Starting a Business in Omaha, NE

Getting a business up and going, from concept to reality, is just as exciting as it is challenging. Starting a business is so much more than just looking into a tiny thought that sparked into your imagination and caught on fire. While the entrepreneur should indeed be mainly focused on the pursuit of their grand idea, there are also a host of practical things that must be considered in the process. The beginning stages can usually prove to be quite the learning curve, so there is much that can be gained by paying attention to the experiences of others who have done the same or the professionals who regularly assist others on the same journey.

Advising From Professionals

Being the person with the big ideas has a lot of pressure to it. It is not uncommon for those just starting a business to feel strain in all directions and start wondering when times will get easier and help will come along. Thankfully for these new professionals, there are seasoned professionals who know all of the best tips and tricks of the trade in regards to business and what to do versus what not to do. With the help of these professionals, through numerous Omaha-area businesses, a newly started business can be well on its way to making it big in its marketplace and respective industry.

With mentors who are respected professionals in their respective businesses/industries, Greater Omaha SCORE provides free confidential one-on-one counseling to start-ups and existing businesses. The organization matches entrepreneurs with counselors whose experience pertains to their specified area of need. These mentors are able to offer valuable insight and advice for beginning businesses because they have experienced it firsthand.

SCORE recognizes challenges and setbacks that new businesses might run into and they know how to confront them head-on. Pauline Stark of Greater Omaha SCORE (omaha.score.org) elaborates, “Most businesses need funding of some sort. Smaller businesses sometimes do not need a large enough loan for consideration by a bank. SCORE works in conjunction with both micro lenders that provide alternative funding and banks for the start-ups that need larger amounts.”

But, SCORE’s capabilities do not stop there. “SCORE can help write a business plan, which is a necessity for lending money, and then we’ll make the introduction with the micro lenders or bank. If you’re stuck on your business plan, the website bplans.com is an excellent source for sample business plans to review.”

One of the best tokens of knowledge SCORE offers is simply to know the industry you are getting involved in. There are large mistakes that can be avoided by having a strong knowledge of the industry and its competitors, so aside from finding a great mentor you’ll also want to look into joining an industry trade association.

Stark further advises that the most common failures of businesses happen because they run out of funding, or are effectively under-capitalized. “My suggestion, when starting your business, is to itemize your start-up costs.   Then, to ensure you have enough capital, take that total cost and double it; thus resulting in your funding requirement. SCORE mentors can provide objective input on the amount of funding you will need. Along the same lines, keep your sales projections conservative.   Go to various sources such as census.gov, the Department of Labor and the Department of Economic Development to determine the size of the potential market and its trends.  Knowledge from these sources will help the potential business owner determine profitability.”

Having experienced the elements of starting a business firsthand, No Coast Business Advisors is able to offer valuable advice in regards to new businesses on a wide variety of topics including finance, operations, organization, risk analysis, the best ways to manage employees effectively, and so on. Knowing that four out of five start-ups fail in the first 36 months and another 50 percent of the ones that make it past that point fail in the next two years, No Coast Business Advisors is insistent that new business owners have a quality marketing plan in place from the start. Visibility in the initial stages is critical – no one can benefit from your business’s offerings if they don’t know it exists in the first place. Furthermore, Jethro Hopkins of No Coast Business Advisors (www.NoCoastBusinessAdvisers.com) adds, “Always be aware of payroll and taxes. Those two items will be by far your biggest expenses. My professional advice is to seek professional advice.”

In agreement, Jason Wollen of No Coast Business Advisors continues, “Be prepared to work long hours when starting a new business because it is no easy task to go from concept to a successful, flourishing entity. You cannot simply sit back and make money; in reality it just doesn’t work that way.” The two also agree that it is easier to purchase an existing business than it is to start one from scratch. They maintain that even when purchasing an existing business you have to have the capital to maintain it for at least a couple of months after the purchase.

 

Along with visibility, for those starting a business it’s all about location, location, location. After you’ve found your passion and direction, you’ll need to find the right space to establish and grow your new business. The more recent trend towards office spaces with a host of amenities already included, which can be found all around Lincoln, has proved to be quite advantageous for new business owners who are trying to get up and running on a limited budget.

“HIP OffiCenters provides a full-service office environment with all of the tools that your new or existing business needs to grow and be successful,” says Michael Holroyd, owner of Holroyd Investment Properties, Inc. (HIP; www.hiprealty.com).  “A well-trained staff is a very important part of creating first impressions with new clients, and we provide full reception services, support staff, and phone answering. To further defray start-up costs, we also have furnished offices available. We even offer several virtual office packages with many of our amenities including a physical address. While renting from us, there are no up-front costs for buildouts or infrastructure. High-speed fiber-optic internet, an executive conference room, copy center,  kitchen facilities,  break room,  janitorial services, all utilities paid and free parking are all available on-site and included in your rent.  As the business climate is ever- changing, OffiCenters continues to stay flexible in order to best accommodate whatever challenge may present itself. For example, we have no long-term leases, no full-time administrative staffing costs, and no need to buy expensive equipment.  We have ready-to-use offices when you need them and you can adjust your space as your requirements change. Our mission is to provide a complete office solution, so you can focus your time on growing and managing your business.”

