Starting your own business feels like standing at the edge of something massive. You’ve got ideas bouncing around in your head, maybe a notebook full of sketches and plans, and that persistent feeling that this could actually work. But there’s also that knot in your stomach because opening a business means stepping into territory where every decision counts.
Here’s what nobody tells you at first: the difference between businesses that make it and those that don’t often comes down to what you think about before you open your doors. The planning stage matters. A lot.
This isn’t about crushing your dreams or making you second-guess yourself. It’s about giving you the real picture so you can build something that lasts.
Things to Think About When Opening a Business
These are the core considerations that will shape your business from day one. Some will feel obvious, others might catch you off guard, but all of them deserve your attention.
1. Your “Why” Beyond Making Money
Sure, you want to make money. Everyone does. But what else? Because on day 47, when you’re exhausted, drowning in paperwork, and wondering why you left your comfortable job, “to make money” won’t be enough to keep you going.
Your deeper reason might be creating jobs in your community. It could be solving a problem that drove you crazy for years. Maybe you want to prove something to yourself or build something your kids can see and feel proud of. That reason becomes your anchor. Write it down somewhere you’ll see it regularly. You’ll need it more than you think.
2. Market Research That Actually Means Something
Forget surveys and focus groups for a minute. Go where your potential customers are. Actually talk to them. If you’re opening a coffee shop, spend time in other coffee shops and watch what people order, when they come in, and what makes them choose one place over another.
One bakery owner spent three months working part-time at a competitor’s shop before opening her own. She learned everything: which items sold out first, what customers complained about, the busiest hours, how much waste happened. That knowledge saved her from at least a dozen expensive mistakes. Market research doesn’t have to be formal to be valuable. It just has to be real.
3. Starting Capital and the Money You Don’t See Coming
Most new business owners underestimate their startup costs by 20-30%. That’s not a guess. That’s what happens. You’ve calculated the big stuff: rent, equipment, inventory, licenses. But what about the credit card processing fees? The insurance nobody told you about? The permits you didn’t know existed?
Build a detailed budget, then add 40% to it. Seriously. That buffer will save you when your POS system crashes and needs replacing, or when you have to hire someone earlier than planned, or when literally anything unexpected happens (and it will). Also think about how long you can survive without taking a salary. Most businesses take 6-18 months to become profitable. Can you last that long?
4. Your Competition Knows Things You Don’t
Your competitors aren’t your enemies. They’re your teachers. They’ve already made mistakes you haven’t made yet. They know which suppliers are reliable and which ones will leave you hanging. They’ve figured out pricing structures that work.
Study them obsessively, but not to copy them. Learn what they do well so you can do it differently or better. Notice what they’re missing because that’s where your opportunity lives. One restaurant owner realized all the nearby competitors closed between lunch and dinner. She stayed open and captured an underserved crowd looking for late afternoon food. That gap in the market became her competitive advantage.
5. Location, Location, and Also Location
This old saying exists for a reason. Your location does more heavy lifting than almost any other single decision you’ll make. But “good location” doesn’t just mean high foot traffic. It means the right traffic for your business.
A high-end boutique might struggle on a busy street where everyone’s rushing to catch trains. That same boutique could thrive on a quieter street where people are strolling and browsing. Look at your lease terms carefully too. Some commercial leases come with hidden costs: common area maintenance fees, property tax increases, and mandatory upgrades. A cheap rent that triples in year three isn’t actually cheap. Consider starting with a shorter lease or negotiating renewal terms upfront.
6. The Business Structure That Fits Your Life
LLC, sole proprietorship, S-corp, partnership. These aren’t just boring legal terms. They affect how much you pay in taxes, how protected your personal assets are if something goes wrong, and how complicated your life becomes.
Sole proprietorships are simple but risky because your personal assets aren’t protected. LLCs offer protection and flexibility. S-corps can save you money on taxes but require more paperwork. Talk to an accountant before you register anything. Spending $500 on professional advice now can save you $50,000 in taxes and liability down the road. This is one area where DIY-ing it can cost you dearly.
7. Licenses, Permits, and Paperwork That Tests Your Patience
Every business needs different permits, but every business needs some. Food businesses need health permits. Businesses with signs need signage permits. Home businesses might need zoning variances. Businesses with employees need employment permits and tax ID numbers.
