Starting a Venture
From Entrepedia: The Entrepreneurship Wiki
Making the decision to enter entrepreneurship is one that sets you on a path strewn with risks and obstacles, but that can potentially offer immense rewards: a sense of freedom not to be found elsewhere in the workforce, the feeling of satisfaction and fulfilment at watching your business idea grow into a productive company, and the knowledge that your career is in your own hands rather than a boss or manager's. In the current economic climate, becoming an entrepreneur can seem particularly daunting; however, most established entrepreneurs agree that a recession is one of the best times to launch a startup.
If the life that entrepreneurship offers is alluring to you and you are stepping on the path towards setting up a new enterprise, then it is important to gain an understanding of what is ahead of you – the challenges, the helping hands, the pitfalls, and above all, the goals. Read on to begin familiarising yourself with the process of starting up a venture.
Business Ideas
If you are interested in entrepreneurship, the first thing you will need is to come up with and develop a business idea: What do you want to offer people? What do they need? What needs improving? How can you turn a problem into an opportunity for your venture? Look at some of the "hot topics" (such as Green Enterprises and Cloud Computing) to see if they offer any opportunities for you.
Opportunity Assessment
It is crucial to be able to identify the best available opportunity by understanding the your market: you will need to conduct some form of industry analysis. You will also need to identify your potential customers and size up your competitors. There are different ways of approaching an analysis of each of these components.
Team
Who else is, or will be, involved in your business team: will you employ staff? Or will it centre more around a mentor? How will you approach a leadership role within that team dynamic? How will you manage your team no matter how you choose to structure your business?
Pitching
If there is any skill that you as an entrepreneur would need to absolutely perfect, it is pitching. Whether it is a one-minute elevator pitch, or a presentation to potential investor, a good pitch can be what leads to the equity investment that helps get your business off the ground.
Business Plan
A business plan is very important for potential investors, but also for yourself; it should provide a lot of information that is invaluable to both – your marketing and sales plan, financial projections, even your strategy for customer acquisition.
Objectives and Strategy
Any new business venture is going to need a clear vision for the future and a solid mission statement, but it is just as important to have well-researched strategies in place to help you achieve them.
Finances and Funding
If you know where to look, there is actually a wealth of sources for funding start-up businesses: bank loans and private equity investment, of course, but also grants, awards, and university schemes both locally and on a larger scale.
Legal Issues
Regardless of your business structure, the last thing you want is to put time, effort, and money into a new venture only to discover that you have forgotten about a crucial legal concern. Make sure that you are familiar with the proper taxation procedures and any intellectual property rights or information technology legislation.
IT Services
There is an overwhelming variety of IT Services which you can use to streamline your business, improving efficiency but often at a lower cost. However, finding out about these services, understanding the IT Terminology, knowing where to access them, and deciding which are trustworthy and which really aren't can be a difficult and confusing process; that is, if you don't have a starting point.
