While many life changing events are not willed, some significant events are a matter of choice. Starting your own business is once such decision with the potential to dramatically transform your life for the better.

Stepping out of the world of traditional employment by pursuing your own business venture takes guts, commitment and an unwavering belief in yourself – even when times are tough.

There is a lot of uncertainty and little sleep involved in starting your own business. These tips will give you every chance of success.

And sleep.

Create a business plan

The first step in starting your own business is to write a business plan. This plan should be created to not only clarify your business direction to yourself, but also with the vision of convincing future investors of your business’s potential for profit.

Your business plan should include the following sections:

An executive summary: an overall outline of your business concept, monetisation, financial requirements, history and present position.

A business description: a thorough analysis of where your business will be positioned in the market, how your product will be delivered and who your target audience will be.

Marketing strategies: a description of how you will reach your market, the market size and possibilities for expansion in the future.

A development plan: an overview of the process for your product creation.

An operations plan: an outline of the structure of your business – how many staff will be necessary to get your business off the ground? What will the responsibilities of each role be?

A financial plan: a prediction of the fiscal outlay you plan to make on your business, when you expect to make this money back and how you will do it.

Remember, if you feel unsure about a specific section of your business plan, don’t gloss over it with the intention of sorting it out later. Before you invest time and money into starting your own business, you need be certain of your business viability and direction. Make sure that every aspect of your plan is thoroughly thought out.

Click here to access some useful business plan templates provided by the Australian Government.

Understand your competition – and how you will rival them

Does your business idea offer something new? Who are the major players in your field? How will you pull customers from these dominating forces and create your own client base?

These are big questions that you must be able to answer before starting your own business.

While your product may be of superior quality to competitor’s, it takes something special to persuade consumers to step outside of what they know and give your product a try.

You need to be sure that you can be competitive in the pricing of your product, and that you can garnish enough popularity through marketing to generate profit.

Use networking

Remember all those connections you made in a previous position? Or that friend who seems to know people in high places? Well, now is the time to call in as many favours as possible to get your business off the ground – you’ll be surprised by how many people you know once you give it some thought!

It is also advisable to take advantage of every networking opportunity you come across –  look into any events, expos or even online communities for businesses in your region. Connecting with like-minded business people in your area will give you the opportunity to learn, allow you to enhance your profile and help to increase your credibility as a business operator.

For readers in the Sunshine State, Queensland Business Group is the perfect place to start.

Investigate grants and funding

Although the Australian Government generally doesn’t give grants to businesses that are starting out, they do fund ideas, events and business ventures that benefit the local community.

So while relying on a grant to fund the initial construction of your business may not be realistic, investigating grants that you could be eligible for down the track can allow you to set some long term goals and to start planning your proposal early.

Click here to visit the Australian  Government’s search engine for business grants.

Get Online

There is no doubt that the internet is the future of business. Advertising, contact with customers and even businesses themselves can already operate entirely through online platforms. As such, it is important to create as much visibility as possible in cyberspace when starting your own business. This doesn’t just mean building a website – it also means jumping on the social media bandwagon and utilising guerrilla marketing to give yourself as much visibility as possible.

For more information…

The Australian Government has a wealth of reliable information on starting your own business – click here to visit the site.