Before you start

You do not need a fancy plan or a big pot of money to begin. You need a clear idea, a rough plan, and to know where the free help is. This chapter covers all three.

Start with your idea

Before you spend money, ask three simple questions:

• Who will buy this? Picture a real customer. The more clearly you can, the better.
• Will they pay enough? Add up what it costs you to make or do the thing. Charge more than that.
• Who else does this? Look at other businesses like yours. What can you do better, cheaper, or closer to home?

This is called market research. It just means learning about your customers and your rivals before you begin. You can do a lot of it for free — talk to people, look online, and visit places like yours.

Write a simple business plan

A business plan is just your idea written down. It helps you think clearly, and you will need one if you ever ask for a loan or a grant. A good first plan answers:

• What you sell, and who to.
• How much it costs to run, and what you will charge.
• How you will find customers.
• How much money you need to start.
• A simple guess at your money coming in and going out for the first year. This is called a cash-flow forecast.

You do not have to do this alone. Free templates and advisers can walk you through it.

Get free help: Business Gateway

This is the most important thing in this chapter.

There is more free help too — loans, grants and support for certain trades and areas. You will find all of it in the Funding and support chapter.

A few things to sort early

You do not need these on day one, but keep them in mind. Each has its own chapter:

• Choose how to set up — as a sole trader, a company, or a partnership. See Choosing your structure.
• Open a business bank account and start keeping records from your very first sale. See Money and tax.
• Check if you need a licence. Some trades — like food, or selling alcohol — need one, and some take months to come through. See Your legal responsibilities.
• Sort out insurance for your kind of work.