Partner Article

Ten Top Tips for Aspiring Business Startups

Peter Jones of Dragon Den fame recently tweeted “Never a better time to start your own Company. Create a business from something you love doing. The long hours don’t seem so long when you love it”

Perhaps an optimistic view point from a successful entrepreneur. But his words echoed my own thinking. Having decided to start up on my own business management consultancy in September last year, I found it quite reassuring to read.

I recently gave up my relatively well paid full time job to fulfil my dream to start up “People Discovery” A dream I had harboured for a number of years. Although the realities of the economic climate were daunting, in every other aspect for me personally the time was right. So with some trepidation, I decided to forge ahead. The past 4 months or so have been a steep learning curve and the experience has been truly enlightening.

There is lots of great help out there for anyone wishing to start up their own business. One of the problems I found was wading my way through the masses of information to be able to get exactly what I needed. Having gone through this sorting process over the past 4 months, here is a summary of my top 10 tips so for anyone starting up. Further advice and information and my personal recommendations can be found at: www.peoplediscovery.co.uk/new-business-startup/

• Make sure you have industry level qualifications and experience relevant to your target market. You also need to have the right personal qualities. It is not for the faint-hearted.
• Link with a local business enterprise organisation. They will help you with all aspects of startup, and may even provide free business coaching or mentoring.
• Don’t underestimate your initial investment and funding. You will need to provide set up costs and some on-going costs until your business begins bringing in customers.
• Get legal. Understand how your company is to be structured. Register with HMRC and understand your anticipated tax liabilities. Book a free tax surgery with a local accountant.
• Get Branding. If you don’t understand what makes you stand out, then you will find it harder to sell your business. A good brand can include a logo and how you design your publicity material. You need to consider protecting your brand or product, by patenting or trademark.
• A website is a great tool to reach your audience. Get some expert advice from more than one website designer, and be clear about the purpose and design needs so it is accessible and useful for your customers.
• Marketing and PR are essential to getting your business to the right target market. Make sure you get some quality marketing and PR advice, or even some marketing coaching.
• Social Media and business networking are essential. Do your homework before joining and make sure that the network group is right for your kind of business before committing to subscription based networks.
• Get your location right. You may need premises, a virtual office or work from home. To be effective you may want to use a combination of these.
• You will need a business bank account, and appropriate business insurance. Some websites offer a wizard to work through so you can determine the type and level of insurance you need.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Christina Lattimer .