In this guide Harper, head of his own management consulting firm, discusses the aspects of becoming an entrepreneur practically and realistically. He covers choosing the type of business; writing the business plan; advertising; financing; and franchising.

Steps to Starting a Small Business

A Checklist for Starting a Small Business of Your Own

Checklists help ensure that you don't omit any important step in your program. This article is a kind of checklist that lists the steps for starting a small business, without going into details about each step.

Select Your Business: See the opening section of How to Start a Small Business and the article What Business to learn how to go about selecting a business with best chances of success.
Develop Your Business Plan: See the article on Small Business Planning for details on how to develop your business plan. In practice, you might need professional assistance to develop a realistic business plan.
Attend to Essential Legalities: Decide whether you will do business as sole trader, a partnership or company, and attend to required formalities. Select a business name that reflects your business and conveys the right image. Register it (unless you are a sole trader doing business in your own name) with local council, etc. You are likely to need assistance of a business lawyer to attend to the legalities.
Get Necessary Licenses and Permissions: Different kinds of licenses are needed for different types of businesses. Some are obtained from your local council, while others might have to be obtained from state or federal agencies. Location of the business should comply with zoning regulations. You can find about these requirements from your local council and from the small business support agency near you.
Set up Your Small Business: Start implementing the project to set up your business. You can learn more about project management from the article Small Business Startup Project.
Flesh up Your Plans: You would have to review and flesh up your financial and marketing plans as you start operations. Based on the prevailing situation and the results of negotiations with banks and distributors, these might need to be updated.
Set up Accounting & MIS Systems: You have to maintain accounts to satisfy tax officers, while you need analytical information about business operations to control operations.
Tax & Insurance Matters: Get a tax ID and arrange insurance for all relevant risks. If you are employing people, get employer ID.
Get Going: Start operations, gathering speed and momentum. Successful marketing is the key factor here.

As mentioned at the beginning, this is only a checklist. You will have to become familiar with the details by reviewing the more detailed articles given as links above. More importantly, getting into the field and arranging the different things will give you practical familiarity with the various issues.

Start a Small Business

Steps to Starting a Small Business

A Checklist for Starting a Small Business of Your Own