Develop Your Business Plan

To get started with any new business idea, you need to pull together the critical components that help to explain the idea and to provide the basis for the argument that it is a viable business opportunity.  This is necessary to assist you in thinking through all of the elements of the idea to ensure you haven’t left out some important aspect.

Create Your Business Entity

So what form does your business take?  What structure is best for you, your financial providers, your business partners and your target customers?  This is the point where you have to spend some money for expert advice and usually paper processing – i.e. time for a business attorney, insurance agent and accounting consultant.

Navigate The Regulations

Doing business in the state of Washington does include some bureaucratic requirements with various government agencies. In your previous legal, accounting and insurance consulting, you should find out what regulations are required for your particular type of business.

Manage Your Information Assets

Above all else, you need to ensure that whatever information you maintain, whether financial, business strategy, or partner and customer contact information, you MUST maintain it in a confidential manner. If you can’t be trusted to keep information confidential, then who is going to trust you to do business?

Prepare for Disruptions

At some point your business will encounter a disruption, whether its human error or a natural disaster. Identify the hazards your business faces, and create plans to mitigate, prepare for, and recover from these disruptions. Also, make sure you and your employees are prepared.

The Economic Development Council is a proud participant in StartUp Washington. Spearheaded by the Washington State Department of Commerce’s Business Services Division, the state’s new Startup 365 Washington program is designed to keep economic and intellectual wealth in communities throughout Washington. It has not only gained the support of local economic developers, but is part of Governor Inslee’s long-term economic development efforts to create more quality jobs statewide.