Above all you need a really good idea for your business! How do you know it’s a good idea? Well, ask people! Ask friends and potential customers what they think….would they use the service or product that you want to offer? Is anyone else doing what you want to do locally or regionally even anywhere else in the country?- have a look in the Business telephone directories or do a search on the internet to find out….

This is called MARKET RESEARCH. You will need to know if there is any competition to what you want to do, and how much competition there is, you also need to now how many people will potentially use your business….This is your MARKET.

You can think of the market like a cake and each business operating in the market has a slice of that cake. If another business comes into the market it means everyone’s slice becomes smaller. You need to be sure that your business idea can work and gain enough customers within your given market.

Obviously if there is no MARKET for what you want to do, then your business is unlikely to work!