How to Go About Starting a Successful Small Business in Minneapolis

How to Go About Starting a Successful Small Business in Minneapolis

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Starting a successful small business is a dream that many people have when they discover that they’d like to work for themselves. However, starting a small business isn’t always as easy as it seems, and maintaining a business so that it can be successful can be even harder. Fortunately, businesses in Minnesota have one of the highest five-year success rates (55.3%) in the country, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Here’s how to go about starting a successful small business in Minneapolis.

#1: Choose a Business Idea and Write a Business Plan

Of course, the first thing you must do when starting a business is choosing a business idea. Most people already have an idea of the type of business they’d like to start, but it’s not uncommon to want to start a business without an idea. If you’re not sure what type of business you’d like to start, here’s a list of some of the best businesses to start in the Minneapolis area:

  • Bed & Breakfast
  • Business Consultant
  • Cleaning Service
  • Digital Marketing/Recruiting Agency
  • E-commerce Business
  • Music Tutor
  • Packaging Design Business
  • Travel Agency
  • Virtual Assistant
  • Web Design Services

Once you’ve chosen a business idea, you’re ready to write your business plan. This document will detail your objectives, how you plan to achieve your goals, and lay out the amount of financing you’ll need to get your business up and running. It can be hard to get financing without a business plan, so this is a necessary step in getting your business started.

#2: Take Care of All Legal Aspects

Once you’ve received financing from your business plan, you’ll need to take care of all the legal aspects related to your business. Without doing this, you won’t be able to legally operate your business and you can also lose a lot of money (including your entire business) in the event of a lawsuit. You’ll need to choose a business structure (e.g., LLC, corporation, sole proprietorship, etc.), get a business license, get a federal tax ID, and get various forms of business insurance. This isn’t the “fun” part of starting a business, but it’s necessary to make sure that you’re operating legally and that you’re financially protected from potential lawsuits and other things that could potentially go wrong.

#3: Create a Business Website and Establish an Online Presence

A strong online presence is critical for the success of any type of business in today’s digital world— even if you’re a local business. Of the nearly eight billion people living on this planet, more than half of them (five billion) use the internet. While you may not need to market your business to the entire world, many of your local customers use the internet and you can advertise to them in this way.

First and foremost, you’ll need a business website to act as a landing page for all information related to your business— even if you don’t sell products online. Your website should include a list of your products/services, your contact information, a little about you and your business, and also links to your social media profiles. Your social media profiles are the other half of your online presence, and you can use marketing strategies to help create brand awareness.

#4: Familiarize Yourself with Marketing Strategies

Once your online presence is established, you need to familiarize yourself with a few digital marketing strategies. Social media marketing is probably one of the easiest because just about every social media platform provides tools, insights, and advice to business owners to help drive business. You should also be familiar with content marketing, email marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO).

It’s also a good idea to hire a marketing agency that specializes in one or more types of digital marketing. Expert SEO Minneapolis can get your website to rank higher on search engines like Google every time someone conducts a search that is along the lines of what your business does. It’s good to be both familiar with basic digital marketing strategies and willing to hire expert services for the success of your business.

Choosing a good business idea, securing your business, and knowing how to effectively market your business are all necessary to start up a successful business in Minneapolis. Of course, you’re also going to need hard work and dedication, as well as employees, business software, and anything else that your business needs to function correctly.