Support for your new business venture
Setting up a business can be both scary and exciting. Whether you are thinking of setting up on your own or with a partner, it’s vital you have support, and the right kind of support.
Family and Friends
The place to start thinking about who will support you is not who will bankroll the business, although this is important, and we will get to that later. I’m thinking about your moral support, your cheerleaders. The obvious people to look to at the beginning are partners, friends, and family.
They are going to be the people who will give you help at the outset, and if you’re lucky, through thick and thin. Remember though, it’s important to not take advantage of their good nature and leave it to them to pick up after you and hold the fort at home if you have a family.
Community
It’s also important to do your market research before you start any venture. Checking out the competition is a vital business strategy, and so is looking at ways you can do good in the community. This is easier to gauge if you are intending to be a bricks-and-mortar business. You will be able to go out into the area and find out if your idea is already present and if it will be well-received. This isn’t impossible for online businesses though. Your research could be via contacts, media, online searches, and social media.
Support is, of course, a two-way street and a successful business can strengthen the community it inhabits. This can come in many guises, whether your business directly helps the community with your service or products, you donate to local charities or, like me, you are a business for good.
Financing your venture
Financial support for your business may come in the shape of private individuals (the friends and family you’re not taking advantage of, remember?) bank loans, lease financing, asset financing, investors, and trade creditors, to name just a few. Again, it’s really important to do your research in this area, as you may be locked into an agreement for some years. It has to be right for you and the business when you start and throughout the finance term.
I will be writing in more detail about the different avenues of financing in a future blog, but for now don’t over-stretch yourself. You might be the next Elon Musk but even he started small!
Third party advice
Support can also be sought from talking it through with a paid advisor. As someone who regularly advises start-ups, I know how valuable it is to have an objective view of your plans. Friends and family are a great help, but they are emotionally invested and talking things through with an experienced professional can pay dividends now and in the future.
If starting a business is in your future and want to learn more, download my eBook “The New Business Kit” by CLICKING HERE.
