The Ultimate Checklist to Launch a Startup

If you spend every free moment daydreaming about prototypes and product designs, it’s time to start thinking about founding your own company. But how do you turn an exciting idea into a successful business? Follow this step-by-step checklist to launch your startup!

1. Research Your Business Idea

Coming up with a business idea is easy. Coming up with a good business idea? That's a challenge. Yet, perhaps an even bigger challenge is distinguishing the good ideas from the not-so-good ones.

How can you tell if your idea for a business is good enough? Here are five signs to look for.

No one else is doing it

“What are you doing that nobody else is doing? What ideas do you have that nobody else has? ”

Peter Thiel, the billionaire entrepreneur and venture capitalist cofounder of PayPal and Palantir, wants to know what sets you apart–and what you’ll do to protect that uniqueness from imitators. “Every moment in the history of business only happens once,” says Thiel, adding that “the next Mark Zuckerberg” won’t found a social network, the next Bill Gates won’t found Microsoft, the next Elon Musk won’t build a Tesla.

Before you get wrapped up in an idea, pull out your smartphone and do a thorough search to find out if it already exists.

Someone else is doing it … but not like this

If you find it does, do not give up on your inspiration too hastily. Perhaps there are ways to improve on the existing product? Can you do better than everybody else? Could the market be satisfied better? If you answered "yes," be bold and get ready for the success you envision because the best ideas are transformational, not incremental.[B1]

It solves a problem

Instead of a great idea, what you really need is a problem to solve. Google made search better. Amazon simplified online buying and selling. Netflix solved on-demand streaming media. Uber is trying to make on-demand car service better. What can you make smarter or better?

It fills a niche

Is there a market for it? Before you jump right in, you need to establish if there is a market for your business, and whether this is big enough to make the venture a success. Any market with less than 10 million people or multiple billions in annual revenue is not worth your time. E.g. if you won a $100m market, you would still only have a ~$10m business.

Not only do you need to work out whether there is sufficient demand for your offering, you must also determine what marketing, pricing and business model will work for your target market. To do this, you need to find out as much information as possible about your potential customers:

• who they are

• what they buy

• why they buy it

People say it’s a good idea

One simple way to find out if your business idea is worth pursuing is to ask people — specifically, people you don't know — whether they think it's a good idea. Some simple ways to test your idea on the public? Contact friends of friends to get impartial opinions about your product or service. Or create an online survey on SurveyMonkey and push it out on social media. You can even set up a table on the street and ask passer-by for their thoughts.

Sam Bruce, co-founder of Much Better Adventures, a travel company that pairs ski enthusiasts with the right chalets for their skill levels and budgets, went straight to Trafalgar Square in London with a mock and asked 100 people if they would use it and why when deciding if he should go for it whole hog.

It does well at trade shows

Many entrepreneurs create a prototype or minimum viable product (MVP) and test their new ideas at trade shows. These exhibitions for businesses in a specific industry attract prospective customers who can give you valuable feedback about your product or service.

Chen from Trendlift said that when he launched his company's first products — Fishbone Charging Station — at Startup Launchpad Hong Kong (an annual hardware tradeshow and conference), it was a resounding success. The experience enabled Chen to conduct valuable, firsthand research on the customers he was targeting. Distributors and retailers helped him formalize his pricing better and he better understood the marketing support and product packaging that buyers were looking for.

2. Figure out the cost

Work out how much you need to get your idea off the ground. Create a checklist of expenditures. These tips can help you get started:

• List the equipment, furniture, supplies and people needed to operate your business.

• Itemize startup costs for inventory, signage, research and product development, licenses and permits, operating capital, and legal or professional fees.

• Calculate your monthly overhead for rent, supplies, utilities, business and health insurance, taxes, Internet access, shipping and other services.

• Factor in your salary, employee wages, benefits and payroll taxes.

• Include any pre-launch advertising and marketing cost, such as printed materials, promotional products, and paid for advertisements.

