What You Should Plan Out For Your New Business
Starting your own business can seem a little daunting and a complicated process when you're on the outside, looking in. For this reason, it's best to consider and plan things carefully before jumping in at the deep end.
This guide is aimed at people looking to start a business without having much capital in the bank.
Start by evaluating your skills
Many people start a business based on a hobby that they've had and have grown their skills on over time. Take the following example:
You start to bake cakes and grow your skills a little, you give your cakes to family and friends. After a little while, your family and friends come back and start giving you orders for more cakes. Word soon spreads and you begin getting orders in from further afield. You may now want to become registered with HMRC and make your business official.
This is a good way to start a business, start off by looking at the skills you currently have and how you can grow them in order to make your business a reality.
Know your limits
Now that you know your skills, you need to start looking at your limitations. When you run a business, you need to be able to carry out a lot of different duties, some of these you may have no idea of how to do.
It can feel a little uncomfortable looking inwards for your weaknesses, but it can help you to highlight areas that you may need further help with. This can include, your statutory obligations with HMRC, making sure you stick to deadlines, bookkeeping and accounts and other areas such as answering calls.
If you're trying to keep you costs low, it can be cheaper to invest in some software in order to keep on top of it, rather than hiring employees straight off the bat.
Are you motivated enough?
In order to keep your business going, you'll need to have the drive and passion to see it through. Even though it can be exciting to begin with, will you keep that passion going through into the following years?
Make sure you are 100% committed to your business idea and will be able to see it through the good times as well as the bad.
Is there a reason that you're starting your business?
Many people get bored with their career path and simply want a change of scenery, but this may not be a good enough reason for ditching your job in order to go it alone.
If you're not motivated in your current job, what makes you think you'll be motivated when the going gets tough in your own business? Remember that you need to have a good motivating factor that can keep you going in your business, even when you're only just starting out.
Are you the right age to be starting a business?
Even with an ageing population, and the retirement age increasing - you still need to ask if you're the right age to be starting and running a business.
While you should never specifically limit yourself by age, you need to consider the pro's and con's of starting a business at the age you are and how it may affect any entitlements. This can include: your state pension, National Insurance, and any private company pension you may have set-up.
Also, consider the type of job role you will be undertaking. If it's highly skilled (such as a plumber), can you keep up that level of skill in the years to come? It may sound a little harsh thinking of it in that way, but you need to take it into consideration.
Be professional from day one
First impressions count in business, this is more so with new businesses. You need to go out and inspire your prospective customers in order to win their trust, remember, you don't have a reputation to fall back on yet.
One good way of showing trustworthiness is to formally register your company with Companies House. This can show that you are a legitimate business and not a fly-by-night operation.
Summing Up
This list is nowhere near comprehensive of all the things you will need to look at before becoming registered and starting your business. However, it can be a good place to start when you're just beginning to think about starting out.
If you have any questions about becoming a registered company and taking the leap, then don't hesitate to get in touch with any questions you have. Our team are always happy to help.
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