The journey of entrepreneurship isn't always easy, especially for the beginners. When you decide to kick-start your own small business, you must always be prepared for all the ups and downs to make your new venture a big hit. The moment you give up, it's all over.

It's true that one doesn’t usually learn things without experiencing or facing them; however, before you take your small business off the ground, you need to know certain things to keep your entrepreneurial spirit alive and overcome even the worst situations.

Here are the 7 most important things you should know before starting a small business:

1. Identify a business concept that suits you
Finding the right business concept is crucial to ensure success in your entrepreneurial journey. Analyse things you can do best and conceptualise a business model based on it. For example, if you are expert in baking, why not start a small bakery?

It's not necessary that what worked for others, will work for you as well. Hence, do what suits your skills and budget. Many startups fail within the first few years just because the entrepreneurs failed to choose the right type of business.

2. Money isn't all that matters
You may be able to raise enough capital for your new venture, but just the right amount of financing cannot assure the success of your business. A fool-proof business plan, model and system that can assure consistent cash flow are crucial too. If you don't have a sound business model, your money will be gone before you realise it.

3. Identify your target audience and their needs
Successful business is all about finding the right target group and their needs. No business can achieve success without potential customers. So, focus on finding a prospective audience, understand their needs, and build a product around those needs.

4. Get the right people on board
You have the potential target audience, and the right product - that's great; but, how are you going to take your products and services to your audience? You will need to hire the right team that can bridge the gap between you and your audience.

5. Keep enough reserves for the blue days
Just a single 'no/ low sales” month or sudden changes in market trends or government policies could be the reason of your business's failure if you don't have enough cash reserves. Make sure you always have enough savings to run your business operations smoothly for at least 6 months to beat such downtrends.

6. Seek business financing when necessary
Don't hesitate to obtain business loans when deemed necessary by you. It’s wise not to consume all your personal savings or business profits on things that can be funded with business financing. With numerous online lending platforms at your disposal, getting timely funds for your small business has become much faster and easy.

7. Manage your finances carefully
Make sure you clear your debts like business loans, payment to vendors and others carefully. Don't default on loan EMIs of lenders and don't delay payments of vendors. Doing so can sour your relationship with them and tarnish your brand image and goodwill, which is an erroneous thing to do, primarily during the initial phase of your business. Keep your debt and payments clear from the very beginning.

Starting a business can be an exciting journey if you've done your homework well. The points mentioned above can help you in preparing to overcome entrepreneurial hurdles in the path of success.

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