Finding the right people to fill key positions will also directly influence your success moving forward. The hiring process can be time consuming, and that’s a resource that is already stretched thin. Trusting an employment agency or recruiter to handle your hiring will allow you to focus on other things while ensuring that they’ve found the best candidate for the job based on your specific priorities and requirements. With over 60 years of total immersion in the ever-changing the world of work, Manpower has found through such experience that they have been able to have a deeper understanding of the potential of people, along with how to unleash that potential to drive businesses forward. As a business, they offer collaborative partnerships, a suite of Innovative Workforce Solutions, leverage with their global reach and local expertise, and connection towards their deep knowledge of human potential.

Approaching Finances

No matter what your business is or how big it is, money is always a concern. That’s not without reason, because it can affect many different aspects of your new business. While cash flow is always the first thing being analyzed, there are many other parts of getting a new business off the ground that will impact finances including legal challenges, “growing pains”, economic cycles, and over-expansion. Businesses have to place focus on problems that pertain to the overall scheme of business like the economy and its impact on their industry, but they also have to shift gears to more specific responsibilities like paying their employees. No matter what the concern may be, there are professionals out there to assist businesses in getting financial affairs and problems taken care of.

For help and guidance on bookkeeping and payroll, Payroll Professionals is a key resource for new business owners who are just getting started. For small and medium sized businesses, they offer outsourced bookkeeping on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. In addition to bookkeeping, Payroll Professionals, as the name says, focuses greatly on assisting new business owners with setting up and processing payroll for their employees.

For new businesses, Payroll Professionals offers and suggests QuickBooks and QuickBooks consulting. So, if a new business owner decides they would like to do their own bookkeeping, Payroll Professionals can consult on which accounting software to purchase based on the company size and specified needs. They are also able to set up the QuickBooks software to ensure it is set up correctly and they offer training for the owners of the business or an employee who will be using it. This gives employees and employers the peace of mind that this is getting done accordingly.

Payroll Professionals knows that challenges can arise in finding time to keep up on bookkeeping. Especially with starting a business, new business owners are often very busy focusing on their new and growing business that keeping up on their books can be overlooked and put on the back burner for a later date. Fortunately, Payroll Professionals is able to assist the new business owners with their books so that they can place focus on what they do best and actually enjoy what they are doing with one thing less to stress about.  “We ensure all businesses stay in compliance with the federal and state agencies,” emphasized Kelly Burns of Payroll Professionals (payrollprofessionalsomaha.com). “We will go through an initial checklist to ensure all new businesses with employees have all of the required documents needed along with setting up worker’s compensation, new hire reporting, direct deposit, and many other things.”

Payroll can also be a very overwhelming process, especially keeping up with all of the payroll tax laws and payroll tax deadlines. As an added benefit to the client, Payroll Professionals will ensure that all tax payments and payroll tax forms are filed on a timely basis. Having experienced working with a large amount of new business owners, Burns advises, “Do what you are good at and what you love, while outsourcing duties that will take away time from what you are good at and enjoy doing. Finding enough hours in the day to get everything done can be a major challenge, especially if you are working independently at first without employees. Outsourcing your bookkeeping and payroll will give you more time to focus on growing your business as you won’t have to worry about the abundance of paperwork that will need to be done. Also, be sure you have sufficient funds saved up ahead of time. It is important to have enough cash to cover all of the expenses at start-up and beyond.”

Paychex is another local company that provides payroll services, along with human resource solutions, retirement services, insurance for start-ups, and more. Paychex can accommodate a variety of business types and specializes in being a leading small business payroll provider. Being a company with great solutions designed in order to assist clients in running their businesses more productively and with greater ease, Paychex prioritizes helping businesses decrease the difficulty and risk involved in payroll and human resource compliance. They thrive on offering great accuracy with up-to-date tax rates and regulatory information. On the whole, payroll is a lot simpler with Paychex. Provided with the help of Paychex is expert, one-to-one service and support that is focused and customized, making it perfect for those just starting out in the business world.

When going about the often complicated and arduous task of getting your taxes done, keep in mind that it’s wise to utilize a professional, because they’ll be the one doing all of the paper pushing and number crunching for you. Liberty Tax Service is a wonderful resource for businesses, as they make it a point to prepare your taxes in a timely manner and you’ll be working with a professional who specializes in business tax preparation so you can be assured they are done correctly. There are several locations all around the Omaha Metro, and their offices stand by each and every tax preparation experience 100%–you can’t beat that!

