Important tips to help you create a successful small business

 Creating a small business and achieving professional independence is a dream for many. But this does not mean that there will be no obstacles, especially since small projects have a high failure rate, as about half of them fail in the first five years. So, you will have to work your way up and solve the problems that come your way according to your goals and capabilities. Fortunately, you can achieve success in your project by following some of the general characteristics that distinguish successful projects from others:

1- Create a business plan:

About one-sixth of small businesses fail due to a lack of planning. So the first thing you have to do - even before you start working on creating your own project - is to plan every little thing about the project, scrutinize the idea of ​​the project and check that the products or services you want to offer are in demand in the market. The action plan consists of several axes, the most important of which are:

• Market analysis: to verify that your products and services meet a real need in the market.
• Defining the target audience: You most likely have an initial idea of ​​the customers you are targeting, clearly identify the target demographic, such as age, gender, geographic area, financial status, interests, etc.
• Competition analysis: to check that you can compete and win customers.
• Marketing plan: includes the general features of your marketing strategy.
• Funding sources: You should check that you are able to provide the financial resources to start your business, especially in the early stages of it.
• Risk Analysis: Analyzing potential risks that may affect your project, such as: fluctuations in oil prices, exchange rates, natural disasters, and others.

If you haven't created a business plan yet, you can create it now. Take some time and work on a solid business plan to serve as a roadmap toward creating a successful business.

2- Define your project goals:

After you develop a business plan for establishing your project or company, and before you start working on it, you must answer the following question: How do I know if my project will be successful 6 months or a year from now? This question is very important. The best way to answer it is by setting clear goals for the project from the start. These goals will serve as a benchmark against which to measure the success of your project.

Setting goals is not as easy as you think, the lesson is not writing a random list of goals, the challenge is writing realistic, ambitious and thoughtful goals. Goals shouldn't be too big and unrealistic, so failure is inevitable that they will frustrate you later. Nor should small goals be easy, in the end it is a form of challenge for you and the team, otherwise you will lose enthusiasm and passion.

3- Manage your time:

People spend so much time managing and economizing on their money that they forget that their real capital is time. Perhaps what distinguishes successful people from others is that they are good at managing time and making the best use of it. They invest their time in developing themselves, developing their expertise, transforming their ideas into projects, and then developing and developing those projects. Here are some time management tips:

• Respect time: You should view time as a scarce and important resource, and make good use of it.
• Manage yourself, not your time: Do not say that the day is short and not enough for me, the problem is never with time. If you find that you are falling behind in the work schedule, it is most likely your fault, and that you are wasting time on things that do not help.
• Define your priorities: Not all activities are equal, some are more important than others, prioritize, and start with them.
• Avoid multitasking: Some people think that if they work on more than one task at the same time, they will increase their productivity. Unfortunately, this myth is very common among people, and the fact is that many studies contradict this belief, and even prove the exact opposite. Some of these studies estimate that multitasking reduces productivity by as much as 40%.
• Use time management apps and tools: There are many tools that can help you manage your time, such as FocusMe, rescuetime and toggle.