Start Planning

Stage 2 of the InBiz self-employment programme enables you to attend a series of Business Awareness and Planning workshops. At these sessions you will be given help and support to:

Put your ideas down on paper
Complete your business plan
'crunch' the numbers
Prepare and understand a profit forecast and cash flow forecast
Learn more about marketing and getting customers, market research, budgeting, setting prices to make profits, dealing with bookkeeping, VAT and tax
Apply for funds from lenders and grant givers to help you get started.

An InBiz Business Adviser will give you all the help and support you need to get your business up and running. By getting the basics right, you'll start a better business and the more effort you put in at the beginning, will reward you time and time again in the future.

Market Research

Market research is the core of your business and business plan as it is necessary to find out as much as possible about the market place in which any new business is to operate.

You need to determine if there is a market for your business in the first place and also draw up a detailed customer profile to build up knowledge about your prospective customers. It is important that you know who your customers are and why they will buy from you, rather than your competitors.

Market research will also enable you test the market or your product before you launch your business.

Your Business Plan

Your business plan is pivotal to your business and will enable you to obtain finance to get your business off the ground. It will also help you to focus on where you want your business to go and how you're going to get there.

A good business plan will enable you to manage your business effectively and will need to be updated regularly. It gives a complete picture of the business in terms of product/service, market, competition, budget etc.

It is therefore important to write your business plan before starting your business - an InBiz Business Adviser can help with this.

Marketing

Marketing is important to any business - if you can match your product/services to the needs of your customers and these customers are happy, then they will continue to buy from you time and time again. Think in terms of what benefits the customer will get from dealing with the organisation. Understand everything about them.

Things you need to think about include:

Your product/service
Price
Customer satisfaction
Physical distribution
Advertising/promotion
Sales
Market information

You'll also need to consider your competition and decide on what sort of image you want your business to have and how you intend to convey this message to your customers. Your business image needs to be maintained and checked regularly with the reputation that your company actually has.

Your Budget

When starting your own business, it's important to remember that you will need to draw up a budget which shows your expected sales and costs. Keep your budget realistic as it will be a good guide in helping you decide how much financing you might require and when you'll need it.

At start-up, you need to raise as much finance as possible in order to ensure that your business has enough money to get going.

If possible, you should try to raise as much as you can from your own resources, but there are several sources of finance available to help you get started - talk to an InBiz Business Adviser to find out more.