The best way to shatter the glass ceiling is to get out of the building. Only then can the sky be the limit because you won’t just be an employee, you’ll be a business owner. You will be able to start and manage your legacy, and that is one of the most powerful, liberating things anyone can do.
There are, of course, hoops to jump through. Rather than trying to gain favor, however, you need to prepare legally, financially, and logistically. Every business will vary in what you need to succeed, yes, which is why you will first want to cover your bases and ensure you qualify and have obtained everything you need to legally even start your business:
A Strong Business Plan
Any business plan is only as good as the research you do. You need to find out:
- Legal requirements for setting up your business
- How to market your business
- What your competitors are doing
- How your competitors have failed
- Demographic research
If you need help, you can take a business course or hire an advisor to help you develop a thought-out business plan and model that will grow and thrive.
The Right Tools
You need tools that help automate many tasks in your business so you can compete with larger, more established competitors. A good way to do this by using cloud-based applications that are available on a monthly subscription, also known as SaaS. This way, you can spread out costs and benefit from the automation features of top industry tools.
Ample Insurance
Ideally, you should have insurance for every single process and aspect of your business. Some insurance policies will be a “just-in-case” precaution, and others are legal requirements necessitated by your state. Failing to have certain types of insurance, like workers comp insurance for small business, could result in fines or even jail time.
It makes sense. Small businesses cannot afford the compensation necessary to cover loss of income, medical bills, pain and suffering, and all other associated costs with an injury. You will go bankrupt without it, and your employee or customer will be out of luck and be forced to suffer financially themselves.
Workers comp insurance, general liability insurance, private liability insurance, property insurance, product insurance – the list goes on.
To keep your insurance policy low, it is a good idea to opt for a packaged deal from one provider, so you can have all the coverage you need and only must deal with one price and one provider.
A Plan for the Future
If you wish to succeed, then you need to plan for success. Part of this is using the right tools so that you can expand seamlessly, yes, but often, the barriers to progression will be in new legal changes to your industry.
Laws change yearly, and not keeping up to the changes that affect your business could put you at risk of breaching the law. The justice system doesn’t care if you were not aware of it and trying to play catch-up after the fact can be very expensive. Instead, stay up to date, and even outsource to specialists like business accountants or advisors to benefit from their expert knowledge without hiring in-house.
