A Business Plan

The first thing you need when starting up a business is a business plan. You should be ambitious but realistic; you need to aim high but also think about what is genuinely possible. You should set yourself specific goals so it is easy to track your progress compared to the business plan. A good business plan is particularly important if you are seeking funding. You need to take into consideration all of your potential costs and growth forecasts over the first three years.

You should also think about what can set you apart from the competition. Do you do something they don’t? Are you cheaper than them? Do you offer a better quality service? There needs to be something about your company that puts you ahead of the competition, otherwise you will struggle to take their business, especially if you are targeting a congested market.

A Business Name

Obviously any business needs a name, and a good name is not always easy to come up with. You might want to make the name eye catching or want it to reflect the type of business you are. A good name can be part of the branding of the company. If people can remember your name they will remember your business.

Money

You are likely to need capital to start a business and you must think about where this is going to come from. How much you are going to need will depend on the business. You may have enough set aside already or it might involve having to borrow.

Premises

You will need premises to work from. Depending on the business this could be an office, a shop, a factory or other premises. You may need to think strongly about location or it might not be so important. If it is a shop or cafe, for example, then location is crucial. You need to be situated somewhere people are likely to walk past. On the other hand you might just need a small office, and working from home could be sufficient if you have no employees.

Rules of your Industry

Many industries have certain laws that businesses need to abide by. There may be specific health and safety rules for example. If you are employing others you need to take employment laws into consideration. Tax and financial laws are crucial. They are not exactly everybody’s idea of fun but it is, unfortunately, something that needs to be thought about. Breaking these laws could mean big problems further down the line and using the services of an accountant may be a wise move.

A Website

Most businesses now have a website. It can be an extremely useful tool for gaining business and every business should have one. It doesn’t need to be anything too complex but should be professionally designed, with the services of a professional web design agency probably necessary. It is also important to have adequate hosting, preferably business hosting that is specifically designed for business websites.

Research and Planning

You don’t want to spend your whole life doing research and never actually doing anything towards your business, but you don’t want to jump straight in without being prepared either. You need to research the industry you are going into. The more you learn the better prepared you will be before going into business. This may include researching the competition to see how you can get an advantage over them.

Marketing

Virtually every business needs to be marketed. The type of marketing will depend on the type of business and could include the following:

• Television advertising

• Free giveaways

• SEO services for your website

• Leaflets through people’s doors

Contingency Plans

Remember that things can go wrong. Try to think about what might go wrong and plan for these eventualities. You don’t want your business to suddenly go under at the first sign of a minor problem so make sure you are in a position to survive these.

Andrew Marshall (c)