According to one recent study conducted by the Small Business Administration, there are approximately 32.5 million organizations that classify as a small business in operation in the United States. Half of all American workers are either employed by a small business or own a small business and are significant drivers of not only the economy in this country but on a global scale as well.Coming up with an idea for a new business, however, is one thing. Actually becoming a successful business owner is something else entirely.According to another study, only about 48% of small business organizations survive beyond their five-year anniversary. This is due to a large number of reasons including uncertainty in terms of economic development, changing consumer behaviors, cash flow problems, and more.Because of that, if you're going to start a new business, you need to have more than just an idea. An excellent product or service can only get you so far if your business structure isn't where it needs to be. There are several critical steps that need to be taken that go beyond your initial business idea to help make sure that you end up as one of the approximately 52% of business owners that are still here five, 10, or even 20 years from now.To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to think about factors like business financing. You need to guarantee that your legal structure is in order. You need to focus on market research so that you fully understand the customers you've dedicated yourself to serving.Business insurance, workforce development, your business entity type - all of these things must be considered before you "hit the ground running" and try to bring your initial vision to life.Any seasoned business veteran will tell an aspiring entrepreneur that it takes a long time to become an "overnight success." A rock-solid foundation must first be laid so that you have something stable to build from moving forward.But while the process of starting a business is time-consuming, it isn't necessarily as difficult as some people assume it to be. Running a successful business requires you to follow a precise process and to keep a few important things in mind along the way.1. Hone Your Business Idea By far, the most important step to take when starting a new business involves making sure that your actions are motivated by the right idea in the first place.It's not too difficult to come up with an idea for a new product or service. But what makes yours unique? For the best results, you should be able to easily answer the following three questions:What is it that your product or service does?How is it different from similar products or services that are already on the market?What problems does it solve for your potential customers or what value does it bring to their lives?If the answer to any of those questions is "I don't know," you need to go back to the drawing board and refine your idea until things start to come into focus.Market research will help enormously to that end. Your primary motivator when starting a business should be to bring something fresh and exciting to people's lives. Therefore, it stands to reason that in order to do that, you need to know as much about who these people are as possible.Thorough market research will allow you to drill down your potential customers in an almost intimate level of detail. Who are these people? What do they need? What do they want? What do they like? What do they dislike?Market research can help you answer all of these questions and more. Not only will this then be the insight that you can use to refine your initial idea, but it will inform a lot of the choices you'll make from that point forward. Marketing is a prime example of that.2. Develop the Right Business PlanNext comes what is arguably the most essential part of starting a new business - making sure that you have the right business plan to operate from at the outset.At this point, you'll continue to ask yourself a series of important questions. What is the overall purpose of your business? What long-term goals do you hope to accomplish? How are you going to come up with the business finances necessary to get your enterprise off the ground?Keep in mind that everyone's answers to these questions will be a bit different because every situation is unique. There is no "one size fits all" approach to starting a business.Once you know what you're doing and most importantly why, you can begin to put together a plan for how you're going to accomplish it.Again, market research will prove invaluable to that end because it helps you better understand your target customers. You'll also want to conduct a competitive analysis to see what other companies in the industry are offering similar products and services to yours. At that point, you can figure out what they're doing well - and what you can do even better.Although it may seem counterintuitive, you'll also want to think about a potential exit strategy at this point. Keep in mind that you're trying to put together a roadmap for your new business, essentially. You need to know where you're starting and where you hope to end up in order to connect those two points in the most efficient way possible.Therefore, if you hope to start a successful business and sell it in 10 years, you need to start making decisions with that goal in mind. If you want to leave the business to your kids so that it stays in the family once you retire, you'll need to begin thinking about how to accomplish that, too. Tax planning actually starts before you choose your business entity and structure. 3. Dive Into the Financial Side of the EquationAnother part of starting a business comes down to business finances. This, too, will play a pivotal role in the plan that you're in the process of developing.First, you'll want to consider how you're going to come up with the funds necessary to start your business in the first place. Do you have the cash on-hand to cover startup costs, or will you be taking out a business loan? What do those startup costs actually look like in your scenario?Obviously, startup costs will be smaller if you're selling entirely online via an eCommerce portal as opposed to opening up a brick-and-mortar retail location, so all of this needs to be carefully considered.Keep in mind that a number of small business services exist to help people in your exact situation. In addition to the aforementioned business loans you also have the option of business grants or even third-party investors. Crowdfunding is also a very popular option these days to pull in funding from multiple sources.You'll also need to perform what is called a "Break Even Analysis." As the name suggests, this is the total amount of money you need to make by way of your product or service for your new business to be profitable.This number will vary wildly depending on the industry. In some, like food services, it can take years for you to break even and start turning a profit. In others, it will be a much smaller amount of time.In general, take the fixed costs associated with starting your business and divide them by variable costs subtracted by the average price of your product or service. The number you're left with will give you the break-even point.