Making the decision to start your own business can be one of the most terrifying you will ever make. After all, as The Wall Street Journal writes, 75% of start-ups fail. With the U.S. Small Business Administration estimating start-up costs at approximately $30,000 a pop, the prospect of a failed business is frightening for personal and financial reasons.
Even with the odds being what they are, starting a new company, whether it’s a mobile cafe business or otherwise, doesn’t have to lead to failure. With smart financial planning and successful business ideas from those in the know, you can greatly elevate your chances of making your business part of the 25% of start-ups that find success.
Four Successful Business Ideas for Start-ups
- Consider Franchising
- Focus on One Thing at a Time
- Don’t Jump into an Over-saturated Market
- Set Clear Business Goals
According to BizCommunity, starting a new business within the framework of an established franchise can lend credibility and brand recognition to your start-up. While acceptance into a franchise can be tricky, only an estimated 4% of applicants are approved, it can streamline the process from start-up to sustainable business. Take, for example, famous mobile coffee franchises. There’s a reason you see them on every street corner and know who they are just from their logo.
When starting your own business, the temptation to get in too deeply off-the-bat often proves too strong for new entrepreneurs. As Forbes suggests, this often leads to a lack of focus in all parts of the new business. If you’re trying to branch out, build your storefront, source product, and market yourself all at once, chances are one of those things isn’t going to receive the attention it needs. Subsequently, learning to focus on one thing at a time is one of the best successful business ideas you’ll ever get.
One of the worst things you can do as an entrepreneur is launch yourself into an over-crowded market, or a market where there is no demand for your goods or services. Money Crashers writes that having an innovative take on your business, even if it’s a business that your city already has in spades, can save you from this potential pitfall. This means brainstorming exciting ways to set your business apart from similar companies and then finding ways to put that plan into action.
If you learn nothing else from this list of successful business ideas, make sure you learn this: no business without goals will ever be successful. Charles Gaudet of Fox Business News rightly suggests that setting up strategic goals and working toward them everyday is the only way to make yours a sustainable business. That being said, you have to be prepared for the reality of things. Circumstances will change and crises will arise; that simply means you need to be ready to adapt your goals.
Deciding to become an entrepreneur is not a decision to be made lightly. Failure and financial upset are very real possibilities. With these four successful business ideas, however, you can give your new company a fighting chance.
