The Welsh Government has never been keener to encourage people to start their own businesses and consider the journey to becoming an entrepreneur. The Welsh Government’s scheme ‘Big Ideas Wales’ was established to provide support, advice, workshops and resources to young adults in Wales with business plans, social causes and demonstration of the skills required to be effective entrepreneurs. In the modern world, where E-commerce and self-starter businesses only require minimal equipment and administration, being your own boss has never been more accessible. That’s not to say it isn’t tough once you’re out there building something from scratch.
After all, if it was so easy, we’d all been doing it. For the ambitious young person living in Wales, you’re entitled to certain support schemes like Big Ideas Wales and many of the UK’s small business resource frameworks, but you’re still entering a competitive and Darwinian space, where you need to be switched on to incidentals, ready to take risks and always stay true to your goals. Welcome to the world of Welsh entrepreneurship.
Cover Yourself
While it’s dependent on the type of business you’re running, you’ll always be exposed to some forms of operational risks, including while you’re on a job, if someone is on your premises or if you hire an employee. The danger is that more serious claims for life-changing injuries can take many forms, apply to many industries, and can cost a business lacking adequate injury cover quite dearly if a claim is made against them. Mental health conditions like PTSD, depression or anxiety as a result of serious personal injury caused due to your businesses’ negligence, or on your premises can still be pinned on you in court – and the costs spiral from there. In this situation, PTSD compensation claims, due to a serious physical injury incurred by an employee or customer of your company, need to be insured against correctly – else the compensation costs can cripple your cash flow.
As a young person in a start-up, you might not employ anyone or have high-risk business practices either, but speaking with a legal professional or paying for a risk assessment of your business as it matures into something larger is a great way to ensure you can operate in confidence.
New Marketing Campaigns
As a new, small business, the way you market yourself is going to be critical. You might have a very small budget anyway, so spreading cost too widely, or splurging on a high-risk, high-reward campaign on Google Ads is going to result in the same lack of usable prospects. A good way to start is setting up social media profiles for your business and regularly posting, to generate organic impressions. You can look at the analytics underlying this activity, to begin to see what your audience looks like, and the characteristics of those interacting with your business profile. If your audience is more local, and not specifically online, creating feedback forms for existing customers can help you understand how your name is circulating, and where to advertise – be it a local paper, or on the radio – to begin to understand who you’re doing business with now, and who you could be doing business with in the future.
Admin, Admin, Admin
Being a UK business, you’ll need to register with Companies House, and HMRC, to do business legally, and have your tax calculated correctly. Small businesses often seek out accountants to help with their annual tax filings. The complexity increases the more you grow and the more you begin to do, so understanding this obligation early pays dividends in the future. While it’ll cost you to hire support for legal and financial obligations, the benefits are not getting the details wrong and avoiding trouble, fines and bad press if you make errors somewhere down the line. Wales is a well-connected, developed and healthy market to enter, so the need to be on top of your business operations and administration is a benchmark rather than an aim, as you’ll compete against plenty of other established companies across the UK, too.
Welsh entrepreneurs have access to many types of help in their journey and as a young adult willing to take the leap, you’re gaining the advantage of more time to learn, freedom to fail (and try again) and the energy and optimism to really commit to your journey. As we’ve shown above, however, there’s plenty of legwork and attention to detail which you have to be willing to get done first before the fun and challenge of building a small business can really begin. With a little effort and knowledge, you can avoid unnecessary risk and make a good go of your first try at being an entrepreneur. All that’s left to say is good luck.