Why study this course?
According to the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS, 2015):
- there were a record 5.4 million private sector businesses at the start of 2015 – an increase of 146,000 since 2014 and 1.9 million more since 2000
- small businesses accounted for 99.3% of all private sector businesses at the start of 2015; 99.9% were small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
- total employment in SMEs was 15.6 million; 60% of all private sector employment in the UK
- the combined annual turnover of SMEs was £1.8 trillion, 47% of all private sector turnover in the UK
- 76% of businesses did not employ anyone aside from the owner.
Small businesses are essential to the financial health of the UK and the opportunities to start up or work for a small or micro-business have never been greater.
The proportion of small businesses that stop trading within two years is high – anecdotal evidence suggests it is as many as 50%. This course is designed to help you decide if running a small or micro-business is worth exploring further. This course should be seen as the first step in the journey, leading to more research and self-reflection. It provides challenges and areas of reflection coupled with clear signposts to the help and advice that is available, most of it free.
Rob Moore, the author of this course, will now give you a bit of background into why you might like to study this course.
Transcript
Hi and welcome to the ‘Starting your small business’ course.
I am Rob Moore, the author of this course. For the past 14 years I have been a lecturer with the Open University Business School and I run two small limited companies which I set up.
In this introduction I want to cover three main things: first, the broad content of each of the sections and explain my thoughts for including the different things I did; second, I want to tell you what I hope you will get out of studying the course; and finally I want to give an overview of how the course works and fits together.
So starting with the broad content. The course is split into four sections: ‘Section 1: Small business structures’; ‘Section 2: Small business and marketing’; ‘Section 3: Small business responsibilities’; ‘Section 4: Succeeding in a small business’.
If you complete the short assessment at the end of each section you will be able to collect a section badge. These virtual badges provide a form of recognition for your learning and you can display them on your social media profiles, for example, on LinkedIn or Facebook. The course is flexible and there’s no time limit for completion. This means you can study at your own pace and when it suits you best to do so. We recommend you try to engage with all of the sections, as this will enable you to receive a Statement of Participation that recognises the learning outcomes you have met. There is a natural flow between the sections but they can be studied in any order.
In the first section, ‘Small business structures’, we will look at what a small business is and how it is formed. We will look at the different legal structures (for example, Sole trader or Limited Company) and how to determine which of those structures is most suitable. We mention the process for thinking up or coming up with a new business idea and we point to some great resources to help in doing this.
In the second section, ‘Small businesses and marketing’, we look at the relationship between the small business owner and their reason for existing, the customers. We look at how you reach customers, how you keep them and we look at different ways a small business can market itself.
In the third section, ‘Small business responsibilities’, we look at the legal and financial responsibilities of the small business owner. We touch on the subject of VAT (value added tax) in a very basic way. We also discuss how money moves from the small business to the owner.
In the final section, ‘Succeeding in a small business’, we look at some of the common reasons why small businesses fail and some of the pitfalls to avoid. We then look at some of things that can be done to improve the chances of success, calling on advice from top business people.
So, what do I hope you will get from studying this course? In a nutshell I want you to have an appreciation of what is required to set up your own business and enough information to take the next steps. I have tried to include the sort of things I wish someone had told me when I started my businesses.
If you complete all four sections, you should have a set of notes that form the starting point for taking an idea forward, and enough information to plan where to go next.
The last point is about how the course works. We use five case studies to illustrate how the topic fits into the real world. Then in each section we ask you to apply the ideas to an idea of your own. This could be a business idea you have thought of, an idea you are already working on or an idea based on someone you know. You then summarise what that topic means for your business idea, these are the notes you will be able to take away and use later.
The case studies form the basis of the practice activities. Each case study represents a different type of small business. The numbers in the case studies are all fictitious, but each case study business is based on a real business run by friends and people I know.
So thank you for listening and now it is time to start studying, I hope you enjoy the course and if you are inspired to set up your own small business please let us know how you get on.
We will be using the five short case studies [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] throughout this course – you may wish to familiarise yourself with them now. You would find it helpful to have the case studies page open in a separate tab whilst working through the sections.
As you start this course, you may have a business idea in mind or might even be running a small business. Each of these is fine. This course will ask you to apply the different ideas to a business idea of your own – this could be one you are running or thinking of running, or one you will create.
This is a good point to consider your business idea. If you have not considered one yet, the Entrepreneur Handbook website has 100 business ideas to consider (Pursey, 2014).
Throughout course you will find activities that ask you to write down your thoughts and feelings based on the issues being discussed. There will be a few simple questions which encourage you to focus your thinking. It would be helpful for you to you spend some time thinking about what you have learned within each section, and how it relates to your current role. We encourage you to record your answers and thoughts as you go along. We will not be using these in the course but they will be very helpful if you wish to take your ideas further.
The activities are not there to test you. They aim to help you reflect on what you have read in more depth. These activity spaces are entirely for your own use to help you recognise what you have learned, even if you haven’t yet encountered it within your role. Nobody else will see what you write here. The aim is to help you become more reflective, by bringing together aspects of both your personal and professional experience so you can review and learn from them.
Structure of the course