Essential Tips for Starting Your IT Business

Starting a business in tech is one of the smarter moves an entrepreneur can make at the moment. Even as economic instability affects the national economy and disrupts businesses in other industries, tech fields are continuing to thrive. Starting a small business is easy enough, too, with sole traders and SMEs accounting for the vast majority of active businesses in the UK. But what should you bear in mind when putting your business-starting imperatives into action?

Research and Planning

While ‘research’ and ‘planning’ might seem somewhat synonymous, these are two distinct phases in the incorporation of your IT SME.

The ‘research’ phase involves market and competitor analysis, wherein you ascertain the shape and size of the market you are entering – and the competition you face when launching your own product or service. The ‘planning’ phase, meanwhile builds on the market and product research you’ve undertaken, to give you the tools with which to found your business on the right ground.

Using what you’ve learned, you can now form a solid business plan that considers the form your product or service will take, the structure of your company and your growth plan for the first two years. For example, will you be adopting a SaaS model, or a traditional product-based model? As a smaller business or sole-trader, you are much more likely to fall into the former camp – but you may also need to account for growth, and the eventual taking on of staff.

Finances

At this point, the financial aspects of starting a business become particularly important to take into consideration. Every start-up needs some form of seed funding, but exactly where that seed funding comes from can differ from situation to situation. Many small-scale IT start-ups are achieved via personal savings or loans; indeed, sole traders operating a new IT business might look into getting a self employed loan to fund the purchasing of necessary materials.

Sourcing initial funding is only one part of a much larger equation, though. It is also important to ensure that finances are well-organised on an ongoing basis. As a sole trader, this might involve outsourcing your finances to a third-party accountant. As an SME with staff, this might mean cultivating a financial department early.

Growth and Relevance

There are dozens of guides online that cover the various ways in which you can market or develop your new business. Marketing techniques and sales funnels are no longer secrets, and the building of a stable consumer base no longer difficult. But the secret to longevity is harder to find.

The tech industry moves faster than most, and a single new innovation can render an entire subset of the industry redundant within months. To this end, it is absolutely crucial that your business remain agile; that is, that you stay on top of new innovations, and pivot to incorporate them in your own business model. This way, your product or service continues to find new audiences, ensuring longer-term success.