Launching a new business is a serious undertaking, no matter how much prior experience you have. If you are preparing to launch your first startup, you will inevitably have to do a lot of learning on your feet. However, the more you can prepare yourself beforehand, the easier you will find it to pick things up as you go.
In fact,
the choices that you make during the earliest stages of your business will
significantly impact how smoothly your first year of operations proceeds. Good
planning will go a long way to making sure that you are able to launch without
a hitch and give you the best chance of surviving those treacherous first few
months when your business is at its most vulnerable.
One of
the most important decisions you will have to make as you prepare to launch
your business is where you will base
your business. Whether your business is going to operate out of a brick and
mortar premises or you are planning on delivering your services remotely,
choosing the right base of operations is an important decision. When choosing a
home for your business, you need to think about more than just the practical
considerations.
Lots of
entrepreneurs will found their businesses in the area where they live, or in an
area that they have a connection with. While these can both be advantages in
their own right, you should also consider what’s on offer in terms of support
and funding. By this measure, Suffolk is one of the best places in the UK to
start a business.
Why You Should Choose Suffolk
One of
the biggest challenges any new business in the UK faces is finding support. A
decade of austerity has led to a significant reduction in the availability of
grants and other sources of support and funding that were once prevalent
throughout the country. Now that these are gone, businesses are left to fend
for themselves. While some feel the central government has let entrepreneurs
down, local authorities have picked up the slack, in some areas at least.
Suffolk is
one of the best places in the UK to launch a startup, not just because of the
variety of support options that are available, but also because of its
proximity to London. Travel between Suffolk and London is relatively cheap and only
two and a half hours away by train. Suffolk is also a relatively affluent area
with a wealthy local client base, but there are plenty of affordable
accommodation options.
As well as its desirable location, startups in Suffolk can also benefit from a number of local initiatives that exist to support fledgeling businesses. For example, there is the East of England Energy Zone. The East of England is the perfect place for wind offshore wind farms, as well as gas and nuclear energy facilities. Businesses looking to enter into the energy sector can qualify for rates relief and other benefits, including free support and advice and funding of up to £500,000.
Another
reason that Suffolk is an exciting place for entrepreneurs to invest in and
launch their startups is its shifting demographics. Around a third of the
businesses launched in Suffolk over the last two years have been targeting
over-50s. This is reflective of a broader national trend, but where Suffolk
differs from the rest of the country is that there are a growing number of
young entrepreneurs looking to start businesses immediately after finishing
school, college, or university.
Many of
the younger entrepreneurs who have made Suffolk their home are starting what we
would call “non-traditional”
businesses. These include businesses that are focused on delivering online
services and creative businesses like textile printing, music, and other
media-based industries. The one thing that all these Suffolk startups have in
common is access to the unique support infrastructure that exists in the
county.
Defining Your Business’s Purpose
Hopefully,
if you are planning on launching a business of your own, you will already have
a good idea of what your business will be doing. Whether you are planning on
opening a retail store, a marketing agency, or any other type of business, you
need to define what sets your business apart from your competitors. To do this,
you will need to clearly set out your goals and establish exactly what the
purpose of your business is.
Every
business should have a business plan. A business plan is a document that sets
out what you want to achieve and how you will go about achieving it. By keeping
your business plan updated to reflect your progress, it can also serve as a
roadmap. However, while your business plan is an excellent way of defining and
measuring your business goals, it is important to also have personal
aspirations.
You
should be aiming to get more out of your business than just money. Launching
and running your own business is a difficult undertaking – if you aren’t
getting anything out of it on a personal level, then you are going to find it a
very difficult slog. Think about what you want to get out of this as a person
and how you can go about achieving it.
Getting Your Admin in Order
Different
businesses will have different admin requirements. Some business types require
an inordinate amount of paperwork just to get the doors open, whereas others
won’t have to fill out a single form. You may also need to consider how you
will provide new workers with the training that they need. For example, consider
whether IPAF courses will be beneficial to your business – if your startup is
going to be operating out of a warehouse or in another environment that
requires the use of powered access platforms, then you should consider IPAF courses for new workers.
The last
thing you want is to launch your business, only to discover that you have
overlooked a piece of important paperwork and now have to put your plans on
hold. Do your research beforehand and make sure that you have identified every
piece of documentation that you will need to open your doors legally.
Local Marketing
When you
first begin trading as your new startup, it makes sense to target your local
market first and foremost. Local marketing is a very different beast to your
general marketing and needs to be approached in a particular way.
Social
media marketing is ideal for boosting your local profile because you can
micro-target your campaigns so that your marketing content is being shown
mostly or only to people for who it is relevant. There’s no sense in advertising
your local business to people on the other side of the country.
The way
that you launch a new business will have a significant bearing on the
trajectory that it ends up on. The more time you take beforehand to prepare
yourself, and the more care you take with every major decision, the better the
chances of your business surviving through that first year of vulnerability.
Suffolk is a wonderful location to choose as your business’s home. If you are
planning on launching your business here, make sure you check out what kind of
support is available from the local authority.