3. Pick a funding strategy

What’s your startup funding strategy? Bootstrapped? True Angel? Super Angel? Venture Capital? There are lots of things to consider before deciding what funding strategy is right for you and your startup. Check out this infographic by Grasshopper!

4. Pick kickass name for your business

A great name can make your company the talk of the town — and a terrible name can doom it to obscurity and failure. Imagine if you go into a VC or angel meeting with a crappy name, they will look at it the same way they look at you unshaven with a stain on your shirt: that you lack focus and attention to detail. Ideally, your name should convey strength, value, connection or friendliness. Here are some of the key attributes for an effective startup name:

• Stay away from a name that is long or confusing. Great examples of simple names: Airbnb, Trello, Uber...

• Choose a memorable name. So, how do you know if your name is memorable? You don't. That's why you need to test it. Tell people your company name and see if they can recall it a few days later.

• Make sure your name is available. Do Google searches and make sure you can secure the domain name for your website, the trademark is not taken and the name is available on all the social media sites before you adopt the name.

• Pick a name that will stand the test of time. Following the trend blindly makes it harder for you to stand out. Do you really want to wake up five years from now and have a startup name that you're kind of embarrassed of and likely going to want to change?

5. Land a perfect domain

Visit a domain registration site (i.e. the WHOIS database of domain names) to see if your business name is available; if so, claim it right away so no one else can use it for their website. It’s a good idea to register any close variations of the name, too. At one-stop sites such as Web.com and GoDaddy, you can not only register your domain name, but also build a website and access online marketing tools.

Be sure to skip the new wave of domain name suffixes. Even though the standard .com can now be replaced by virtually any word, including .coke, I don’t recommend it yet for startups. While these may sound attractive, they still don’t have full recognition by most customer segments.

6. Incorporate your startup

Imagine you’ve spent the past 2 years building a startup from the ground up, watching it grow and become a success. Now imagine that somebody who barely contributed to the project claims to own 40% of the company. This horror story is a reality for many founders who don’t incorporate their startup soon enough. To the question “when to incorporate my startup?” the answer is simple: the earlier the better. The shareholder agreements, bylaws and other corporate documents lay the foundations upon which a startup can thrive.

7. Apply for an EIN

If you plan to open a corporate bank account or hire employees, you must get an employer identification number (EIN). This is equivalent to a social security number for individuals. The form you will complete is called a Form SS-4. The easiest way to file the form is online at the IRS website.

8. Open a business bank account

It’s all too easy to use your personal bank account to pay for business expenses, but it becomes a gnarl to untangle later. Simplify taxes and bookkeeping (and stay on the IRS’s good side!) by opening separate bank accounts for your business. And keep your credit card purchases separate as well.

9. Set up your accounting system

Now that you have your bank account set up, pick a bookkeeping system. Start as you intend to go. Few things will doom your business faster than books that are a mess. It’d be a good idea to get an accountant as, according to a 2013 Sage Survey, most of the successful entrepreneurs interviewed brought on an accountant when their business was still really young -- 53 percent reported doing so right then started up. A good accountant will help you keep your books zeroed out, and you on top of your money.

10. Get your business licenses & permits

You may need one, if not several, business licenses for your startup, depending on your industry and where you are located. Most licenses are at the state or local level. Even if you operate a home-based business, you can’t run away from obtaining a business license. Here in the United States, the SBA has a helpful business license and permits tool.

11. Find an office space

Will you run your business from your home, a storefront, shared workspace or a commercial office? If you don’t have a brick and mortar or retail business, then hold off renting an office as long as possible to avoid saddling your startup with lease payments. Otherwise, sharing space with another company is also an ideal solution. It saves money not only on the office rent, but also on the cost of common areas like kitchens and bathrooms.

12. Choose a web host

As a startup, you are most likely counting your pennies as you read this. Even though most startups don't need a large website, it is the platform that establishes your brand and serves as a main access point for reaching customers.

Check out the simple guide below to help you decide on which web hosting company to choose.

