Starting a Business Checklist (3 Months, 15 Steps)
Every step to start a business in order, from validating the idea to opening day, with what to decide and verify at each stage.
Starting a business is mostly paperwork wrapped around two or three real decisions. This checklist puts the steps in the order the registration process forces on you, because several of them cannot begin until the previous one produced a document. Ninety days is enough if nothing waits on you.
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1.Validate idea and business plan
Write the plan to answer one question: at what monthly revenue does this cover your costs, and how many customers is that? If you cannot name the number, the rest of the checklist is premature.
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2.Study the market
Talk to ten potential customers before you register anything. Ask what they pay today for the problem you solve — a price they already pay is evidence, an expressed interest is not.
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3.Choose legal structure
This is the one decision that is expensive to reverse: it sets your liability, your tax treatment and your social contributions. Compare at least two structures with an accountant before drafting anything.
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4.Draft articles of incorporation
Template articles are fine for a sole founder and dangerous with partners. With co-founders, settle share split, vesting and what happens if one leaves — now, while everyone still agrees.
- D-50
5.Deposit share capital
The bank or notary issues a deposit certificate, and registration will not proceed without it. Set capital high enough to look credible to suppliers rather than at the legal minimum.
- D-45
6.Publish legal notice
Where your jurisdiction requires a public announcement, budget a few days and keep the proof of publication: the registry asks for it and reissuing one costs another cycle.
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7.Register the business
File through the official one-stop portal with every attachment ready — articles, capital certificate, proof of address, ID. Missing documents do not get flagged immediately; they come back as a rejection two weeks later.
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8.Obtain registration certificate
Nothing downstream works without your company number: no bank account, no invoicing, no supplier account. Allow one to three weeks and chase the registry if it drifts past that.
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9.Open business bank account
A separate account is the difference between clean books and a reconstructed year. Compare monthly fees, card limits and the payment tools you actually need before signing.
- D-25
10.Get insurance
Professional liability is the baseline, and many clients will not sign a contract without the certificate. Check whether your trade requires mandatory cover, which usually must be in place before the first job.
- D-21
11.Register for taxes (VAT, etc.)
Decide your VAT position before your first invoice, because changing it retroactively is painful. Note the filing frequency and the first due date in the same calendar you run the business from.
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12.Create visual identity
Check the name is free as a trademark and as a domain before you pay a designer. Two hours of searching now beats rebranding in month six.
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13.Create website
One page with what you sell, for whom, and how to reach you beats a site you keep rebuilding. Legal notices and terms belong there from day one, not after the first complaint.
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14.Set up accounting
Choose the tool and the accountant before the invoices exist, not after. Set the invoice numbering and the receipt filing routine now: reconstructing three months of expenses costs a weekend.
- D-0
15.Launch the business
Launch to the people from step 2 first — they already told you they had the problem. Have one paying customer lined up for the first week rather than an announcement with no follow-up.
How to adapt this checklist
The 15 steps hold for most new businesses, but three variables move them.
Solo or with partners. Alone, steps 3 to 5 can take a week. With co-founders, step 4 is the longest item on the list — the shareholders’ agreement matters more than the articles, and it is the conversation nobody wants to have twice.
Regulated trades. Construction, food, health, transport and financial advice add licences, qualification proof or mandatory insurance before you can trade. Those checks belong before step 7, not after: registering does not grant you the right to practise.
Whether you are already selling. If revenue starts on day one, pull steps 9, 11 and 14 forward. Invoicing without a bank account and a tax position set is how a first year becomes an accounting cleanup.
The steps people underestimate
Step 7, registration. It is treated as a formality and it is where the calendar actually breaks. One missing attachment costs two weeks, and every later step waits on it.
Step 10, insurance. Clients ask for the certificate at signature, not at delivery. Without it, your first contract stalls for reasons that have nothing to do with your work.
Step 14, accounting. Cheap to set up in advance, expensive to reconstruct. Decide the tooling before the first invoice leaves.
This is the same 15-step plan DraftLine generates, with real dates counted back from your launch day.
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