Some people make their New Year’s resolution to join a gym in hopes of improving their health and fitness. Some want to learn a new language and decide to finally sign up for lessons. Some take a look at their bookshelf and make a goal to read every novel that’s gone untouched. Your resolution is a little more ambitious — you’re going to fulfill your dreams of becoming an entrepreneur.

If you’re not sure how to get started on your goal, read ahead:

Establish What You Want to Do:

The first thing that you need to do is figure out your niche — this is the industry that you want to tap into and what kind of business you want to start. It’s not enough to know that you want to open up a restaurant. You have to consider other factors:

  • What type of food are you serving?
  • Is the restaurant family-friendly?
  • Is it casual or fine dining?
  • Is it open all year-round? Or is it seasonal?

You don’t have to know every single detail, but you should have a general idea about what you’re shooting for. Planning your next steps will be much easier when you have a clear direction to go in.

Look for Funding Opportunities:

Before you start printing out your business cards and updating your LinkedIn account, you need to think about money. Most ventures will require significant funding to get started. You can’t rent an office space or hire staff-members with nothing to offer.

If you don’t have a hefty sum sitting in your bank account, you should consider turning to finance companies in Baltimore to help you get this dream off of the ground. It’s a quick and simple way to get access to financial support, especially for entrepreneurs that are worried about getting their applications rejected by big banks. Since banks have strict standards that often send aspiring business owners home empty-handed, these companies can be incredibly useful alternatives.

Do Your Research:

One motto that every entrepreneur should follow is to always be looking — this means that you should be researching information that can relate to your business constantly.

If you have the time and financial access, you can take part-time classes at a college to learn skills like accounting and marketing. If you don’t, you can learn how to do almost anything on the internet. Learn about social media marketing to quickly build up your business’s brand and draw in an active audience. Or learn about bookkeeping so that you can keep your finances in order.

Jump When You’re Ready:

If you have the funding, the skills and the idea, you’ll have the essential building blocks for your business. Now, you can get your location, set up shop and get ready to launch.

Emotionally, you may not feel prepared. That’s completely normal. Taking this step will be stressful and scary, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go through with it anyway. It’s time to jump into that deep end. Soon enough, you’ll find that you’re swimming just fine.

By the end of 2020, you’ll have accomplished your goal of becoming an entrepreneur. When the countdown to 2021 ends and the champagne bottles pop, you’ll have to come up with a brand-new resolution to follow.