Resources for Starting Up

Many people underestimate start-up costs and start their business on the back foot financially. This can mean a long crawl up to your breakeven point and into profitability. Quite often it results in the business never making a profit at all.
What you need to do is prepare an estimate of capital costs you will incur on start up. These may include land, buildings, plant, machinery, general equipment, office equipment, furniture and signage. Do this conservatively

An idea can be a business’s most valuable asset. Whether it’s a business name, an original product or a portfolio of designs, your business will have intellectual property (IP) that needs to be protected.
It’s also important to understand how intellectual property rights work. Otherwise, you could find yourself in a lengthy and potentially expensive conflict with a competitor.

1. Put together a strong advisory team
Starting a business can be a lonely process and thinking you can do it all yourself is the road to extra stress and pressure. Study successful business owners and you’ll find they have surrounded themselves with a strong group of advisers.
A typical core team would include an accountant, a lawyer, your banker and a mentor, such as an experienced business person you admire.

Before you start a business, you need to know exactly how much money you’ll need, and where it’s coming from. You’re out of business fast if you fall short before you’ve started.
Why you need to plan ahead
If you want to see your new business start-up succeed, you can reduce some of the financial pressure by planning ahead. Spend some time estimating your start-up costs before you launch your new business enterprise. It could help to prevent cost blowouts later.

Before you start a business, and perhaps leave a job, try working out if your idea will be worth the risk.
If you’re confident there’s a genuine demand for your potential product or service (and at the price you want), the next step is to work out how much you need to sell each month to make a profit.

It can be easy for your heart to rule your head when you find a business you want to buy. However, if you don’t do thorough research before signing on the dotted line,...