Step 2 – Research and Plan your Business

Once you’ve identified your skills and experience and are sure this is what you want to do, you will need to write a business plan. This isn’t as simple as downloading the template and filling it in. You will need to research your product, your market, your competitors, pricings, marketing and all other aspects of you upcoming venture.

Market research should be an important part of a start-up’s preparation and business planning; it helps to shape your marketing, resources and business plan and can influence how and who you plan to target, what pricing point you choose and could even alter your business idea to become more profitable.

Step 2a – Conduct Market Research

Take a look at the handy advice from Startups.co.uk on what market research means and how you can go about it. What you find out doing this will help you to complete the next step.

Step 2b – Write a Business Plan

A business plan gives an outline of your business, the market in which it will operate and how it aims to make money - and should answer this question: why will your business succeed when so many others fail?

Tip: if you are making a new, innovative product, there are several local universities that partner with businesses on research projects, including the University of Kent, Canterbury Christ Church University and the University of Greenwich.