How Should Successful Entrepreneurs Start a Business in Turkey?

Overview: Start a Business in Turkey

Hello there! If you’re planning to embark on a business adventure soon, you’re in the right place. Yes, you’re excited about starting a business; slightly nervous too, we get it. But this article is going to help you understand the responsibilities of a successful entrepreneur in Turkey. In this article, you’ll learn about dealing with issues you might face, from financial to legal, sales, and marketing to human resources issues. So, without further ado, let’s move on to how to start a business in Turkey.

Legal, funding, sales and marketing, intellectual property protection, liability protection, human resources, and other concerns must all be understood and dealt with when starting a business in Turkey. However, interest in starting a business is at an all-time high. Uber, Facebook, WhatsApp, Airbnb, and a slew of other early-stage startups have gone on to become multibillion-dollar businesses.^[1] Why not yours? Turkey is full of investment opportunities.

Here is an article for further reading: “Investing in Turkey: A Golden Opportunity for Foreign Investors.”

What Does an Entrepreneur Do?

First off, let’s talk about what entrepreneurs do. Entrepreneurs take conceptual service or product concepts and turn them into tangible reality, from a lightbulb moment to a shelf item. They may construct samples in the basement or code in the guest room in the interim. They look into who might be able to produce their concept and how much it would expense. They include these expenditures, as well as the other expenditures of starting a business and maintaining it, in the value of their services or goods. They do a market survey and figure out who their target audience is. Then they focus on sales, marketing, and promoting to inform potential consumers about their products and encourage them to purchase these products.^[3]

An entrepreneur’s emphasis is always on profit. Will it be possible for the company to pay itself off? Is outside funding required to accelerate the business’s success? If that’s the case, how much of the business is the entrepreneur willing to hand over to shareholders?^[3]

Entrepreneurs have additional obstacles when it comes to running a successful business, or starting a business. They must consider human resources, financial regulations, logistics, customer relations, and other factors while transitioning from a startup to a larger company. It’s an uncommon entrepreneur who combines a combination of these abilities. Employees, investors, mentors, and even consumers will all be needed.^[3]

Planning Your Business Before Starting Your Business

The first major understanding that should dawn upon any successful entrepreneur is the commitment and appreciation their business deserves. As a successful entrepreneur of the 21^st Century, you should always plan before your business starts taking shape. The planning should be made in terms of time, management, and energy that need to be put in.

In its initial days, your business might face challenges, but keeping a strong focus on your goal without getting discouraged would help overcome such challenges. Planning would provide you with a strong vision too. Plan for the unique product or service you want to offer since this will also help you allocate resources wisely for your business ideas. Like an infant, your business is going to need some extra attention and effort in the beginning. Expect more working hours until your business starts to take off and becomes successful.

To explain in more detail, to be successful in today’s corporate world, you must be adaptable and have excellent planning and superb organizing abilities. Many entrepreneurs start a business with the expectation of turning on their computers or opening their doors and immediately generating money, only to discover that earning profit in business is far more challenging than they anticipated. You may avoid this in your business efforts by spending your time and carefully preparing all of the procedures essential for success.^[2]

Here is an article for further reading: “Reasons to Start a Business in Turkey.”

Start a Business in Turkey with Legal Protection

Now that you’ve started getting serious with your business ideas, let’s discuss legal protection. As your business grows, your personal assets are going to face threats of debts from your start-up business loans and liabilities as well. These threats can be avoided by expert legal consulting and help. If you are starting a business, it’s advised you start it as a Limited Liability Company (LLC), which is “Limited Sirket” in Turkish, and not as a “sole proprietorship.” Setting up an LLC business is cost-effective. However, if you’re choosing to fill out the Certificate of Incorporation for your business, here are some procedures you need to follow:

• Maintaining legal annotations to your company name, such as “Inc.” or “Corp.”,
• Legally, you’re required to sign all official documents on the behalf of your company,
• Adhering to legal bylaws, such as supervised corporate meetings and other formalities,
• Funds and business bank accounts should be maintained separately,
• Separating individual transactions from corporate transactions,

Other than these, legal help must be sought for issues concerning copyright, human resource management, and other company policies as well as Articles of Association.

