When most people are looking for business tips, they tend to focus on things you do after you’ve started your business. Today, we’re taking a different route and considering some of the critical things you must do before you go ahead and start a company. All of these things will have a significant bearing on your life as a business owner!

Run Multiple Tests

It’s easy to think you’ve come up with a brilliant business idea that will make you loads of money. It’s also easy to tell a few of your friends and family this idea and have them all saying it’s fantastic. In reality, you won’t know how good your idea is until you run multiple tests. This means you need to get focus groups together, hand out surveys, and do as much as you can to run your idea by loads of different consumers, to see if it’s good or not. You will find that your original idea for a business model will change quite substantially after you’ve received feedback from consumers. Now, you’re in a much better position to move ahead with a startup idea that you have confidence will succeed.

Protect Yourself

Realistically, there’s a good chance your small business can run into complications. There’s not a very high small business success rate, but that doesn’t mean you’re doomed to fail. Everyone has a fair shot at being a success, so don’t automatically assume you will fail. Having said that, it just makes sense to protect yourself and your assets in case things go wrong. You can talk to an attorney about protecting your assets, so your personal finances won’t take a hit if your business goes bust. Hopefully, you’ll never have to worry about this as your business will be a huge hit. But, if the worst happens, you’re prepared and protected from it.

Assess the Risks/Rewards

Starting a business is no easy feat at all. Even if your company is a success in the sense that you are getting plenty of customers and making sales, you could still struggle to earn a significant enough profit. Think about it, you have loads of expenses to pay for before you end up with some money to take home to the bank. My suggestion is that you weigh up the risks and rewards of starting a business. Are there too many risks and not enough rewards? If you’re currently settled in life with a good job that you’re enjoying, does it makes sense to risk starting a company? The current economic market has a lot to say here as well; are local businesses all struggling to earn profits? If so, is it worth even starting a company? Sometimes, it’s better to not take a risk and to hold off until you’re at a stage in your life where the risks aren’t as great, and the potential for rewards is greater.

If you have an idea for a new small business, then make sure you do these three things before you even think about gaining funding and everything else that follows.