Thinking of becoming self-employed or starting your own business?

 

If you’re thinking about setting up your own company, getting your Business Plan right is crucial.

A business plan gives an outline of your business, the market in which it will operate and how it aims to make money - and should answer this question: why will your business succeed when so many others fail?

Be concise
It’s really important that potential investors can understand what your business is all about from a quick glance at your plan. Make sure you include a summary of your business, and how it will make money right from the start, and use simple language throughout.

Be specific

Being specific is just as important as being concise. The details will help you drill down into how you will actually deliver your plan.

Know your market

A big part of knowing whether your business will be successful is understanding your audience. Make sure your plan is clear about your target market – who will you be selling to and how many other companies are already selling similar products?

Know your finances

The other essential part of a business plan is the finance section. If your business isn’t going to make any money, it won’t be successful so you need to be very clear on how you will make a profit. Use it to your advantage – your plan will be incredibly useful when it comes to securing loans and investment, but that’s not its only use. It’s also a personal tool to help you understand your objectives.

Marketing is vital to business success. Think about big brands like Apple, Innocent and Burberry. They have all successfully identified their target audience and have tailored their marketing to suit them, which has helped them to develop a clear identity.

Market research is key, to help you understand your target audience. The more you do, the easier it will be in the future to make decisions about your marketing strategy, pricing, budget and sales target. There are several methods for conducting market research and you may need more than one.

Market research will help you to:

§  Work out whether there is a market for your product or service and how much demand there is

§  Who your target customers are and what your product is worth to them

§  How you will reach your target customers

§  Who your competitors will be and how they operate

Brand identity
Once you’ve done your market research, you can use your findings to help develop your brand.
Think about the impression you want to give your customers and how you can deliver that. For example, if young people are your target audience and you want to be known for being cool and creative, make sure everything from the way you dress to the language of your marketing materials shows that.

Once you’ve identified your customer base and worked out your brand identity, you can start to develop your marketing materials.

Having your own website is a really powerful marketing tool. Making sure it is professional and matches your brand is really important.

Finance & Legal considerations

Start-up costs

Once you’ve worked out your own monthly outgoings, you’ll have an idea of how much your business needs to make for you. After that you’ll need to think about the start-up costs you’ll need to get your business off the ground.

Tax

Once you’ve set up your business, you must register as self-employed with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). HMRC has loads of really useful information on setting up a business, including an e-learning package called Starting in Business. For more detail on registering your business with HMRC and further information on setting up in business, visit their website. www.gov.uk

Insurance

All businesses need insurance as soon as they start trading. Some types of insurance are required by law and should be in place before you’re up and running. For example, you must have employers’ liability insurance if you employ people.

The broker or insurance company you use should be registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Want a helping hand?  If you’re 18 to 30, living in the UK and have a business idea or some ideas to explore, the Prince’s Trust’s Explore  Enterprise programme could be for you.

Visit www.princes-trust.org.uk for more information

Applying for graduate jobs - is it worth just applying for big recruiters?

There is an assumption with undergraduates that most graduate vacancies are with big employers, like accountancy firms and retailers. Another assumption is that these employers are the ‘only’ ones that have graduate opportunities, and that they are the only ones that will offer an interesting, challenging and worthwhile graduate career. 

The recent Highfliers Graduate Market in 2017 report has come up with some interesting national statistics about the biggest graduate employers:

The country's top employers plan to increase their graduate recruitment by a further 4.3% in 2017, the fifth consecutive year that graduate vacancies have grown.

The biggest growth in vacancies is expected at public sector organisations and high street & online retailers which together intend to recruit over 1,200 extra graduates in 2017.

Half the UK’s leading employers said they had received more completed graduate job applications during the early part of the recruitment season than they had last year and two-fifths also believed the quality of applications had improved.

In 2015, the latest figures available, there were 248,000 students who graduated. 76.1% of these went onto full time work, 13% did more study, 5% were working and studying (with the rest doing a range of other things!). But it is not just big national employers where graduates end up. Indeed, 35% of those working were doing so for employers with fewer than 250 staff, and 1 in 20 were with employers who had less than 50 staff. (What do Graduates do? 2016 HESCU)

There are benefits to applying for a graduate scheme with a big employer. These often include:  

• Higher starting salary
• More structured training/CPD
• A structured initial career path
• Numerous new graduates starting at the same time

So what about SMEs (small and medium enterprises)? As mentioned, these organisations tend to have fewer than 250 employees. There are definite advantages to working for a SME, including:

• more responsibilities and varied work early on
• more likely to need you to hit the ground running
• a far better work/life balance – no 12-15 hour days as a trainee solicitor or in finance

SME’s are more likely to create a unique job role, depending on your skills and the company’s needs, rather than being one of 500 trainee accountants doing the exact same job.

