You need an idea to fill a need for goods or services to start a new business. You could be setting up an import-export firm to import or export goods that one area has difficulty in getting and the other area has an abundance to export, but you have to take into account routine factors. Are you insuring shipments from potential damage and theft? Is your storage area or warehouse guarded from potential damage or theft, and are you properly insured?

There are many risks in business in terms of routine operations as well. Another factor is that ?time is money?. It can be very important to a business owner to get money back for an investment in goods by a certain time. This is called the ?cash cycle?. There is a big difference in the amount of business you can do if you have purchased goods turned back into cash in the bank in 30 days as opposed to 60 days. With the first time period, you can do twice as much business with the same amount of capital investment. In order to accelerate their cash cycle, some goods merchants find a way to sell their accounts receivable to a bank or other financial agency acting as a ?factor?. Although they lose 10-20-percent of the face value of the account receivable, they have the cash immediately available for further investment.

Other routine factors for businesses include adequate insurance in case of accidents or theft, or even natural disasters. Do you have the insurance you need (business, liability, workers' compensation)? Physical activities such as truck driving, construction, and the like require adequate insurance. In an office, people can be hurt in freak accidents from slipping on the floor, to something being dropped on them. So having workers in an office all the time is no excuse to be without worker's compensation. Goods being shipped have to be insured against being lost, stolen or damaged in transient.
Other potential situations to insure against include the theft of merchandise and stock from your business, the theft of important documents, accounting journals and papers of your business, insurance against various other sorts of crimes and insurance against the damaging or destruction of equipment. In addition, if some other type of event, such as the disruption of key transportation to your place of business occurs, this can also be insured against.