Price

Jumping on the cheapest offer you see isn’t necessarily the best idea, especially if you rely on your site to make money. We get what we pay for. Things like non-outsourced support and quality hardware cost money, and a hosting company that charges $5.99 per month likely won’t offer these features. Take a closer look at the features that each host provides, and THEN compare prices.

Storage & bandwidth allowances

If you’re hoping to host an e-commerce site, rich content, and videos, then you shouldn’t go with the cheapest hosting package you can find. A cheap hosting plan probably won’t have enough disk space and bandwidth to serve all these needs. Look to see what how much storage and bandwidth are included in the package.

24/7 Tech support

When your site goes down, can you call up and get a real, live person on the phone? And, more than that, can they find out what’s wrong and fix it, or at least tell you what to do to get your site back online? All we want is someone who can throw us the lifesaving rope instantly when we press the S.O.S button.

Multiple Add-on Domains

Domain names are cheap – so cheap that it is hard to resist not owning more than one. According to a survey, 80 percent of the voters own more than five domains. To accommodate these extra domains, we need extra hosting space. This is why it is important to have a web hosting account that allows adding multiple domains.

Script support

One consideration is the hosting company's built-in support for popular web

scripts. Some hosts offer built-in script packages that make the installation of this popular blogging platform a breeze. Unless you are signing up on a specialty web host like WP Engine and Pressidium, else these basic features (Cron Jobs, Auto Script Installer, .htaccess, and SSI) are MUST-HAVE.

Servers

If you’re a newbie, it’s always best to start with a shared hosting. But, if you expect your website to grow really big in the next two years, then you should consider picking up a web host that allows room to expand to the next level once your resources are capped on the current level?

Reviews

Reviews can be excellent in evaluating web hosts because any fly-by-night host can put up a professional-looking webpage and make bold promises. Do a Google Blog search for a particular hosting company, or look them up on Twitter – whatever you have to do to see what their customers are saying about them.

User interface

A user-friendly and functional hosting control panel is very, very important. It doesn’t matter if it’s a cPanel or a Plesk or a third party control panels, as long as it is user-friendly and come with all the necessary functions. Without an adequate control panel, you will be left at the mercy of the hosting tech support staff – even if all you need is some basic server changes.

Get your website up

Get your website up and running as soon as possible. It’s your opportunity to distinguish yourself from your competitors while also promoting your value and offerings to current and potential customers. Even if your product is not yet built, you can start with company information.

14. Get active on social media

Decide which social media platforms are right for your business and its audiences then start connecting! Also, it’s important to reserve your brand as a profile name. Try Knowem, United Domains or Claim to reserve the names.

15. Assign responsibilities to co-founders

If you have a partner, you are bound to have fights. 62% percent of all startups fail due to co-founder conflict. It’s imperative that you decide who will do what up front. Be sure to establish in writing your working agreement, as well as ownership shares..

16. Build a great team

Even if you think of yourself as a one-person operation, you'll need a team of support people to help you create a successful business. A small company can't afford to carry deadwood on its staff, so start smart by taking time to figure out your staff needs before you begin looking for job candidates. Keep in mind that you may have to register with the appropriate State Agencies or obtain Workers Compensation Insurance or Unemployment Insurance (or both) if you need to hire.

17. Get the word out

Despite popular opinion, if you build it, they will not just come. You've got to get the word out and keep working your contacts in order to attract customers to your new business. Create a thoughtful customer-acquisition plan and marketing strategy, then execute it.

18. Track everything

Finally, make sure you’re gathering data on what’s going on. Use Google Analytics or relevant software to track your webpage and email marketing metrics. Analyze where your traffic is coming from and what are the most popular forms of content or topics, and then do more of those.

On the other hand, check your offline marketing metrics as well. Since you’ve set up a landing page that is unique to each offline marketing campaign, you can easily track traffic and form submissions to see how you’re doing.

Conclusion

Launching a startup sure isn't easy, and there's a lot of work to do. Now it's time to open your doors to more opportunities and much success as an entrepreneur.

Are there any other steps you'd add to this list? Let us know in the comments below.