When it comes to starting a business, you may find that you’re not really sure where to start. After all, there’s so much to think about, focus on, and plan, it can seem like a lot – and this can very much apply to launching your first non-profit business too. Because of this, it can be entirely normal to feel a little overwhelmed. When you first get the idea to create a company, it’s exciting. You can be full of ideas and raring to go. But then, over time, as the complexity of the issue really starts to kick in, you can begin to overthink things.
If this is where you’re at right now, you have come to the right place. Nothing really beats the idea of getting your ducks in order and knowing exactly what steps to follow to get everything off the ground. Not only that, but if you’re busy trying to juggle your career and get your business interested started, you might be short on time. So to help you, we’re now going to take a look at exactly what you need to do if you’re interested in starting a non-profit business.
Why a Non-Profit?
If you’re someone who loves to give back, have an impact, and you really want to make a difference in the world, getting into the world of non-profits could be perfect for you. Maybe you’ve had an idea brewing in your head for a while or there’s a cause really close to your heart? When this is the case, it makes sense for you to move forward and bring your dreams to life.
Choosing the Right Business
When you know that a non-profit is right for you, the first port of call is to focus on how you want to set up the business. Will it be a product-based business? Will you provide charitable services? Will you raise funds to donate? It’s important to focus on what kind of business you want to launch and how the structure will work.
Knowing Who You Want to Support
Next up, you’ll also want to know what cause you’re supporting. Is it an issue that you’ll be sending money directly towards, such as a certain community, cause, or movement? Understanding what you’re supporting, how the money will make a difference, and the impact your work will have can be an important part of the business plan. This is particularly the case for getting funding or donations.
Focusing on Fund-Raising
With that in mind, you’ll also want to know exactly how you plan to fundraise. It could be that you need a full vision of events that you’ll have, on how you’ll canvass for donations, and essentially a full sales pitch or plan that will allow you to create the revenue that you can use for donations, your chosen cause, or to plough back into your activity.
Promoting the Business
Next, you’re also going to want to focus on the marketing activity you’d like to do. As a business, you need to be able to sell yourself and what you do. Just because you’re a non-profit, it doesn’t mean that you don’t need revenue – after all, the majority of your revenue is needed for your cause (with the rest used to keep the business running). So here, you’ll want to create a marketing plan and begin executing your promotions to get your company known.
Creating Awareness
Alongside your promotions calendar, you might also want to think about how you’ll raise awareness for your cause. This is not only going to matter to the growth of your business but also for donations. You’ll want to ensure that as part of your marketing efforts, you’re focusing on driving awareness of the cause and donations as well as your business activities. Here, you might want to think about the events you can put on, alongside drives, fundraisers, and charitable initiatives.
Running the Business
So the next thing for you to focus on is how you’re going to run the business. Now, if you did get funding to start the business, you may find that you can hire a whole team to help you run the day-to-day operations. If not and you’re building up slowly from scratch, it may be the case that you’re the one steering the ship and wearing all the hats. This is where software and systems will come in. Getting financial and accounting software to help you track things, turning to budget management software for nonprofits, and choosing a great CRM and marketing tool will be a lot of help. With this in place, you’ll find running the business is more streamlined.
Making a Difference
A huge part of both launching and running a non-profit is your ability to make a difference. Everything you do within the business and every decision you make should feed back into this. Remember, you want to launch the business for a reason – and that’s usually to help your particular cause, make a difference in your community, change the world, or help people. If you underpin everything you do with the desire to make a difference, you should succeed in making that happen.
Giving Back
At the same time, you’ll want to make sure that you can give back whenever possible. As part of the business process, it’s great to be able to make a fuss and show off when you have reached certain milestones with your cause. So as you’re giving back and making a difference with your work, don’t be afraid to shout about it and look to get some good PR.
The Future of the Business
Finally, you’re also going to want to focus on the overall direction of the business and where it’s going. Now, when you first pulled together your business plan, you may have thought the majority of this out. But, if you didn’t, now’s the time to do it. When everything is running like a well-oiled machine, you’re in the best possible position to focus on the growth of your nonprofit and where you’d like to take things in the future.
