Freelancer | 3 MUST HAVE Business Start-up Steps

Starting a business is like a magic word to many people. Ignites their dreams, inspire them with brilliant ideas, drove them to work towards it, and attract people around with similar mind-set to group together. I always encourage people to start a business as a freelancer and progressively expand. You will then learn how to feel, value and handle things, is a great fun in the business process.

Remember, FUN, but not easy.

There are actually many aspects that require deliberate investigation and careful consideration before the commencement of a business. Below are my start-up kits based on experiences, and further focus on the explanation of 3 points which are the "MUST HAVE".

Every business idea is unique because it involves the creativity of the person and the future forecast of the business position in the market. Step 1, 2, 3, 4, 8 & 9 (highlighted in blue) involves a huge part of self-preference, which mean a company formation is based on the decision of that particular person/group of people.

How about STEP 5 – 7? STEP 5 - 7 are UNAVOIDABLE process, which requires a certain level of professional skills and knowledge from different industries to maximise the output. Honest advice, engage a skilful team to discuss on your idea, strategize a customise plan and continuously enhance the flow of the operations. It helps a lot in saving money and time, a valuable exchange.

STEP 5 – 7

are elaborated based on the assumption for Freelancer start-up

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Step 5 | Operation and Finance

People grab the momentum of motive once they have a good business idea, they wish to start the business operation immediately and celebrate the first harvest. Sorry to pour cold water, but there are more to do before we can see the real money coming in.

First, there are few types of business structure we need to select from, sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability partnership (LLP), and private limited (Sdn Bhd). Each structure has its own characteristics specifically aim for different business purposes, and therefore it leads to different reporting requirements such as dateline, documents, and additional compulsory service such as company secretary. Business could be similar in nature but with the different operational pattern, which will affect the reporting of a company such as the description of expenses nature in accounting book, tax calculation method and audit performance focus. This is an operation issue to consider.

Secondly, a start-up company relies heavily on its capital for all the operation, and a customised accounting system is needed to oversee the business finance, which is the cash flow. Big companies fall down during Covid-19, mainly due to the cash flow problem and not profitability. Sustainability becomes one of the major factors for business success, so how much do we really need for a start-up. A business nature, scale and location determine the cash flow needed to fund the operation. We need to calculate the “Initial Cost” and “Recurring Cost” to determine the amount of cash reserve, for at least 12 months. The “Initial Cost” are one-time cost needed to start the operation, such as license, permits, legal fees, furniture and fitting, equipment and related cost, market research, trademark, company website, grand opening events and property leases. Whereas, “Recurring Cost” are business monthly operation expenses, such as inventories, utilities, rental, advertisement, website maintenance, upkeep of the office, and salaries. Being conservative in the calculation of capital needed, and carefully handle cash flow is the foundation requirement. This is a finance issue to beware of.

These 2 issues have to be considered together because both issues are related, business structure link to capital required for specific services and capital availability link to consideration of business structure formation. For example, a business start-up requires RM 10,000 and you have only RM 5,000, you can consider borrowing from others or bring in another person, and offer him a share of profit as a partner.

Step 6 | Quality Portfolio

In the current competitive era, business is everywhere yet scattered. It is important to capture the market attention by grabbing the dominant position to manifest oneself out of the ordinary. Workforce transformation have switch the connection mostly to the online network, and portfolio is one the fastest way we present ourselves to the public. Portfolio represents a person abbreviation and act as a linkage, it send important messages to the audience and communicate speciality to them about us. A quality portfolio gives good first impression, it better highlight our relevant skills, our working culture and past records of our achievements. Therefore, creating a powerful online presence is far more likely for audience to remember and better link with them for future reference.

Step 7 | Marketing & Advertisement

Marketing is another important factor in determining business success. Marketing is not about spreading news of company-provided services anywhere, it involves a more professional work on targeting, filtering and selection of the market whom demand is closest to your business products and/or services. Build up a channel that aims at your target market, which allows you to streamline the way your business operates and gather feedback on the effort. Advertisement further makes it clear to the potential clients that you have the right solutions to their problems, is only a phone call away. Regular updates are necessary to keep the connection between existing clients, it helps to expand your reach and land more referrals.

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In short, STEP 5 – 7 can be done by anyone with relevant skills, the only consideration is whether learning and doing all these by yourselves or focus on performing and improving what you know best is better worth the time value of money. Friendly advice, leverage on other people services, and make good use of the time to enhancing what you master. Think like a businessman, act like one.

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