5 Your business

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Figure 14  Applying your learning
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The image shows a graphic of a person sitting on a bench, and writing on a piece of paper. Their left hand is pointing to the sky, where a flashing lightbulb is floating above.

Figure 14  Applying your learning

You may now like to take the ideas discussed so far and link them to your own business idea. You can do this through two activities:

  • Activity 6: Create your own business case study in a similar format to the example case studies.
  • Activity 7: Answer the questions for the case study you created.

Activity 6

Timing: Allow about 10 minutes

Creating your own personal case study

Complete the case study information for a business you have recently started, are thinking of starting or have knowledge of through friends or family.

Name of business
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Brief description of business and its objectives
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Staffing of business
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Business assets
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Essential skills
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Mandatory licences or insurance arrangements
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Expected turnover for year 1, year 2 and year 3
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Words: 0
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To get the most out of this course we encourage you to keep notes on the ideas you have and the activities you complete. These notes could be very useful as you move your business idea along.

This particular activity is also used in the other sections of this course and may have already been completed. It is suggested that you use the same ideas for each section, though you may wish to change or develop your ideas as you go through the different sections.

Activity 7

Timing: Allow about 20 minutes
  1. Write down what you think success looks like for your business idea? How will this success be measured? (Remember not to only mention profit.)
  2. Which of the following could apply to you and your business ideas and what can you do to avoid them?
    • Not carrying out enough research into your business idea, the customers and the competition
    • Not fully understanding what you are letting yourself in for
    • Getting paid and bad debts/lack of capital/lack of liquidity
    • Choosing the wrong business partner(s) to help grow the business
    • Starting a business for the wrong reasons
    • Poor management
    • Insufficient capital
    • Location
    • Lack of planning
    • Overexpansion
    • Lack of website.
  3. What are the three biggest risks to your business idea and what can you do to mitigate for them?
  4. If you were employed as a consultant to advise on your business idea, what advice would you give to help improve the chance of success? Write this in the form of a series of bullet points.
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4 Tips for success

6 Personal reflection