Have you started a small business? Nowadays, more and more people are opting to set up their own small business in an attempt to escape the rat race and work towards building their own dreams rather than making someone else’s dreams a reality. However, setting up a business can actually prove to be a relatively complex process. That said, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the start up process before throwing yourself in the deep end!
Here are just a few areas to prioritize as you get the ball rolling in the right direction.
Company Formation
One of the first steps to take when it comes to setting up your company is to engage with company formation. If you are unfamiliar with the process of starting a company, then www.yourcompanyformations.co.uk can help you out. This process essentially establishes your business as a distinct legal entity, making everything official. What a blessing that is!
Product and Service Development
Once the ball is rolling, it’s time to start seriously considering what kind of products or services you are intending to provide the consumer market. If you already have an idea, that’s great. But if you’re feeling lost and are unsure what area you’d like to specialize in, choose something that you are genuinely interested in and try to identify a gap in the market within this field.
The marketplace is already a saturated place, so be diligent in doing your homework as you plan. It could be difficult to offer a product or service that already exists – someone else has already established their company as a leading brand or force and chances are that they have more money to play with when it comes to advertising and securing brand loyalty. Identifying a gap means you have a good opportunity to dominate an area of the marketplace for yourself. And pray, as we know God hears our prayers and guides our steps.
The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Psalm 37:23 (NLT)
Conduct Market Research
No matter how good you think your idea is and how much encouragement you get from friends and family members, it’s essential to conduct market research. Market research is essentially a process where you pitch your products to your target demographic to find out what they think of them. You gain a whole lot of information, including:
- Whether your product concept appeals to people.
- What to improve about your product.
- Whether similar products are already sourced from someone else and who provides these alternative products.
Engaging this process provides unbiased information and advice from the exact people you are targeting. These are the people that your company relies on for sales and profit, so who better to ask?
At the end of the day, no matter how much time, effort, and money you pour into your business, everything will be wasted if people don’t want to buy what you have to offer. Once you’ve got the go ahead with your product concept, use market research to determine whether your products will be financially viable and potentially profitable. You can ask target consumers regarding:
- Their income (to figure out an average so you know how much disposable income the consumer you are targeting earns).
- How much they would be willing to pay for the product you are offering.
This insight helps you set realistic price points and profit margins. If there’s a large margin, move forward. If profit margin is minimal after covering your cost of goods or paying for manufacturing, packaging, shipping, and other factors, reconsider.
As you see, conducting market research before going any further helps you make wise investments. You are able to determine the viability of the product then decide to move forward with bringing your concepts to life that will actually sell. If you are unfamiliar with conducting market research yourself, not to worry. There are plenty of different tutorials out there that can help you find participants and ask the right questions. However, generally speaking, it’s best to outsource this service. This ensures your market research is conducted with as little bias as possible (as it will be carried out by a third party) allowing you to better spend your time focusing on other areas of your business’ progression while market research is being carried out.
These, of course, are just the starting blocks of getting your own successful business up and running, yet everyone has to start somewhere. Focus on these areas helps you get things off to a great start!
And remember to pray God’s promise as you begin your new business…
Guide my steps by your word, so I will not be overcome by evil. Psalm 119:133 (NLT)