Start this process earlier than feels necessary. Permits take time. Sometimes months. You don’t want to sign a lease, order equipment, and hire staff only to find out your permit application is stuck in bureaucratic limbo. Check your city, county, state, and sometimes federal requirements. Yes, it’s tedious. Yes, it matters. One contractor lost a $40,000 project because he didn’t have the right licensing in place when the client asked for it.
8. Insurance Nobody Wants to Buy Until They Need It
General liability insurance protects you if someone gets hurt on your property or if you damage someone else’s property. Professional liability covers you if your advice or services cause financial harm. Property insurance covers your stuff. Workers’ compensation is legally required if you have employees.
Skipping insurance to save money is like skipping parachutes to reduce weight on an airplane. Sure, everything’s fine until it isn’t, and then it’s catastrophically not fine. A single lawsuit can destroy a business that took years to build. Insurance feels expensive until you need it, then it feels like the smartest money you ever spent. Shop around though. Rates vary wildly between insurers.
9. Your Business Plan as a Living Document
Business plans don’t have to be 40-page formal documents that nobody reads. But you need something written down that outlines your strategy, your target market, your financial projections, and how you’ll actually make money.
Think of it less like a rigid rulebook and more like a roadmap that you’ll adjust as you learn new things. Your business plan helps you think through potential problems before they’re standing in front of you demanding solutions. It also matters if you’re looking for funding. Banks and investors want to see that you’ve thought this through. Update your plan quarterly. What you thought would work in January might need adjustment by April, and that’s normal.
10. How You’ll Actually Get Customers Through the Door
“Build it and they will come” is a movie quote, not a business strategy. You need a real plan for how people will find out you exist. This means understanding where your customers spend time and showing up there.
If you’re opening a business that serves other businesses, maybe LinkedIn and industry events matter more than Instagram. If you’re targeting college students, maybe TikTok and campus partnerships make sense. Word of mouth is gold but it takes time to build. Email marketing still works. So do partnerships with complementary businesses. Budget at least 10-15% of your expected revenue for marketing, especially in your first year. Some businesses need to spend more. Figure out what works for your specific situation, not what some guru says works for everyone.
11. Your Online Presence Before Opening Day
People will Google you before they visit you. That’s just reality. If they find nothing, or worse, if they find confusing or outdated information, they’ll keep scrolling to your competitor who has their act together online.
You need at a minimum: a clean website with your location, hours, and what you offer. A Google Business Profile that’s claimed and updated. Social media accounts on whatever platforms your customers use. Get this done before you open. Post about your progress. Build anticipation. One boutique owner started an Instagram account six months before opening, showing the renovation process, sneaking peeks at inventory, introducing herself. She had 2,000 engaged followers before opening day and a line out the door that first week.
12. Systems and Processes Before You’re Drowning
How will you handle inventory? How will you process returns? What’s your system for tracking expenses? Who has access to what? These questions feel boring until you don’t have answers and everything’s chaos.
Set up basic systems from day one. Use accounting software instead of shoeboxes full of receipts. Create templates for invoices, contracts, and customer communications. Document your processes even when it’s just you running everything. Because eventually you’ll hire help, and if everything lives only in your head, training becomes impossible. Plus, clear systems make your life easier. You’ll spend less time figuring out what to do and more time actually doing it.
13. The Team You Build Matters More Than You Think
Your first few hires set the tone for your entire business culture. Hire wrong and you’ll spend months managing problems instead of growing your business. Hire right and you’ll have people who amplify your vision and fill in your weak spots.
Look for people who share your values, not just people with the right skills. Skills can be taught. Attitude and integrity can’t. Check references thoroughly. Do working interviews where candidates actually perform tasks they’d be doing in the job. Pay fairly. Underpaying to save money costs you more in turnover, training, and missed opportunities. Great employees stay with businesses that treat them well and compensate them fairly. Mediocre employees leave or, worse, they stay and bring everyone down.
14. Cash Flow Management That Keeps You Alive
Profitability and cash flow aren’t the same thing. You can be profitable on paper and still run out of cash. This happens when customers pay you slowly but your bills come due now.
Track your cash flow weekly, especially in your first year. Know exactly how much money you have, what’s coming in, and what’s going out. Create a cash reserve for slow periods. Every business has them. Retail slows in January. Contractors slow in winter. B2B sales drag during holidays. Build a cushion during good months to survive the slow ones. Consider requiring deposits for large orders or projects. Invoice promptly and follow up on late payments quickly. Your business isn’t a bank. You can’t float everyone else’s cash flow problems while neglecting your own.
