Top 5 Things to Consider When Thinking About Starting a Business

Written on May 10, 2007 by Amanda M. Gladden

This post is a result of my participation in a Top 5 Group Writing Project over at Darren Rowse’s blog. This is my first time participating in one of his projects and it have been a great experience finding hundreds of blogs I didn’t know existed! Anyway, here’s my entry and thanks for stopping by.

~~~Amanda Gladden

If you’re considering starting a business, here are five of the top things you should consider:

1. Research and analyze the target market you plan to serve and compete in

Check out industry magazines, websites and blogs devoted to your perspective niche. Sites like Entrepreneur.com, Business 2.0 and Startup Nation are full of all types of useful business start up information.
Contact related professional organizations and associations for information. Check your local library for the Directory of Professional Organizations to find listings of US professional organizations related to your niche

2. Establish a strong sense of purpose

Have a clear idea what you are offering your customer base
What will your customer expectation of your product or service? Know this and then plan on exceeding their expectations every time.
Look at your experience and background. Is this business idea something you can be enthusiastic and passionate about.

3. Establish how you will measure success

What criteria will you use. Will you consider yourself successful if you net $2000.00 month or have website traffic of x number of visitors each day
Plan your business’ growth

4. Believe in yourself and trust your instincts.

To quote Oprah:
“Follow your instincts. That’s where true wisdom manifests itself.”

Surround yourself with positive people
Be focused and tenacious but also realize that your dream business may not get to the levels you wish for overnight.

5. Choose your business name and your domain name with care

Your domain name (url) should be as short as possible, easy to spell, clear and easy to remember.
It should tie into your brand and based on your service offering so potential customers have a clear idea what you offer.
Avoid urls with too many hyphens. I have one business url with 2 hyphens. You know what? Nobody can remember it!
The other extreme is a domain name that can be pronounced in a couple of different ways. For example the site Who Represents when spelled out as a url looks like this: http://www.whorepresents.com– a far cry from the intended meaning : ) To see other hilarious url foul ups, check out this old post at Poor Excuse for a Blog.

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