Starting A Home Inspection Business – Considerations For Your Small Business
A start up or new business is an undertaking or project undertaken by an inexperienced entrepreneur to research, develop, and test a scalable business process. There are many different types of start up businesses. A start up can be a business that was started from scratch in a commercialized setting like a shopping mall or an office building. The start up could also be a business that has been established in some small or medium-sized industrial sector prior to commercialization. Often the term start up is used to describe any business which is not publicly traded or one that is less than two years old.
The most important characteristic of a start up business is marketing. Advertising is an essential step to success for any start up business. It is also the most expensive. In order to compete in today’s market it is necessary to attract attention and get the word out about your start up business. A business that fails to effectively market itself will not have a chance of survival. Whether you are advertising online, through direct mail, newspapers, phone, or television, the key to effective advertising is experience, training or licensing.
Another important characteristic is finance. If you are starting out with limited capital or no capital at all you will have very few options to raise capital. Your start up investment will need to be financed by a lender if you are planning on expanding your venture into a profitable enterprise. Whether you are planning to purchase additional equipment, rent a space, or buy office furniture and lease office space, your financial planner will help you plan your start up budget.
While the cost of start up often exceeds the monetary value of your start up business, the importance of good legal structure is often overlooked by startups seeking capital. Without a sound business plan your venture capitalists may reject your business proposal altogether. However, without legal structure there is no set process to follow when filing for venture capitalist funding. Thus, your business plan will need to include a detailed description of your product or service, an identification of your market, a detailed business plan, a detailed financial projection, and a list of current and future liabilities. The venture capitalists will evaluate your business based on the information in this section alone.
There are a number of factors which determine the capitalization of startups. The most common factor is the risk aversion of start ups. This is because venture capitalists are highly motivated to make money and they do not want to take a high percentage of risk in order to receive a small portion of the potential profits from a start up business. Thus, they will typically invest in a more mature business model or one that is well established and has a number of years of successful history.
Regardless of the risk aversion of the startup, the other key factor which determines start up capital availability is experience, training or licensing. Often times, start ups will seek out companies or individuals with extensive experience in their field of business, as they have the knowledge base to help guide the business through its start up phases. On the other hand, venture capitalists will be interested in companies or individuals who have the legal system, marketing, technical skills and other general business knowledge necessary for developing a successful business model. Startups looking for venture capital will also likely have some experience or training in these aspects of their industry as it makes little sense for a start up to go into business without it.
In addition to experience, training or licensing may also be needed for some start up companies. For example, while start up costs for obtaining a patent are relatively low, start up costs for starting a business that needs employees can be very high. Moreover, if start up companies expect to expand within the first two years of operations, the amount of money needed to pay employees can quickly add up. In these cases, start up companies will almost certainly require a business plan with detailed expansion possibilities.
Start up companies that are seeking patent protection should also seek help from professionals who have experience in obtaining patents and working with third party entities to do so. These professionals will also likely want to expand their business beyond their current field of expertise and into new industries. As a result, the amount of start up money a company requires will depend on the number of future clients that the business hopes to attract. Even though starting a home inspection business is relatively inexpensive, it is important to realize that it may need a significant amount of start up capital in order to expand into other sectors and have substantial growth potential.