15. Suppliers and Vendors as Partners
Your relationship with suppliers affects everything: your costs, your product quality, your ability to meet customer demand. Don’t just go with the cheapest option. Go with the reliable option.
Visit suppliers if possible. See how they operate. Ask about their backup plans if something goes wrong. Negotiate payment terms that work for both of you. Build relationships with account managers who can help you when you need rush orders or have problems. Have backup suppliers for critical items. One coffee shop owner learned this the hard way when their bean supplier went out of business with no warning. She had no backups and spent two weeks scrambling to find replacement coffee that met her standards. Her customers noticed.
16. Pricing That Reflects Value and Covers Costs
Pricing is psychology, math, and courage mixed together. Price too low and people assume your quality is poor, plus you won’t make enough profit to survive. Price too high and you price yourself out of the market.
Calculate your costs thoroughly: materials, labor, overhead, taxes, your salary. Then add your profit margin. Then look at what competitors charge and where you fit in that range based on your unique value. Don’t compete on price unless that’s genuinely your business model. Most businesses succeed by offering better value, better service, or better experience, not by being cheapest. Test your pricing with real customers and be willing to adjust. One consultant raised her rates by 30% and was shocked when clients barely blinked. She’d been undercharging for years and leaving massive money on the table.
17. Your Time Management and Personal Boundaries
Running a business will eat up all your time if you let it. There’s always something else to do: another email to answer, another improvement to make, another problem to solve.
Set boundaries from the start or you’ll burn out before you hit your stride. Decide your working hours and mostly stick to them. Schedule time off before you feel desperate for it. Create separation between work and life even if you’re working from home. This means actual physical separation if possible: a dedicated office space, even if it’s just a corner with a desk. Your business needs you healthy and energized for years to come, not exhausted and resentful after six months. Protect your sustainability.
18. Technology That Makes Life Easier
You don’t need fancy expensive tech, but you do need the basics that prevent headaches: reliable internet, a good POS system if you’re retail, accounting software that syncs with your bank, customer relationship management tools if you’re service-based.
Don’t overbuy. Start with what you actually need now and upgrade as you grow. But don’t underbuy either. Cheap tech that breaks or doesn’t integrate with other systems costs you more in frustration and workarounds. Read reviews. Talk to other business owners about what they use. Many software companies offer free trials. Test things before committing. And please, back up your data. Cloud storage is cheap. Losing years of customer information or financial records because your computer crashed is expensive and possibly business-ending.
19. Legal Protection That Saves Future Headaches
Get everything in writing: contracts with suppliers, agreements with partners, employee handbooks, customer terms of service. When things are going well, agreements feel unnecessary. When things go sideways, you’ll be grateful they exist.
Consider trademarking your business name and logo if you plan to grow. It’s easier and cheaper to protect your brand early than to rebrand later because someone else claimed the name. Have a lawyer review your contracts and important documents. This doesn’t have to cost thousands. Many lawyers offer flat-fee services for startups. Think of legal protection as insurance: boring to buy, invaluable when you need it. One business owner didn’t have a partnership agreement in writing because they were “friends who trusted each other.” Two years later, they wanted different things for the business, couldn’t agree, and the friendship and business both imploded in expensive litigation.
20. Your Exit Strategy From Day One
This sounds backward. You’re just starting, why think about exiting? Because knowing your endgame shapes your decisions today. Do you want to build something you’ll run for 30 years? Sell it in five years? Pass it to your kids? Franchise it? Each path requires different choices.
If you want to sell eventually, you’ll build systems and documentation that make the business valuable to buyers. If you’re building a lifestyle business to support yourself long-term, you might make different choices about growth and debt. There’s no wrong answer, but having no answer means you’re making decisions blindly. Plus, life happens. Circumstances change. Even if you plan to run your business forever, having a succession plan protects your family and employees if something unexpected happens to you.
Wrapping Up
Opening a business is part planning, part courage, part luck, and entirely worth it for the right person at the right time. These 20 considerations won’t guarantee success, but they’ll stack the odds in your favor.
Start where you are. You don’t have to have everything figured out perfectly before you begin. But do think these things through honestly. Your future self will thank you for the homework you’re doing right now.