Before starting a business, one must consider start-up costs by budgeting finances from personal savings, friends and family, or loans. A business plan should then be made that outlines the type of business - whether it be a franchise, buying an existing business, or starting from scratch. Location and competitors are also important factors, as the business should be in a busy area and offer products competitors do not. Insurance, licenses and registrations, legal obligations, research, marketing, staffing needs, and technology choices must all be addressed to lay the foundation for a successful new business. Compromising on any of these critical factors could hamper the business's growth.

1. Some Factors to Consider before Going into Business
Start-up Costs.
Before starting a business, you must consider your financial situation. It is a
good idea to over budget rather than under budget. The rule of thumb is to
consider 3 scenario.
• Consider your personal saving (including re-financing).
• Friends and family (including inheritance).
• Business loans from financial institutions (including banks, finance brokers
and other loan companies putting into consideration their different interest
rates).
Now having decided where the finance will be coming from, we can now
move on to the next stage which is organizing a
business plan.
Business Plan.
The next stage is to have a business plan. For any business to
succeed, it must have a plan as to what type of business, and the
three main types are,
• Franchise
• Buying into an existing business
• Starting your own business from bottom-up.
But whatever decision you are considering, always consult
qualified and independent business advisers.
Competitions.
It is very important in any business to know who your competitors are and
what your competitors are doing. Similar business spies on each other. This is
the only yardstick you use to evaluate your business and its success. Then you
can implement things differently by looking for products or things
your competitors don’t have in other to have a competitive advantage or a
stronger hold on the market.
Location.
Another important aspect of a successful business is where the business is
situated. If for example you are planning a small beauty salon business, it will
be unwise to open your business in a place where there is little or no traffic. A
busy shopping center will be an ideal place though not all the traffic are there
because of your business, but one or two might duck in for a quick facial or
manicure.

2. Insurances.
In any business, what you need apart from making profit is rest of mind. And
the only way you can guarantee rest of mind is to fully insure your business.
There are many types of insurance policies, and to know what your business
need precisely, it is better to speak to a couple of insurance companies in
other to ascertain the type of insurance cover that best suit your business.
Registration & licenses.
In any business, you will need some sort of licenses, accreditations or
registration from either government agencies or affiliates. And the
registrations varies from one authority to another. And this also depends on
the type of business structure you are considering. Be it Sole Proprietor,
Partnership or Company, you will need to contact the relevant authority in
your state or territories.
Legal Obligations.
It is crucial for business to know their rights and the type of laws that
applies to their business. There are also some obligations and responsibilities
that comes with the right to own a business. For any person considering a
Partnership business, it is important to know that while it is not compulsory
to enter into a formal contract with your business partner, but it is possible
for things to go pear shape very quickly if business does not go according to
plan. A well-documented contract will go a long way to help Partners if they
want to go their separate way. Conversely, a company must display its name
prominently at every place at which the company carries on business that is
open to the public. This is because any prospective customer can identify your
business as legitimate or legally registered.
Research.
For a business to be successful, you have to research the products and
services you are offering. Even if it means offering free samples for people to
test and the level of acceptance. The feedback you receive from various
parties will be the yardstick you use to weigh the level of acceptance.
Researching a product or service can be pretty difficult and expensive, but a
more accurate results can be achieved if it is given to a professional
organization to manage after cost is taken into consideration.
Marketing.
In business, marketing is an integral part and a successful marketing
campaign can yield massive sales. But the cost and the time have to be
factored into the business. The importance of marketing cannot be
overemphasized, this is because the tools you use is very important.

3. Some of these tools are as follows,
• Radio and Television
• Social media like Facebook, LinkedIn and various social network.
• Business Directories in your local area.
This is where you draw a random sample of your targeted population and
how many people you need to reach in these random sample. The
effectiveness of your campaign will give a reason for your customers to
contact you and become repeat customers.
Staff/Manpower.
• Any business requires efficient manpower to succeed. The staff needs to be
carefully chosen since they are the ones who could make or break the
business.
• The cost of manpower varies depending on the location of the business and
thus this needs to be factored well. The business needs to be set up in a
location where there is sufficient availability of manpower both skilled as
well as unskilled.
• This remains one of the key criteria’s whether the business is going to be
run with a staff of 2 or 2,000.
Technology.
• It is always better to invest in the best technology at the time of startup
itself. Post investment, monitoring of the technology purchased is
required. Technology would include plant & machinery as well as latest
office equipment. One should not exclude the software required to monitor
the business. Choosing optimum software is a challenging task. A
technologically advanced business is expected to perform much better in
the longer run.
Don’t settle for less
All the above factors are important to start a successful business.
Compromising any of these factors could hamper the growth. Starting a
business these days is very challenging and an all-round knowledge of
various factors is required to run a successful one. It is important to make a
Project Report on the basis of the above factors before starting a new
business.