Keeping it Fresh When you Start a Business in Turkey

Finally, you’re done with the legal hassles. But your work isn’t done yet. Now comes the most creative and colorful part, which is naming your start-up business! Yes, picking a name for your business that feels just right is an important factor in determining your company’s success. Not to mention by choosing the right name, you can avoid hours of legal paperwork and hassles. While choosing the name of your business, you should however keep the following in mind:

• The name should be unique and creative without being incomprehensible,
• Avoid names that are confusing or are similar to other popular brands; an internet search on a trademark can prove to be extremely effective in this regard,
• Make sure the name of your company or business is flexible enough to allow minor changes as the business grows,
• If you wish to get an internet domain for your business, a “.com” domain works better than a “.net” domain,
• Consulting your peers and a creative team is always recommended when choosing a name for your company or a start-up business,
• Acquiring knowledge of the market can help you choose a name that is politically appropriate and is not offensive towards a group or belief.

Deciding on the Product that Works Best for Your Company

As a 21^st Century Entrepreneur, it’s expected that you will have a sound knowledge of the market you are going to cater to. Not only does this help you plan your products accordingly, but it also helps you plan your business around them. So, when you start a business, it should be based on products that can have a positive impact on the market. If your product makes a meaningful contribution to the market, it can make your business stand out among its competitors.

However, don’t be afraid if you face some initial roadblocks. Instead, feedback will help you understand the market and your customers better. And with this new understanding, you can approach the market with an improved product. In recent times, most successful entrepreneurs prefer taking their products through beta testing. The beta testing helps in evaluating the product in terms of reception and saleability.

Taking your Start-up Business Online

We belong in an era where almost every product or service is available online. So, to make your company accessible from home, you need an appropriately designed website. Devoting time and resources to building a website that looks and feels great is a worthy investment and can make your business popular. If you’re inclined towards building a website for your business, we have the following recommendations:

• Like every business, your official start-up business website should be built from scratch. Planning a template for your website is a good place to start,
• Keeping a tab on the market demands and competitor websites is also advised,
• Make sure your business website is easily accessible, without bugs or technical errors,
• The website should be visually aesthetic, with original, plagiarism-free content,
• Your customers should have a concise idea of the products from your website, so try to keep your website clutter-free,
• Your website should have a section devoted to the Terms of Use Agreement and Privacy Policy,

Now that you have significant knowledge of the responsibilities of a successful entrepreneur, the rest of the journey shouldn’t be too difficult. Get your business out in the world and dazzle the market!  If you have followed this article closely, this should be a cakewalk for you. All the best for your start-up business venture!

Here is an article for further reading: “Opening a Business in Turkey.”

How can you Become A Successful Entrepreneur?

It’s critical to emphasize right on that there is no magic pill that can turn you into a wealthy and successful entrepreneur overnight. There is, however, a nearly formulaic combination of entrepreneurial talents that may help set outstanding businessmen and women apart from the rest, for those willing to work hard to achieve.^[4] These are the following:

• Don’t accept “no” as an answer,
• Take notes and learn from the finest,
• Continue to be passionate and driven,
• Never remain static; change with the times,
• Long-term commercial connections should be nurtured,
• Motivate others around you,
• Rather than relying on your statistics, trust your instincts.

References

1. Harroch, R. (2018, July 17). The Complete 35-Step Guide For Entrepreneurs Starting A Business. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2018/07/15/35-step-guide-entrepreneurs-starting-a-business/?sh=57fb6811184b
2. 9 Tips for Growing a Successful Business. (n.d.). Investopedia. Retrieved June 21, 2021, from https://www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/08/make-money-in-business.asp
3. Ohio University. (2020, September 3). 5 Entrepreneur Tips for Starting a Successful Business. https://onlinemasters.ohio.edu/blog/entrepreneur-tips-for-starting-a-business/
4. The British Library. (n.d.). How To Become A Successful Entrepreneur. Retrieved June 21, 2021, from https://www.bl.uk/business-and-ip-centre/articles/how-to-become-a-successful-entrepreneur