On to generating revenue, you’ll need to find the best system for accepting payments. This will also depend on the type of business and how you’ll be conducting your transactions. American Payment Systems is a locally owned and operated company that can help Omaha-area businesses set up a system or troubleshoot on-site, as opposed to many other payment processing companies that are out of the market and are only available via phone. Jim Barnes, owner of American Payment Systems (www.americanpaymentsystems.com), advises, “We can help new business owners set up a method of receiving payments for credit cards and gift cards, whether it’s a Point-of-Sale system or just a cash register with a stand-alone terminal. It’s important for all business owners, new ones included, to be aware that the Point-of-Sale system should be able to process cards with the new EMV chip in order to avoid liability in the event of fraud. We can also put together loyalty programs for their customers and provide signage, such as check presenters for restaurants. As far as overall finances are concerned, my advice is to start putting together a budget early and plan on costs being 20% more than your initial projection. Also, be prepared for it to take several weeks longer than anticipated before you finally open your doors – I see it time and time again, life doesn’t generally go according to plan and neither does starting a business.”

Behind the Scenes

Not every aspect of a business is obvious to the consumer. In fact, one of the main parts of a business’s success is what happens behind the scenes. In not only the start-up world, but also the general business world, it is common to hire on companies to help with certain specialties. This happens so that these businesses do not have to worry about things that are necessary to their business like answering the phones or dealing with account payables and receivables, so that they are able to tilt their focus more towards their strengths and what must be done daily to drive the business forward.

As a starting business, you can easily find yourself being pulled in a million different directions. If phone calls are taking up a majority of the time that you need to devote elsewhere, Executive Answering Service is the perfect resource to assist you with that part of running your business. After all, these days 80 percent of all major companies outsource to an answering company to keep costs down so they are able to remain competitive and stay focused. Executive Answering Service has operators available twenty-four hours a day, every day, acting as your friendly telephone receptionist so that you are able to be on the phone with other clients, in meetings, or simply devote your time to other areas. They take your requests as to how to handle certain situations in order to project the right image and help with time management. Their primary goal is to give customers the highest quality service adjusted to their specific business needs, which requires knowledgeable staff, quality training, and state-of-the-art technology.

Years ago, the main function of an answering service was to simply reach someone in the case of emergency. But, in 2016 there are so many other functions in the industry. For instance, “virtual receptionists” can save a company the overheard costs of an employee, including salary, insurance, and training. Executive Answering Service offers not only virtual receptionists, but also order entry, appointment scheduling, emergency dispatch, call triage, great customer service, and many other functions. As Megan Lipert-Murphy, owner of Executive Answering Service (www.executive-answering.com), always says, “It can take years to earn a client but only seconds to lose one.” This makes a reputable answering service very important for not only new businesses, but all businesses.

A business’s image is proven to be one of the central factors in elevating a new brand into a household name. While it can seem like there are so many other essentials that require a portion of your already-stretched budget, investing in the promotion of your business is wise as it’s largely what will drive revenue in the beginning. Furthermore, there are many opportunities for visibility that require a minimal or investment or are free for you to take advantage of, so it’s up to the business owner to be savvy and get the most out of what’s available to them.

Professional photography is also a major part of a business’s image, as it allows you to visually put your best foot forward when you don’t have the opportunity to do so in person. Steve Kowalski of A Better Exposure (abetterexposure.com) offers the following advice for those who are starting a business:

“You are your brand. For those in the business world, having a killer headshot is a must. Planting an image of who you are for prospective and current clients alike leaves a lasting impression to connect a human face to a name. The goal is to leave a high quality impression to those who may wish to do business with you.

Finding and connecting with a professional photographer who gets you will open up many options, from a natural light perspective which is one of my favorites to a studio lighting perspective, all based on the type of career that you are involved with. In the end, the headshot should look professional with respect to the composition, with color correction and some retouching done to help make your headshot stand out. It’s the little details that a professional will add that will make all the difference. I believe the selfies and friends with photography equipment who want to practice belong on Instagram. Finally, be sure to research your photographer of choice via their website to check out examples, and then talk with them too.”

While your specific needs may vary, for all businesses, supplies are essential. From furnishing your office or business location to purchasing all of the key items that you can’t function without, most businesses start out with little to nothing so it becomes mission critical to find everything fast. However, many business owners are working within budget constraints too. As an alternate option that will likely save you a lot of money up front, Shayne Fili, owner of Auction Solutions (www.AuctionSolutionsInc.com), recommends working with your financial institution to seeking out business equipment and supplies at auctions. She notes “Beginning a start-up with used equipment, office furniture, and other necessities will lower your start-up business costs and allow money to be applied in other areas with you would have used towards buying new equipment.”

With access to advice from professionals, a bevy of ways to promote your new business, and assistance available for everything that goes on behind the scenes or that isn’t in your wheelhouse, starting a business, while never necessarily easy under any condition, can go a lot more smoothly. There are many local businesses that are able to come alongside and help get you off the ground and moving in the right direction, and the best part is that they too understand your struggles and can offer valuable insight. If there’s one thing you can count on as a new business owner, it’s that you’re never at it alone—there’s always someone that’s walked the path before you, and that wisdom is some of the very best information you can get your hands on. Once you’ve found the right professionals to fill the critical gaps, your time as a business owner will be spent more effectively and productively, plus you’ll be better positioned to troubleshoot. For those who are embarking on the journey towards entrepreneurship, we wish you all the best and can’t wait to see what you have to offer the world!