You’ve had an eureka moment with a genius business idea. You’ve done the research to prove your value proposition. You’re ready to launch your business. Now what? Starting a business certainly isn’t easy and requires careful due diligence in every step of the process. In this guide, we’ll outline the top worries of all business owners and what you need to look out for as an entrepreneur.
Managing Cash Flow
At an early stage of a business, you may find it difficult to keep track of your expenses and budgeting. After all, for a business that has just started, it’s nearly impossible to forecast every expense that will occur. You wouldn’t want to lock yourself to a budget either – that would prevent you from taking on any opportunities that you discover as you grow the business.
Many business owners create financial plans and carefully monitor their “startup runway” – how many months a business can keep operating before it’s out of money. You may also take advantage of founder loans for startups, as obtaining a loan would be a fantastic way to kickstart your business. Founders can also take advantage of forecasting tools like Forecastr that help predict revenue outcomes as well as give access to an analyst for financial modelling.
Building a reputation
New businesses need to carefully curate their reputation to build a customer base. According to 70% of brand managers, building awareness is more valuable than sales. It’s important to build trust with your customers and build a reputation for high-quality products and services. Only after you’ve achieved this, you will be able to build a loyal customer base or what’s recognized as a moat community (brand-led communities).
In building your reputation, you will need to carefully balance your marketing presence, collaborations with other companies, and relationships with customers. By focusing on the long-term and prioritizing customer satisfaction, you will soon develop a brand reputation that will be adored by routine customers and soon-to-be customers alike!
Scaling the company
Scaling your business is certainly one of the most difficult steps of the entrepreneurial journey. At some point, you will no longer directly oversee every sale, client, or engagement. Rather, to scale, you will have to create a business model that is rapidly deployable by potential employees.
The first step of scaling is to develop a deep understanding of the current business model. Creating a business map will help you understand where you can scale your business and how to prioritize your efforts. For example, in developing the map, you will be asking yourself probing questions like “What niche am I filling?” and “What are my revenue streams?”
This is also the part where a founder could benefit from expert financial advice from a fractional CFO who has the experience of scaling businesses, helping prepare for fund-raising, or taking a company public. Fractional CFOs as the name suggests, can be engaged for the fraction of the time & cost of a full-time resource.
Competing with other businesses
As your business grows, you may find that other businesses are looking to take a share of your customer base and compete in your niche. You will always have to keep up with the competition and ensure that your business is the one that customers keep coming back to. To ensure that you stand out, you will have to keep a close eye on your competition and even learn from them too. Investing in digital and social marketing helps mitigate some of these challenges, but planning for the long run is the key to maximizing the ROI in marketing dollars.
Filing taxes
Filing taxes is a time-consuming task that requires specialized knowledge. Most entrepreneurs would much rather spend their time with customers or growing the business than get bogged down in taxes.
In most cases, accountants or CPAs help with these confusing taxes, deductions and remittances. However, there are certain tax planning strategies that could help save a business much-needed cash. These savings can be critical to new business but equally important to any business cash flow. To ensure tax compliance, business owners may consider using accounting software, staying updated with the CRA, or discussing tax obligations with an accounting firm for startups.
It may even be worthwhile to hire an experienced tax advisor. For startups, a tax advisor offers the expertise of a professional who can help with tax planning, strategic corporate investments, optimizing taxes owed and mitigating future tax audits.
Running a business is hard work that requires commitment and keeping the focus on what’s important. Working with the right financial tools, accessing knowledge pools and timely connections to experts is an excellent way to overcome many of the startup challenges.
About Accountero
Accountero helps startups and growth-focused businesses with their finances. Accountero is a ‘built for founders’ financial platform that offers digital bookkeeping on a free tech-stack, high-level reports for business owners, forecasting tools and on-demand access to professionals like fractional CFOs, tax advisors, funding experts and more, who can help with tax planning but also with SR&ED rebates and other grants. Talk to us today so we can help you to stay focused on your business growth, while our experts manage the finances.
Accountero is a tech-powered service provider offering bookkeeping, tax advisory and fractional CFO. Accountero is not a public accounting firm and does not offer services that require a public accounting practice license.