What's the first step in starting your own business?

Question

And how about the second, third, and fourth step? :-)

Recommend me some good books to check out and put me in the right direction.

I'm thinking about my future and have think I might take some business classes at my local junior college and ponder at the thought of starting up my own business.

I've got a Hookah bar in mind. One's worked in my town before (they later changed it to a bar/dance club), and I'm certain it'd work again.

Answer 1

1Getting the money.

#2name of buisnes

#3build the building or rent one

#4get the supplies

#5 get employees

#6 get working

Answer 2

Your very first step is to get money

Answer 3

Lay out your business plan first. The local SBA (small business administration) will help you. Then get either investors or have the money for start up.

Then for the documents you will need to start the business account you can go to legalzoom.com

Answer 4

If a Hookah bar didn't work before, why do you think it would work now?  Have you talked to the owners to find out why they changed to a bar/dance club?  You may find that the Hookah concept was a money losing proposition from the start.

Before you go any further, I STRONGLY recommend you contact the Small Business Development Center (at your local community college) and talk to them; the counseling is free.  

Then sign up for the NxLevel Entrepreneurial program...  it's a 12 session course that walks you through the ins and outs of starting or growing your business, and as part of that you will write a business plan.  At the end of the class your plan will be reviewed by a lending professional, and will be critiqued, telling you the strong points of your plan AND the weak points.  

Then you can work on the weak points and hopefully get it into shape to actually present to a lender and get the loan you need.  There is a cost for the NxLevel program but it’s a lot cheaper than losing your investment.

Even if you hire a professional to write your plan, you should still take the NxLevel course.  It saved me from going into a business that would have failed within a year or so, taking my investment with it.  I realized by the third week of the class that I could not afford the business I was looking at and changed directions in the middle of the class.

Business plans may be a pain in the butt to prepare, but without one, your business is doomed to failure.  To start with, you won't know what your startup costs are going to be, what kind of income to expect, what your ongoing expenses are, who your competition is, and even whether or not you can make a profit.  Without a GOOD business plan, you will not be able to get a business loan to get your business off the ground.