Editor’s note: This article was first published in April 2010 for a Spanish audience; its references to savings banks (cajas de ahorro, most of which were merged or turned into banks in 2010-2013) and to hiring grants reflect that time, as does its 2010 view of low-cost marketing.
People are short of ideas, so if you’ve had a good business idea, here are some tips to help you carry it forward so you don’t get stuck halfway.
10 tips for getting your idea off the ground
- Write your business plan. It will help you work out not only what you need to put the idea into practice, but also how to convince future investors that your business idea is worth backing.
- Do market research. This is essential. However good your business idea is, you need to know whether there are future customers in your area who want your product or service.
- Get financing. Through your country’s government, with its plans and grants for entrepreneurs. Through banks and savings banks that believe in your idea. Through investors who are interested in your project and have cash to spare. And, last but not least, through family and friends.
- Hire a financial adviser. Balancing the figures in your business accounts will eat into time you could spend setting up the business and developing plans to make it work.
- Decide on your legal status. There are many options, so ask your adviser for guidance: your legal status determines how much tax you will pay, and what kind. You may want to set up a particular type of company.
- Perfect your product or service. Make sure your product or service meets the legal quality requirements so you don’t fail before you’ve even got going.
- Find premises or an office. Location will be crucial, based on the market research you did earlier. Don’t look for anything big to begin with, and try to decorate the office yourself so you don’t spend too much at the start. Even so, your image and location will be very important.
- Create a brand. It’s no easy task, because you need to identify your product or service with your company name, and many names and web addresses are already being used by other companies.
- Hire staff. In the early days your company should, if possible, have just a few highly qualified people, because the ones you start with will play a very important part in its future growth. Don’t forget to look into the grants available for taking people off unemployment.
- Plan a marketing campaign. Few companies can make big investments in advertising when they’re starting out. So make sure you create a website and appear near the top of the main internet search engines. Print leaflets with your offers and products, do a leaflet drop in the area, and so on.
Further reading
- How to get financing for your business
- Choosing a legal structure for your business
- Advertise your business online on a small budget
- Start a business or buy one?
Featured image: Nenad Stojković, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
