Before you settle on the product or service that your business will offer, you should research the business opportunity. You need to think about customer demand, how you will reach customers, how you will produce your product or service, how you will sell it, how much you will charge and how you will manage the money. The more information you can gather before you start the business, the more successful you are likely to be.
Here are some things you should research before you get settled on a product or service:
- Is there a market for what you want to offer? Who will your customers be? Is there competition from existing companies?
- Where will you get money to set up your business, create your product, pay staff, build inventory, and do marketing and sales? How will you support yourself while building your new business?
- What will the structure of your business be? Will you be the only business owner? Is it a partnership? A franchise? Will you incorporate? Each of these options has advantages and disadvantages.
- Find out about federal and provincial licensing, local safety and health regulations, environmental protection rules, liability, employee deductions and labour standards.
To learn more about starting your own business, a good place to get a lot of information is www.SmallBusinessBC.ca. This website includes helpful information, videos, articles, and tips for anyone interested in starting their own business. Small Business BC also publishes a series of How To Checklists that can help you start a business successfully, as well as get it off the ground and earn revenue.
To learn more about starting a business, go to the Futurpreneur website. The website is a non-profit service for young entrepreneurs. They offer a range of programs, from mentoring and financing to post-launch coaching. The foundation helps young people ages 18 to 39 to bring their business idea to life. Use the website’s How-Tos and Templates to help you kick-start your new business.
Small Business BC is a service that provides resources, business advisors, educational opportunities and more to BC entrepreneurs.
The Starting a Small Business Guide goes through the steps most small businesses will have to take to start operating in BC and contains links to resources on government regulations, business permits and licences, an import and export guide, and more.