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Your Step-by-Step Guide to Starting a Westlake Area Business Within an 8-Hour Day
Offer Valid: 10/13/2022 - 10/13/2024If the only thing holding you back from starting your business is a lack of time, you may be happy to hear that you don’t need much of it to bring your ideas to life. With a bit of determination and the right resources, you can establish a promising small business in just eight hours. Use this guide from the Westlake Chamber of Commerce to get started.
9:00 am – 10:00 am: Identify Your Million-Dollar Idea
You don’t have to have a product to have a successful business. Rather, all you need is a skill and the means to market it. Ideas of the types of businesses you can start in a day and with little more than a passion and knowledge include consulting, transcription services, copywriting services, online marketing services and professional organization.
10:00 am – 11:00 am: Set Manageable Goals
Your goals should fall into two main categories: monetary and lifestyle. What kind of money do you hope to make from this business? Will it be a side gig, or do you hope for it to turn into your full-time job? When setting goals, use the SMART approach.
As for lifestyle goals, consider how much time you want to dedicate to your business as it grows. Do your goals for business ownership involve more free time and flexibility, or do you anticipate working 80-hour workweeks to make major change happen fast? Ascertain what you want from business ownership so you can start building a realistic framework.
11:00 am – 12:00 pm: Choose a Business Structure
Of the five main types of business structures you can choose, an LLC may offer the most benefits for your budding business. An LLC is easy to form via a business formation service, which is great for saving money upfront (just be sure to read service reviews first). It also offers several tax benefits, personal liability protection and considerable flexibility. Finally, it requires minimal paperwork, which is a bonus for you and the environment.
1:30 pm – 2:00 pm: Set Up a Bank Account
Ideally, you will keep your business income separate from your personal funds. While you can always open an account with your existing bank, consider the best business banking accounts for fees, interest rates, support and lending.
2:00 pm to 4:00 pm: Identify Your Ideal Customer
One of the most important things you will do when starting your business is pinpointing your target audience. For your business to be successful, you will need to know who your customers are, where they hang out, how they prefer to communicate, how they live, what problems they have and more.
4:00 pm – 4:30 pm: Put Out an Ad for Help
You cannot do everything on your own, and you shouldn’t try to. Use this half an hour to put out an ad for help. Types of help to look for include website developers, social media managers, copywriters and brand developers.
4:30 pm – 5:00 pm: Invest in the Right Tools
Before you close shop for the day, check out helpful business management tolls. There are dozens of free or low-cost tools that can help with everything from managing a team to organizing paperwork. For example, a PDF merging tool can help you keep all your documents in one place and make them far easier to manage. If you need to know how to combine PDF files, it’s a simple three step process using merge tools. Just drop the files you want combined into the drop zone, arrange them, and select Merge.
Start Your Business Day
From identifying your million-dollar idea to forming an LLC to downloading helpful tools, you can do everything you need to start a business in a single business day. Take your morning to set up the technical aspects, and use the afternoon to generate interest through marketing using tools like a PDF merger. Don’t use lack of time as an excuse any longer — build your dream life today.
If you’re ready to grow your business with the help of great local resources and partnerships, join the Westlake Chamber of Commerce.
This Hot Deal is promoted by Westlake Chamber of Commerce.
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