Read time: 2 mins
How do I go about starting my own business? | FAQs
Are you wanting more information on starting a business, but aren’t sure where to start?
Most Entrepreneurs will tell you to begin with the technical aspects, like registering your new business and choosing a defining name and logo. But until you have your first sale and money coming in, you haven’t really started.
To kick off a new business, your first step is to come up with a small business idea: a good or service that people want to pay for.
Watch Gareth Cotten, Head Tutor for the University of Cape Town Start and Manage a Small Business online short course, as he talks you through the steps to starting a business in more detail.
Transcription
When starting a business, most people will run you through the pragmatic technical aspects that you need to do like registering a company, signing up for tax, that kind of thing. In reality, starting a business is about having a client and having your first sale, so if you have come up with a product or a service and you have been able to present it in a way that other people want it, and are prepared to pay for it, and you can actually close that first sale, that’s when you have a business. Not when you have registered it or have a fancy name and a fancy logo. When you have your first sale and have money coming in, that’s when you have your first business. So to start one, come up with a product or a service that people need and which people are prepared to pay for. It’s that simple.