 You’ve got a brilliant business idea and you’re raring to get started. So, what’s next? Is there a typical time it takes to develop a business idea and launch it on the world? Is it possible to get your business running in less than a month?
In short, yes. Working from a focused action plan, ensuring you complete all the necessary activities, you can 100% become your own boss in less than a month. Here’s what you need to do. Research Estimated time: 3 days You can’t launch a business without first doing a bit of homework. Your first three days should be spent answering the following key questions:
You don’t need to spend money gathering these insights, much of it is available for free online (competitor websites, TripAdvisor, Google Reviews, Reddit, Facebook) or simply by walking down your local high street, or talking to people. Gather as much insight as you can and get it all down. This will help you build an important picture and tell you if you should go ahead with your business idea. Remember:
Hopefully, you can now move forwards with confidence. Planning Estimated time: 3 days The next stage is to work out what you’re going to need to get your business up and running. We’re talking the basics here. Given the timeframes, you’re going to need to scale down your ambitions and look to launch something that can be refined once you’re generating income. Where are you going to run your business? Running a business from home is clearly a cheaper and easier solution when you’re getting started. But, if you need to find premises, co-working spaces are growing in popularity across the UK. What equipment are you going to need? Having a decent computer or laptop is nigh-on essential these days, but, if you’re working from home, you’ll also want to spend money on creating a suitable office environment. Clean space, clean mind, and all that. The rest will clearly depend on the type of business you’re setting up. For example, a street food business will need cooking equipment, whilst a plumbing business will need a van. What suppliers are you going to need? Most businesses will need suppliers of some kind. That can include manufacturers, distributers, and importers. Even if you don’t sell anything physical, you’re still going to need to have in place service providers for things like IT, electricity, energy, and website hosting. And, don’t forget, insurance. Finances Estimated time: 5 days You can now start piecing together your business plan. This is a crucial document that will provide an overview of your business idea and vision, the research and planning you’ve done in the last week, before moving on to your financial models (pricing and legal structure etc) and marketing plans (more on that in a moment). Whilst it’s easy to be overawed by this task, it’s important to note that your business plan is a working document; something that will evolve over time. Don’t worry about it being perfect at this stage. What it should do, though, is give you an idea of the finances you’re going to need for launch and your day-to-day operations. Are you going to fund the business yourself? Through friends and family? Through the bank? Or, perhaps, through alternative funding routes such as crowdfunding? Whatever you do, don’t dive in until you’ve weighed up all the options. Marketing Estimated time: 5 days It’s important to leave some money left over for promoting your business. After all, you’re going to struggle to bring in money if people don’t know your business exists. However, it’s definitely wise to keep your promotional expenditure to a modest level. It’s all too easy to flutter away your limited funds on ineffective tactics and strategies. So, what are the things you should definitely have in place? Your business name, logo, website and social media pages are all pretty much essential, and should cost little to set up, although, you might want to recruit a freelancer to help you on some aspects. Once they’re in place you can start to think about your marketing tactics and draw out a plan. The research work you did right at the beginning should play a key role in shaping who, what and how you want to promote your business. Tried and tested cost-effective tactics include Google AdWords, Facebook ads, and email marketing – but there’s no harm in also printing some business cards. Readying for launch Estimated time: 3 days Before you launch your business on the world there are a number of admin-based tasks you’ll need to do. These include:
That’s it! Well, at least these are the basics to getting your business launched. Clearly you could spend much longer planning and preparing your business, but then you might risk losing your momentum. Plus, the insights you’ll gather once you’re up and running are often the most Comments are closed.
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