How to Start a Business in BC
Creating a vision for your business
Why do you want to go into business? Is it to follow your passion, take control of your life and career, achieve influence and success, or become financially independent? How would a business help you achieve that? How do you expect things to look three years down the road? There are many things to consider when creating a vision for your business.
Bi-weekly, Thursdays at Noon
If you think you are ready to start a business, we encourage you to participate in one of our FREE phone-in Starting Your Business Information Sessions. We will cover the most common start-up questions, including how to name and register your BC business, tax, licensing and legal requirements and more.
Free Resource Guides for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
Taking the Leap to Entrepreneurship
This guide explores the internal process and offers inspiration to educate and support women who are making the transition to self-employment. Each section contains a list of additional resources to help you continue your journey.
Starting Your Business
From drafting a business plan to finding start-up money, this guide will help explain what you need to know in order to start a business in BC and where you can find resources and information to support you along the way.
Assessing Your Business Idea
Your first step is to determine if you can translate your idea into a successful business venture. A good idea could be:
- Something within your expertise or that you are passionate about
- An invention, new product or service, or solution to an everyday problem
- A niche in the market that you can fill
- A business related to the work you do already
- Turning your interest or hobby into a business
- Buying an existing business
Conducting market research is one of the best ways to determine whether your idea can be translated into a viable business. If it can, you are ready to develop a business plan.
Check out these free market research resources:
- What is market research and what can it do for you?
- How to identify a target market and prepare a customer profile
- Sample market research questionnaires
- View all market research resources and links
Writing an Effective Business Plan
Start to think of the process of writing the business plan as one of the best ways to become an educated business owner – educated about ALL aspects of the business. A business plan will help you:
- Assess the viability of your business. You don’t want to start a business just because it sounds like a good idea. You need more info than that. How much will it cost to get your business off the ground? What will you potentially earn and how much will you need to pay yourself and all your business costs?
- Fine-tune or pinpoint your market. You might even discover customers or markets that you didn’t even think of!
- Look at challenges you may encounter and then develop contingency plans. Knowing you’ve got a back up plan for any problems that may creep up will honestly help you to sleep well at night.
Free business planning resources
The Business Planning section of our online resource library is filled with free, downloadable documents to help you write your business plan, including:
- Business plan checklist
- Business plan resources guide
- How to write an effective business plan
- Addressing and creating a product need
You may also be interested in…
Creating Your Business Plan Workbook ($29.95, free shipping)
Created by our Business Advisors, this comprehensive learning guide takes you through each step of the business planning process—from thinking about starting a business to ticking off your business plan checklist.
Created by our Business Advisors, this comprehensive learning guide takes you through each step of the business planning process—from thinking about starting a business to ticking off your business plan checklist.
Business Plan Review Service ($220)
It can sometimes be difficult to look at your own business plan objectively and gauge if it is sound. Enlist our trusted services today and obtain constructive feedback from one of our experienced Business Advisors.
