There are many people who see something new and think ‘that was my idea’. The difference is, the other guys acted on their, and your, idea. At StartUp Suffolk we encourage you to act on your idea. We can help you access local organisations and people with the experience to help you put your idea in to practice and get into business.

Research

The most important pre-start processes are research and planning. In the early days of your venture you will be ‘burning cash’, spending your seed capital in the expectation of generating sales and profits later. We all think ‘our idea’ is exciting, and it is great that we do. What really matters is, are there other people who share the excitement, are there enough of them, and will they pay YOU enough to make a business from the idea. To check out the answers to these most basic questions you will need to do some research.

Before you spend a lot of time and money you need to know that there are enough people willing to pay enough money to you, and not to a competitor existing now or who may start up soon, to make your effort worthwhile and give you a profit on your time and cash investment.

Sources of advice for research and many other business support topics can be found on the 'FRIENDS' tab.

Planning

Many would be business owners (and not a few already in business) get in a real knot over planning. There are many uses for a business plan, most of the ones you will find on an internet search will give you a template for an elaborate document to impress a funder. What you need first is a ‘Sat Nav’ for your way on your business journey that tells you what needs to be done each, day, week, month to be successful. The most important plan is the daily activity plan that will fill your sales pipeline. After that, the plans for costs and cash flow are vital too. The plan for your sales pipeline needs to identify how many potential customers (prospects) you need details of each day, how many you must contact for the first, second, third, fourth and fifth times each day to get an appointment, how many appointments you must get each day to get an order, and how many orders you must get each day to give you enough sales value. You also need to factor in the delays in providing the goods or service before you can invoice and the delay before you actually get paid.

Sources of advice for research and many other business support topics can be found on the 'FRIENDS' tab.

Getting Started

Other people like your idea, the research is done, the plan is written you have (or likely have borrowed) enough cash to get started, what next? The first thing to remember is that TV shows like Dragons Den and the Apprentice are entertainment. Really successful business people spend all their time managing risk. That means recognising you must take risk, but keeping those risks small. For a new business that probably means test marketing to a few customers, buying the minimum stock (even if that means you make a loss whilst testing), borrowing or renting equipment, working from home or begging a desk from a friend before you rent an office.

The important thing to do is to try the reality of satisfying a few customers and compare the results to your plan. If it cost more and took longer, that’s normal. Adjust your plan and get the new answers to your sales, costs, profit and cash flow. If you cannot make it work, be realistic about which parts will get better and how long it will take to get better. If it will not work STOP before it costs you too much money and find another way or another idea.

Sources of advice for Getting Started and many other business support topics can be found on the 'FRIENDS' tab. Finding a friend who has done something similar to your idea and asking them to mentor you is a great idea, many good people will be honoured and help you for free, but do not be afraid to pay for a mentor, they are great value.