Your Definitive Company Set Up Checklist

Starting a company in 2024 may be an exciting endeavor for intending entrepreneurs and business owners. However, it could also come with unforeseen challenges if not planned properly. As a rule of thumb, business owners should craft a company set up checklist early in the planning phase. 

The checklist would help them focus on the essential tasks needed to get the business up and running. Also, it would help them keep track of their progress. 

In this article, we have highlighted 11 essential items business owners should include in their company set up checklist. 

What Is Checklist in Business?

Before jumping into the details, let us quickly answer the question; what is a checklist in business? 

In summary, a business start up checklist is a document that highlights the essential activities or tasks involved in setting up a company.

More importantly, the document lists the activities or tasks in chronological order. The order in which the tasks are itemized makes it easier to track progress as the business moves toward the launch. 

Frequently, the business checklist comes with a box to check after the business owner completes each activity or task.

What Are the 11 Steps to Create a Startup Company?

The process of setting up a company happens over a series of steps, which may vary widely from one industry to another. Interestingly, the steps could be put into a bit-sized document often called starting a small business checklist. 

The list below covers 10 things you need to start a business, plus one bonus item to help protect you and your business from failure.

1. Feasibility Study: Clarify and Validate Your Idea

A feasibility study is the process of validating whether your idea has the potential to attract buyers. 

Coming up with a great business idea is not all there is to launching a successful business. The most essential determinant of business success is the availability of paying customers. In that regard, the first item on the checklist should be to validate that you’ll get customers to patronize your business.

2. Come Up With a Business Name

Naming your business at the planning phase may not be entirely critical. However, doing it early helps reduce complications during registration. 

More importantly, naming your business becomes even more complex and eventful if you’re taking on business partners down the line. Therefore, it’s best to come up with a name early in the process.

3. Create a Business Plan

A lot of business owners prefer a spontaneous approach to business start up. While starting without a business plan may have its advantages, it could reduce your chances of attracting partners and investors to your business. 

Most investors and partners will only speak with you after they’ve gone through some type of document that highlights critical details of your business. Your business plan serves this purpose. Your business plan would also serve as a document to help your employees understand your business better.

4. Choose Your Business Entity

Your business entity is the legal structure of your business. There are several options to pick from. LLCs, corporations partnerships, and sole proprietorships are some of the more common ones. 

It’s essential to note that various advantages and disadvantages come with each entity. Employing the help of an attorney could help you choose a business entity that’s perfect for your business. 

5. Register Your Business 

The next item on your checklist should be business registration. Business owners are advised to employ the service of a qualified attorney when registering their businesses. It would help avoid costly mistakes that could threaten the survival of the business in the future. 

6. Funding Your Business

At this point, you would have a clear view of the financial needs of your business from your business plan. Therefore, you need to decide how you'll get the money. 

For some types of businesses, it’s possible to finance it out of pocket. However, if the capital requirement is quite large, you may want to take on investors and partners. Even in some cases, approaching a bank for loans may be the best option.

7. Purchase Your Business Asset

Your business assets are the things or items you need for the day-to-day operation. It’s best to acquire them before you launch your business to reduce delays and uncertainties after the business finally kicks off. However, keep the items as simple as possible. 

The assets you need at the initial phase of the business are only the ones that are essential to your MVP (minimum viable product). It helps you keep your costs low. It also makes it easy to pivot your business without losing too much money if things don’t go as planned. 

8. Plan Your Financials and Cash Flow Management

Raising funds and managing the funds for profitability are some of the most challenging tasks in starting a business. During your planning phase, it's essential to initiate a formidable structure for managing your cash flow.

For this, you need a well-defined accounting system. The accounting system you choose could be an online platform or an expert working with your business directly. Also, at this stage, it is essential to craft business contracts that bind customers and ensure your interests are protected. 

9. Brand Your Business and Protect Your Brand

Your brand is the identity of your business in the customers’ minds. It’s one of the most essential aspects of your marketing, such as email outreach and social media management. Recently, we’ve seen business brands valued at billions of dollars.

Basically, business logos, color codes, social media platforms, domain names, slogans, etc. form the backbone of your branding effort. Most importantly, you should also ensure that your brand is protected.

Acquiring trademark protection for your brand and marketing collateral would help you protect your brand from impostors. Likewise, you should ensure that you pursue intellectual property protection for assets that are unique to your business. Hiring a qualified legal practitioner is a must at this stage. 

10. Comply With Industry-Specific Regulations

Each industry has its regulations, and the regulations vary from one state to another. 

Your lawyer would be able to help you with your compliance effort. Some industries require licenses and special registration before anyone can run such businesses in certain states in the United States. 

Breaking these regulations could result in serious legal issues for you and your partners.

11. Liability and Insurance

While owning a business is highly rewarding, it could also be a very risky endeavor. Statistics show that more than 90% of businesses that start every year fail within the first 5 years of operation. With such a huge chance of failure, business owners should look for ways to protect themselves and their businesses against the risk of failure. 

One of the ways to achieve this is by acquiring insurance and other protections that shield your assets from the shock that could result from business failures. 

How Do I Make a Company Checklist?

Usually, a company checklist is a one-page document highlighting business tasks and could be created by anyone. There are editable docs files online that you can use to create a personal company set up checklist. Some of these documents come with company checklist templates that business owners can follow as well.

What Are the Basic Needs for a Company to Establish?

The essential content included in starting a business checklist may vary from one business to another. However, a quick list of items to include in your checklist when establishing a business is below. 

However, there are several other documents that you’ll need to establish a company in any state in the United States. 

Conclusion 

Finally, business owners can come up with their own business start up checklist. However, starting a company is tougher than it sounds. 

There’s always a need to engage the services of legal and business experts. They’ll help you acquire all the necessary licenses. Also, employing the services of experts helps fortify your business against failure. You also get protection against the consequences of business failure.