In our previous post, 5 Essential Tips to Know Before Business Launch Day, we looked at 5 foundational stones to starting a business: Budgets; Systems; Work Space; Branding; and Planning for Growth. This article drills down in a little more detail to 5 more essential things to get in order as you launch a new business.

Do your homework, because there’s no saying that the dog ate it when it comes to your own business.

Names are More Than Meaningless Lingo

We spoke before about the importance of branding.  However, in the start-up phase you need to pay some close attention to what you’re called in HMRC terms. Essentially at this stage that’ll be ‘sole trader’ or ‘limited company’. The difference between these affect everything from how you pay your tax, to what your responsibilities are. Getting it right matters.

Keep Your Friends Close, But Your Enemies Closer

Ok, we don’t expect you’ve got real enemies. But in the world of business, you need to know your competitors inside out: who they are, what they do, their strengths, weaknesses, their market, and their pricing.

Find out what it is about them that you are drawn to, and you’ll likely identify where you can add that cherry on the top, making you irresistable to future clients or customers.

Know Your Own Wallet

Yes, you need to know how the finances and cashflow look for the business as a whole, but you also need to know what your resources are, and what you need. During the early stage of starting a business, you and the business are joined at the hip: you will eat, sleep, and talk The Business.

So you need to work out how much cash you need to live on whilst you’re getting things up and off the ground. Given that 50% of all start-ups fail within 5 years, you need to be in the right 50%. You don’t want to be shutting down the business because the landlord has come knocking, in your personal life.

Plan, Plan, and Then Plan Again

We understand that your passion behind starting a business is unlikely in the admin and the business processes that go on behind the scenes.

However, whether you’re a talented designer, chef, plumber or lawyer, you need to get one thing right: The Business Plan. The most successful businesses have the best laid plans.

Budgets and Finances

We’re cheating a bit here. Yes, if you read the previous post, you’ll know we’ve mentioned this already. But we’re going to labour the point here for good reason: it matters. You need to budget and keep track of those finances from Day 1. Your success depends on it.

Whether it’s for pacifying your loan givers, meeting your HMRC requirements, or simply tracking your growth, you need to get your finger on the pulse of the finances.

Pandle can do you a massive favour there. Find out more here.