Remember Michael Jordan’s lesson when starting your new business
Back in 1993, Michael Jordan shocked the world by retiring from professional basketball to pursue a career in baseball – a lifelong dream. While he was as passionate about baseball as he was about basketball, he failed as a baseball player because his talents were on the basketball court, not the baseball field.
When it comes to starting a new business, passion is often not enough to compete in the modern marketplace. Take the following quote from Scott Galloway, Professor of Marketing at NYU’s Stern School of Business and successful entrepreneur:
“Don’t follow your passion, follow your talent. Determine what you are good at (early) and commit to becoming great at it”
One great advantage you can give yourself before you start your business is to be sure your passion aligns with your talent. If not, you may be starting a losing battle.
Align your business passion with your business talent
The first step of starting your business the right way is to align your passion with your talent – what are you really good at? What’s something – a product or a service – that you can deliver consistently at a high level?
This is an all-important aspect to nail down first because going into business can be the most challenging thing one can do in the world. Being passionate isn’t going to cut it in the long run. You have to be great at it and offer people undeniable value if you want to succeed.
Your customers will admire your passion, but ultimately, what they pay for is the work you deliver.
The basics of starting your own business
With talent and passion hand in hand (and if you’re still unsure, check out How To Start A Business From Your Side Hustle), your next step is to actually start your business. That means setting up a separate entity from yourself as an individual – this has a number of tax and liability advantages. One of the most common small business types is an LLC. For an in-depth breakdown of how LLCs work and how to form an LLC, check out this video.
Different entity types include Sole Proprietorships, LLC, C Corporation, S Corporation, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. The IRS has a great run-down of the types of business structures.
Most likely, as is the case for many who start their new business, you’ll either set up a Sole Proprietorship or an LLC. An important aspect to keep in mind is the separation between your personal finances and your new business.
When setting up your business banking service, here are a couple of pointers to keep in mind:
– Is the business account truly “free” or are there hidden fees and costs? For example, Chase Business Accounts charge a 30 dollar monthly fee unless you maintain a balance of $35,000. Bank of America charges $16 a month unless you maintain a minimum balance of $5,000. For a new small business, that can be quite a lot of money.
– It can be convenient to keep your personal and business accounts with the same bank, but that’s not necessarily the best deal in town. It pays to shop around – tell your current bank if you are worried about the fees, they’ll often work with you and cut you a deal to keep your personal and business accounts under one roof.
Getting paid as a new small business
A new business wouldn’t be much of a “business” if it didn’t have paying customers. When it comes to payments and invoices, both customers and business owners would want to keep it as simple and streamlined as possible. And free of as many fees as possible.
For example, accepting Venmo as a small business will cost you 1.9% plus $0.10 per transaction. PayPal is even more expensive, where you can pay up to 2.9% and $0.30 for every single transaction. That quickly adds up to a lot of money. Be sure to check out a more detailed comparison between the different payment options.
By comparison, Finli charges zero fees for ACH transactions and offers simple, standardized pricing tiers where you don’t pay for more than you use.
On top of that, Finli offers free invoicing and CRM tools as well. Finli was created to make it as streamlined and simple as possible to get paid – hassle-free for your new business and hassle-free for your new customers.
Because we know that when you’re starting your new business, nothing can sap one’s passion more than paperwork. It’s challenging as is to start a new business, and Finli can off-load some of the tedious work of invoicing and payments while saving you a lot on transaction fees.
Stay tuned for more in-depth articles on starting your small business the right way, from dog walkers to fitness instructors, to photographers and more!
Need help getting started? Finli was founded to help small businesses instantly invoice, collect immediate payments, and more seamlessly handle their accounts receivable. Sign up for a free trial here!
