Business start-up

Starting up a new business can seem a bit daunting. The links on your left will give you a systematic run through of the start-up process, from preparing an initial business plan to developing an strategy for using the Internet to give your business a competitive advantage. 

If you haven't already done so, join PRIME Business Club for free. We'll send you copies of our plain-English introductory guides in the post, subscribe you to our monthly Olderpreneur newsletter and weekly Business Update, and let you know about any live events we are running in the area.

Don’t forget that PRIME has other resources it can provide for free. For example, when you know what business area you are interested in we can often send you a fact sheet about it.

 

Fact sheets on specific business areas

These “Business Opportunity Profiles” are normally about four pages long and provide a useful run through of the issues you should be thinking about - for example start-up costs, market conditions, regulations and training required, useful contacts, and so on.

Here are some examples of the business areas covered.

• Alexander Technique Practitioner
• Domestic Security Installer
• Indian Head Massage Practitioner
• Laser Shooting
• Micro Brewery
• Mobile Hairdresser
• Wedding Favour Maker

Our agreement with the company that produces them (Cobweb Information) means that we can’t give you immediate online access. Instead we can print them out and post them to you in response to a request. Note that we’ll often do this automatically when you first contact us if you have mentioned a particular business area when requesting a pack.

Email us if there’s one you are interested in. There’s a full list here.

Help! I'm new to all this. What have you got that's really simple?

Here's some of the introductory material we send out in the post to new PRIME Business Club members, so you can start looking at it immediately.

You can view these on-screen or download the PDF and print them out (right click with your mouse and use Save As). They are designed for printing.

Ideas for business, a practical guide and workbook

Working for Yourself a practical guide to sales marketing and preparing a business plan.

Top 10 things that can kill your business, a leaflet about avoiding common business pitfalls

There are more printable PRIME guides, including large-text versions, here.

 

Support in your area

PRIME regularly updates a list of around two hundred business support organisations around the UK, drawn from the public, private and voluntary sectors. All of them offer free or low-cost business advice, and sometimes also free or low-cost training.

The latest version is always available online. Here the up-to-date list sorted by region and nation.

 

We also print it annually as a directory. Here's the large-text version as a PDF.

 

Optional paid-for services

All PRIME's own services are free. The Key Note reports mentioned below are provided by the managers of this Resources area, PracticeWEB / Sift Ltd, as are the Company and Credit Reports they can offer on eight million businesses in the UK and Ireland. Once you have done your own research and firmed up your business plans you will be in a better position to judge whether any of it is relevant to you. If you have any queries with regard to these paid-for services, PracticeWEB / Sift Ltd will do its best to assist. To contact PracticeWEB / Sift Ltd with any such queries, please send an email to service@sift.co.uk.

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