Joyce Quinn Professional Studies: December 2013

Personal traits you would need to become self employed:

Motivated - keep up to date with all work you are doing.
Timekeeping - meeting deadlines, planning your time wisely.
Organisation - making own decisions, doing things for yourself.
Teamwork - Not necessarily working in a team, but being able to socialize well with clients and people you may be working with on a project.
Skilled with computer softwares - confidently being able to use Excel, Photoshop and Illustrator.

Funding/Finance

The Princes Trust - Enterprise Programme

Between the age 18-30
Self Employed or working fewer than 16 hours a week
One to one support to turn your idea into a business plan
Sole trader - £4000
Partnership - £5000
Live in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland
You are not eligible for this if: you are a gap year student, graduated less than 6 months ago, people with a post graduate degree or a professional qualification

Gov.uk - Starting your own business

This tells you specifically what you need to do to create your very own business
You will need to register your idea to make sure nobody else will copy it without you knowing
Research into your market, talk to potential customers find out if your idea is needed on the market
Make your product and test it on the market, maybe you could do a trade fair and see whether your product sells well. This way you know how to improve your product or adapt is so the consumer is more interested.
Start contacting possible suppliers and partners. Who will help develop and sell your idea?
Do you want to sell shares? Decide which legal structure is most suitable for you
You need to look into funding. Explore government schemes, bank loans and business finance.

Equity funding

Setting up a website for your business

Finding Business Premises

Insurance for your business

Joyce Quinn Professional Studies