead of the curve and keep adapting.
Don’t get bogged down by sentiments or emotional decisions, either. If something is not contributing to your business in a positive way, cut it off, change it, or find an alternative.
About Gus Dahleh:
Gus Dahleh is a real estate entrepreneur who specializes in commercial real estate development with a primary focus on distressed assets. Since 2010, Dahleh has acquired over $50 million of commercial real estate assets and entered into long-term leases with JP Morgan Chase Bank, AT&T, Walmart, Sam’s Club, and Cubesmart.
Gus Dahleh has also developed a niche in the cell antenna industry by selling lease revenue to publicly traded REITS which include American Tower and SBA Communications Corp.
Gus Dahleh began his financial markets career as an equity options trader at the Chicago Board of Options Exchange. Gus Dahleh has developed proven option strategies for the U.S. 30 Year Treasury Bond and Gold Futures based on seasonal and technical patterns. Gus Dahleh has a proven track record for providing direction on how to maximize the value of commercial real estate and financial market investments.
For more information, follow Gus Dahleh through his Social Media links Linkedin, Twitter, and YouTube, or visit Gus-Dahleh.com for more information.
