When you start a business, things can quickly begin to feel quite overwhelming .There are so many different areas to focus on and you’re going to have to make sure that you pay attention to all of them to ensure your business’ legal and sound operation, as well as its success. The good news is that we’re here to help! Here are just a few different areas you’re going to find yourself coming into contact with when setting your business up. Make sure to approach each at some point or another to give your business the greatest chance of doing well!
Register as Self-Employed
If you’re going to work for yourself, you’re going to be self-employed. So, you need to make sure that you officially register as self-employed. When you are an employee, your employer deducts tax and other essential contributions from your wages before being paid. But when you work for yourself, you’ll need to figure your taxes out yourself, deduct them from your pay and keep them aside to pay at the end of the fiscal year.
Register Your Business
You’re also going to need to register your business to make it a recognised entity. Registering your business with Companies House also helps to make your business a separate legal entity to you. This will separate your personal assets and finances from your business’ assets and finances. This can provide you with peace of mind, as if your business does experience financial trouble, you won’t find your personal assets or finances being repossessed or sold to contribute to your business’ debts.
Find an Accountant
Of course, if you’re no good with numbers and don’t know all too much about the tax system, it’s a good idea to use the services of an accountant to help you pay your taxes properly, accurately and on time. Finding a good accountant may take some searching and time, but once you find one who caters to your needs, chances are, you’ll stick with them for a long time. Remember that accountants need to be officially qualified to deal with your accounts and necessary qualifications can differ by location. Take a look at what’s required of accountants in your area and make sure to check qualifications before appointing anyone to the task. You can also read reviews to gain insight into how others have found your chosen accountant’s services. Positive reviews are likely to correlate with having a positive experience with them yourself.
Know Your Target Demographic
Got a product or service in mind? It’s important that you know who you’re selling it to. This group will be called your target demographic and there are many ways to get to know their wants and needs. The most popular is market research. This is a series of tasks, such as interviews, focus groups, surveys and more, that will give you insight into your target customers and what they actually want, need and like. Market research can help you to determine whether a product you’re considering is worth selling. Will people buy it? Will they be willing to pay a price that leaves a sufficient profit margin for your business? How would they like it to be branded? How would they like it to be packaged? How do they like to be advertised to? Market research will let you know. Generally, people tend to use agencies to conduct market research on their behalf. They will already have countless people from countless different target demographics on their books, saving you time in sourcing individuals who will be happy to participate.
Make Sure You Are Insured
Insurance is one of the most important things you can invest in as a business owner. Most of us tend to associate insurance with our personal lives. We have property insurance to protect our properties from damage. We have contents insurance to protect our belongings from damage, loss or theft. We have car insurance in case of road accidents. We have life insurance to protect our loved ones and dependents should we pass away. The list goes on. But insurance is equally important for businesses. There are a number of different types of insurance that business owners should take out. These will protect your company against a number of different threats. Here are a few that you should make sure you have.
- Commercial Property / Contents Insurance – nowadays, an increasing number of businesses are based online. However, if you have a traditional brick and mortar store, if your employees work from an office space or if you have some sort of commercial storage, a warehouse or any other commercial property, you need to make sure that it’s insured. If you own the building yourself, you will need commercial property insurance to protect that actual building from threats such as flooding, fire and more. Whether you own the property or not, you will need commercial contents insurance. This will protect your stock, technology and anything else you have stored in your commercial space from damage, theft and loss.
- Indemnity Insurance – indemnity insurance is also commonly referred to as “professional liability insurance”. You’ll find that this is an insurance policy that will help you to protect yourself in cases where you may be accused or found to be at fault for things such as misjudgment, malpractice or errors and omissions. If your company offers any sort of expertise, advice or another similar service to customers or clients, you’re going to need it. Make sure to read the policy details. A good insurance policy in this field will protect you, covering court costs, as well as any compensation granted to claimants. There are specific insurances for specific fields too, such as pharmacist liability insurance.
- Product Liability Insurance – if you sell products, you’re going to need to take out product liability insurance. This is a form of insurance policy that will protect you from any claims of personal injury or damage to property that could result from use of your products.
- Gadget Insurance – chances are you use all sorts of tech in your work. Whether that’s a laptop to work from, a desktop computer to work from or a smartphone to take business calls. Make sure that all of your tech is covered under a gadget insurance policy. It’s a good idea to make sure that the policy covers theft and damage, as well as loss.
Consider Recruitment
When we first start our businesses up, we tend to do the majority of the work ourselves and outsource the tasks that we don’t have the expertise, knowledge or experience to complete independently. However, as your business grows and experiences demand, you’re going to have to bring a team on board to help you expand and progress. Recruitment can feel daunting. After all, you’re committing to provide people with work. However, it’s hugely beneficial for your business and your staff will eventually come to be the backbone of your business. Consider using recruitment agencies to start out, as they will be able to source potential candidates, handing them over to you for the interview process. Remember that you don’t only need someone with the right qualifications and experience. You also need to make sure that they’re a good cultural fit for you and your existing team.
As you can see, there’s a lot to consider and do when setting a business up – and these are just a few suggestions to get you started! Hopefully, some of the information will help to get things started out in the right direction for you!