There are several skills that employers need regardless of size, e.g. commercial awareness and ability to work as part of a team. But smaller companies are likely to want employees who are ‘work ready’ and able to contribute to as soon as possible. This means that you are likely to feel that you are making a contribution/having an impact sooner rather than later!

So, if you are thinking that working for an SME might be an option, then the next question is how to identify where the opportunities are. They won’t be advertised on the Association of Graduate Recruiters, prospects or graduate milkround websites! This is where LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and google will be very useful tools to identify and research potential SME’s. But its not only online that this research can happen, it is worth joining professional associations, talking to tutors and careers staff about their contacts too. On top of this, actively making use of business organisations like the Essex FSB, Essex IOD and chambers of commerce will be helpful if you can. They will often have members meetings where you can meet employers over breakfast or at certain events. Smaller organisations are more likely to respond to a speculative approach than the big graduate recruiters, and will have vacancies at different points of the year, whereas quite often big employers will often have set times of the year they advertise to recruit graduates.

And finally, most graduates will work for SME’s at some point after they have graduated, regardless of the amount of media ‘time’ the well known employers get in talking about their recruitment issues or shortages. Don’t be put off by the competition for a graduate scheme place with a big employer either. What you will need to do is think through not only what career you would like to do, but the different challenges that the size of company you work for will offer you. Preparation and planning will be essential for getting your application right, regardless of company size.

Is this the end or a new beginning?

Image sourced from Wikimedia
Author: Diego

Now that the end of term has gone, with exams finished and coursework handed in, you’ve finally reached the finish line!  And with the Olympics happening, there will be plenty of time to enjoy watching them.

 

But it's not quite ‘all over’ yet. It will really help you if you view the next few weeks as a new beginning too. The reasons why are as follows. Firstly, it would be good to spend time reflecting on what you have found interesting, challenging or dull this year and why. The reason? By reflecting on the knowledge gained this year you can decide if or how you could use it in a potential career. Does the thought of using what you’ve learnt about equine nutrition, landscape design or commercial horticulture excite you?  What does this tell you about your career aspirations?  Do you need to talk this through with your tutor or Careers Adviser? 

Secondly, it is not just about the knowledge that you have learnt.  It’s useful to reflect how your skills have developed this year.  This is equally as important as reflecting on your knowledge.  Employers and universities want to see that you can identify and apply the skills you’ve gained to a new situation, e.g. a job or a postgraduate course.  Not only is it important to show others you can do this, but it is crucial for you too.  Why?  Because you need to be able to compare what you have to offer to what an employer or university are asking for.  If you can’t demonstrate that you are a good match, an employer or course scheme manager won’t do this for you.  So part of this ‘looking back’ is about applying this to developing your career/study plans for the future.





Planning ahead will help you graduate!

Are you wondering about whether to use the knowledge and skills you’re gaining or if there’s a ‘better something’ out there?  Within each degree area there will be a variety of related and unrelated careers or further study you could go into.  About 80% of graduate jobs don’t require a specific degree subject, so you could apply for any number of interesting graduate schemes or jobs.  Roughly 10% of graduates will get onto a graduate scheme, often these schemes do not want a specific subject.  There are a huge number of SME (small and medium enterprises) who are very keen to take on students who have developed graduate level skills, in a variety of career ideas.  Just being a graduate itself will give you plenty of skills and experience which will be appreciated by employers if you can present them well enough.



Image sourced from Wikimedia
Author: Petey21

So, the end of this academic year is here, and the beginning of the future is just around the corner!  Is this true for everyone?  If you are finishing your degree course, the answer will be an obvious yes.  But if you are in your first or second year, it is also worth viewing this summer as a new beginning too.  Doing an audit will help you identify what opportunities might be worth targeting to develop your skills or test out your newly acquired knowledge over the next academic year.

 

Your career is going to last a very long time, and it can take time to find the ‘perfect’ career or vacancy - this won’t always happen straight after university.  Did you know you can use the College careers service for up to 3 years after finishing your course?  Careers support is often about helping students audit themselves, to develop their own career management skills.  And you can use the service forever if you are an employer looking to fill a vacancy in the future!  So, whatever year you are in, now is a good time to celebrate the end and start to plan for the beginning.

Written by Mark Yates, Careers Coordinator