How to start a business
To start a business, pick one thing to sell to people you can name, check that someone will pay for it, and work out whether the numbers hold. Then write it on one page, register in your state, and get your first customer.
Written for the United States. The steps, the links, and the dollars assume it.
Decide what you will sell, and to whom
Pick one offer and one kind of customer you can describe, with a problem they have now. “Mobile bike repair for commuters whose bike breaks on the way to work” is specific enough to test. “Helping people with bikes” is not. If you have several ideas, compare them and test the cheapest one first.
Find out whether anyone will pay
Check demand before you spend money on it. Talk to people who have the problem and ask what they did about it last time, not whether they like your idea. Then make a small offer with a real price and see who says yes. How to validate a business idea covers the questions, and how to get your first customer covers the offer.
Add up what it costs to start
List your one-time costs, your monthly costs, and the cash you need while sales build. There is no typical figure: a laptop consulting practice and a shop with a lease are different kinds of money. Build your own with the startup cost calculator and the guide to what it costs to start a business. If the total is more than you have, read how to start with little or no money.
Set a price and check that it works
Work out what each sale leaves after its direct costs, then how many sales a month cover your fixed bills. If that number is more than you can sell, change the price, the costs, or the offer before you go further. The pricing calculator converts between markup and margin, the break-even calculator finds the sales you need, and how to price a product or service explains the reasoning.
Write it on one page
Put the idea, the customer, the offer, the numbers, and what you still don’t know on a single page. A lean plan is for making your next decision, not for impressing anyone. How to write a business plan walks through each part, and the planner builds the page as you answer. If you want help drafting, you can use AI to write the plan and keep the decisions yourself.
Choose a structure and register
Pick a legal structure and register the business in your state. The right structure depends on your state, what you sell, and your own situation, so read the trade-offs before you file. Surmado Learn explains how to pick an entity and each registration step, and the SBA covers business structures from the federal side. Your state’s official pages are the final word.
Get tax IDs, licenses, and a business bank account
Get the registrations and licenses your business needs, and keep its money separate from yours. What applies depends on your state, your city, and the work you do. Start with Learn’s guide to bank accounts and bookkeeping and the SBA’s page on tax IDs, licenses, and bank accounts.
Get your first customer and keep the plan honest
Sell to one real customer, then change the plan to match what actually happened. The first sale tests your price, your offer, and how you found the person. Getting your first customer is about telling a real yes from a polite one, what to do after writing your plan lists what to test next, and the runway calculator shows how many months your cash lasts.
Surmado Learn is published by Surmado, which Luke F. Walton founded.
Calculators
- Startup cost calculator
Add up one-time costs, monthly costs, and the cash to carry you until sales cover them.
- Break-even calculator
See what each sale contributes and how many sales cover your monthly costs.
- Pricing calculator
Convert between price, cost, markup, and profit margin.
- Hourly rate calculator
Find the rate that reaches your target income after costs and unbilled hours.
- Runway calculator
See how many months your cash lasts at your current costs and sales.
Guides
- How to write a business plan
A useful plan is the next decision you need to make, with the gaps still visible.
- How much does it cost to start a business?
It depends on the business, and the useful number is the one you build from your own list.
- How to validate a business idea
Validate an idea by finding out whether people with the problem will give you time, then money, then a paid pilot, and treat anything less as encouragement.
- How to find a business idea
Start from work you know and problems you keep hearing, then test one idea cheaply.
- How to get your first customer
Ask one person with the problem to commit to a small, priced offer, then learn from what they do.
- How to calculate break-even
Divide your monthly fixed costs by the contribution per sale (price minus the cost of one sale), then round up to a whole sale.
- How to price a product or service
Work out what one sale costs you including your own pay, then set a price between that floor and what the result is worth to the customer.
- How to set your hourly rate
Add the income you want to take home and your yearly business costs, then divide by the hours you can realistically bill in a year, which is far fewer than the hours you work.
- How to start a business with no money
Shrink the first version until it costs almost nothing, get paid before you spend, and use what you already have, but know that some businesses have costs that cannot be skipped.
- What to do after writing your business plan
Test the riskiest assumption in your plan with real people before you file anything, then work through the official steps in order.
- How to use AI to write a business plan
An assistant can organize your notes. It cannot find out whether anyone will pay you.
- Which AI should you use for your business plan?
Use whichever assistant you can open today, because none is best for everyone, and check what it says against your own customers and costs.