Ask Doug & Polly: Starting a business is a risky venture but do planning to improve your chances of success | Business News

Keep your fixed costs as low as possible. Test the viability of your business as quickly and as inexpensively as possible. We say, “Fail fast, fail cheap.” Learn from your failure and modify your approach. Once you identify a model that generates revenue, then you can focus on building infrastructure.

The only caveat to this advice is to, “Fail fast, fail cheap, but don’t fail because you are cheap.”

That is, don’t offer an inferior product or service that has little or no chance of success because you are doing it on the cheap.

Spend enough to ensure that you have a chance to succeed. For example, in your case, this means make sure you have the tools to do the work properly.

While we recommend minimum infrastructure during this trial phase, there are some things you will need. For example, in many counties, you’ll need a business license.

You’ll want to keep track of the revenue you generate and all of your business expenses for filing taxes. In Virginia, if you are selling a product, you’ll have to keep track of and pay sales tax.

To minimize expense, you’ll want to handle as much of this as you can personally in the beginning. However, it’s wise to reach out to people who have expertise you lack. Initially, you should minimize the infrastructure you build, do as much of the work as you can yourself, and outsource those items where you lack expertise.