1. 

Conduct Market Research

Conduct market research to know whether or not if your business idea is worth chasing. Are you solving a problem that someone’s willing to pay you for? Are you providing for a need that people have?

To answer these questions, you need to conduct a market research study to get information about potential customers, businesses already operating in your area, suppliers, trends, and so on.

Use this information to find a competitive edge for your business. We have put together some ideas that you follow to start with the market research.

2. 

Write A Business Plan

A business plan is the best investment of time for you business idea. It forces you to confront issues about your idea to ensure that it is a viable undertaking.

The business plan is the foundation of your business for its entire lifespan. It guides decision-making and helps to track progress over time. For example, having completed a financial plan under the business plan development, you would have already asked the hard questions about employees, suppliers, production and sales.

3. 

Fund Your Business

After completing your business plan, you will be in a position to know what financial commitment you need in order to see your venture come to life.

There are many options open to you for funding your business. In many instances, your own money might not be sufficient to carry your business’ financial needs through. The following are some options that can be explored:

Consider the following pointers for raising capital.

4. 

Choose A Location For Your Business

5. 

Choose A Business Structure

This article from Entrepreneur.com summarises this topic quite well.

The options here are:

• Sole Proprietorship aka “One Man Business”.
• Bring a friend, two, or more to the sole proprietorship and you get a Partnership.
• If it is a more structured approach you require, with formal business name, registration number, business bank account, tax numbers, and so on, then we are at the “Pty Ltd – Proprietary limited” company territory.
• If we need to raise capital from the stock market, the company becomes a publicly traded company.
• Other company forms that are not mentioned in the article are Co-operatives and Non-Profit Organisations/Companies.

6. 

Choose A Name

There is not right or wrong answer for your business. Even if it is a sole proprietorship, you are allowed to choose a name to trade with. However, do take note of the following:

• The business name must not be the same as, or confusingly similar to, a name of another existing business enterprise; and

• It must not be similar to a registered or pending trade mark (e.g. calling your business Shopright, which is confusingly similar to Shoprite).

7. 

Register Your Business

By the time you arrive at this point, you would have done quite a lot of work. Registering a business is not applicable to the sole proprietorship and partnership entity types.

For the rest, a company registration must be undertaken with the authority in your country that is responsible for companies.