First steps towards starting your business

If you are setting up a brand new business, you need to decide if you will be launching with an established product or service or developing a completely new idea.

Whichever route you choose, you will need to understand your market, competitors and target audience. Business Gateway can provide support with market research including sector reports and help with individual research requests.

You may need to seek specialist advice on intellectual property protection to cover copyright, trade marking, design registration or patenting, and check you’re not infringing the intellectual property of others.

Remember, you don’t always need to set up from scratch when you begin working for yourself. Depending on your experience, lifestyle and resources, you could:

• buy an existing business

• take on your family’s business

• invest in a franchise.

From the beginning, give some thought to what your exit strategy may be in the future, as that can influence how you set up your business.

As you add detail to your ideas, you need to plan your finances, and identify the costs involved in starting up and think about how you will survive financially until your business is off the ground.

You’ll probably need to set up a business bank account and look into business insurance cover.

Our finance section has information on:

• options for funding

• accounting and bookkeeping

• cashflow and invoicing

• managing costs and debt

• tax, rates and duties.

This is a critical stage to be able to bring your ideas to reality. Business Gateway can support you to develop your business plan.

This is the time to give some thought to how to test if your idea is viable and how to avoid some of the common mistakes.

You will then need to consider the best legal structure for your business, for example setting up as a sole trader or a limited company. Or, if you are keen that your business has a social purpose, you may want to consider setting up a social enterprise.

That will influence your responsibilities around record keeping, tax and if you need to register your business with Companies House. It will also shape your options for choosing a name for your business.

Think about the practicalities and whether you will take a phased approach by launching part time or working from home or if you will need premises.

Marketing your business is critical to attract and retain customers, and grow your customer base. Before you start your marketing, make sure you’ve created a marketing plan, and understand different marketing techniques to find new customers.

You will also need to work out your aims and goals for launch, decide whether you are going to ‘pre-launch’ your business, and set up your digital presence.

Our marketing and sales section has a wealth of information on:

• planning and market research

• websites and selling online

• digital marketing, advertising, promotion and social media

• customer engagement

• marketing analytics

• managing the sales process

Our planning to start tool can provide a tailored list of next steps for you.

If you are seeking to employ staff from the beginning, then have a look at our human resources section.