A smattering of entrepreneurial spirit runs through us all. We’ve all had a thought at least once in our lives along the lines of: ‘I could do that’, ‘If this business did this, it would be so much better’ or started a sentence with, ‘You know what would be a good idea?’ In many, it is more than a spiritual smattering. Every business there has ever been started from a thought which manifested itself into an idea which then turned into something tangible.
New businesses are sprouting up all over the place at a rate probably greater than you imagined. Some of them flourish and others not so much.
The good news for those wishing to start up a business is that micro and small businesses represent more than 95% of all UK companies. Although competition is fiercer than ever, it’s now much easier and cheaper to start up your own new business thanks to the advances in technology and connectivity of the business world.
Here are 6 necessities to be an entrepreneur and start up your own business.
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An Entrepreneurial Mindset
‘Mighty oaks from little acorns grow’ – In other words, you have to start from somewhere and who knows, your idea might grow into something you could have only dreamed of. To start a business, however, you need to have that all-important idea. What do you want to do? What expert service can you provide? How can you do it better than someone else? What product do you want to bring to market?
Entrepreneurs have ideas and more importantly, act on them in a business-savvy manner. Also vitally important to note is that not everyone succeeds the first time around or has instant success, some businesses take time to grow before they come to fruition, so persistence is a much-needed character in the entrepreneurial mindset.
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Know Your Market
Your market consists broadly of three main constituents: your customers, your competitors and your suppliers. It goes without saying that your customers are the ones who are going to give you an income so you need to know exactly what they want, what they like and how much they’ll spend to give you an insight. You might think there is a gap in the particular field you’re interested in or you may believe that you can either do something better than an existing business or bring something slightly different and stylish to the market. Market trends often bring about new opportunities and avenues, for example, an explosive trend at the minute is craft, micro-breweries producing weird and wonderful ales.
Understanding what your customer wants will enable you to translate your product or service into something sellable. Research everything. Look at what your potential competitors are doing, analyse their good points and bad points and make your business better! Alternatively, you could create something completely brilliant (like Apple did with the iPod) and generate a need in your customers! Bear in mind that such ‘out of the blue’ inventions are usually created after a series of failed attempts.
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Desire & Motivation
Although this sounds obvious, a desire to run your own business is integral; but this has to be done for the right reasons. Sometimes just saying that you don’t want to work for your boss anymore isn’t enough because it’s not a lasting reason. Running your own company is going to be hard work, going about this half-heartedly is going to be a waste of your time.
It boils down to motivation. If you really want to start your own business and become the entrepreneur you’ve been dreaming about then you’re probably on to a winner, but if you think it may just be a fad or hobby that will fizzle out then it may be best to reconsider your thoughts and actions.
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Belief in your Business
An unswerving faith and belief in your business is one thing that will get you through the hard times, assuming that your idea is a good one (if you have an unwavering desire to create the ultimate waterproof sponge, you’d hope that you’d have some honest and trustworthy advisers to perhaps tell you otherwise).
As your business grows and you start to expand a time may come when you bring other people on board and have employees working for you. An inspiring and enthusiastic business outlook will be infectious amongst your employees leading not only to a better atmosphere but increased morale and a more productive team. If you believe then this can be passed on to your customers, which will help your business prosper.
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Adapt Quickly
Change is going to be a constant so the ability to deal with change and adapt quickly is going to be a key commodity to your successful start-up. The course of your company will change as you receive feedback, conduct research and collect data. For this reason, you have to retain an open mind, learn new skills and embrace the input you are receiving. Without the ability to adapt quickly, you may find yourself falling behind and becoming over-awed with the vision of how you thought things were going to play out.
Although these 6 points are all necessities when it comes to starting your own business, we know we have skimmed the surface and a lot more is also needed to get your idea off the ground. Financing your idea, the financial organisation of the company and legal set-up are three huge areas that you need to get right from the get-go to give you the best chance of survival and success.
At Gorvins we have a number of Corporate-Commercial solicitors who have provided expertise to many start-ups over the years which have put them in a great position for the future. To speak to a solicitor today, call 0161 930 5151 or email your enquiry across to enquiries@gorvins.com.
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