Starting a Business - Free Forms and Templates

How to Start a Business?

If you have true belief in your business ideas and are prepared to offer goods and services to the public that will be genuinely interested in purchasing them, you may be ready to start a business. Follow these steps if starting a business from scratch:

1. Explore the market. You need to see whether you have easy-to-start business ideas or they are repetitive and cannot possibly bring you income.
2. Raise money or take loans to create a financial basis for your business.
3. Choose a business location, the name of your company, its distinguishing design features, and other details that will help customers and business partners recognize your organization.
4. Register your entity to conduct business legally. One of the stages of becoming a legitimate company is obtaining tax identification numbers – it will allow you to file taxes properly and enter into transactions securely.
5. If your business needs any licenses or permits, apply for them as soon as you recognize this necessity to comply with legal requirements.
6. Open bank accounts to deal with day-to-day transactions and compose financial statements each month and year for your own records and reports to the authorities.

What Do You Need to Start a Business?

If you are wondering how to start a business, you might want to begin with learning more about the main documents required for every company that begins its commercial activities:

1. Offer to Buy a Business. Use this template to make an initial proposal to purchase an already established or developing company from its owner.
2. Business Sale Agreement or Business Purchase Agreement. This is the principal document that outlines the terms and conditions of the transfer of ownership from a seller to a purchaser.
3. Business Plan. Whether your company is brand new or you have been a major player in your industry for many years, you can use our templates to describe your business projects and define clear objectives for the future.
4. LLC Articles of Organization. This document outlines the necessary statements for establishing a Limited Liability Company (LLC) in the United States.
5. Competitive Analysis. Create a personalized document that indicates information about your competitors, evaluates their achievements and missteps, and compares your business with them.
6. Franchise Agreement. See our selection of templates that will allow you to transfer or acquire the rights to sell particular goods under the trade name and trademark of a different company and with the use of the franchisor’s proprietary knowledge.
7. Investment Management Agreement. This document serves as a safeguard against any preventable monetary losses that could negatively impact the investor and create a potential legal dispute for the investment manager. 
8. Distribution Agreement. This written contract is prepared by the manufacturer of goods and the company that sells their products (the distributor) in order to outline the details of the distribution.
9. Arbitration Agreement. This document serves as proof of the agreement to settle any future disputed claims by binding arbitration.
10. Break-Even Analysis. This financial instrument is essential in determining whether and when your new services and goods, or even business as a whole, will bring you any profit or they will just barely cover your expenses.
11. Startup Budget. While you are still in the planning phase and are simply preparing to launch your business, you can use this document to learn more about the costs needed to start your own company.
12. Organizational Chart. This visual tool will represent the structure of your business – all departments, subsidiaries, and branches along with the relative ranking of the positions.
13. Root Cause Analysis. You can compose a diagram or table that will identify the factors and prerequisites that led to the issues in your business and will help you to respond to them in an effective way. 

Related Forms and Topics:

• Bookkeeping;
• Business Operations;
• Hiring Employees.