When you’re starting a business, there is no such thing as too much preparation. Pushing ahead without being sure you’re ready is, at best, a recipe for worry and stress, and at worst followed quickly by a disaster you can’t recover from.

Today we’re looking at the different kinds of preparation you can work through to give yourself the best chance at success.

Research

This is one the first things you need to do, and it’s going to become a theme that runs through your entire career as a start up founder or small business owner. Lots of people have a killer idea for a business that will make them a millionaire, and they’re happy to discuss them with friends in the pub or over a coffee when they’re fed up with their job.

What distinguishes the successful entrepreneur is that they’re serious, and before they take this business idea further, they’ll check to make sure the potential exists for it to succeed. If the revolutionary product already exists, then your idea has taken a serious blow. If the demand you predict isn’t backed up by data then you may have to rethink. Whether getting the results you’re expecting or not, your plans can only benefit from an infusion of data.

If you’re looking for professional insight into consumer intelligence, London hosts plenty of specialist market research agencies that you can work with to ensure you are on course for success. Starting to work with one now could be the beginning of a relationship that starts for years!

Legal Aid

There’s more important contacts to make than finding a business lawyer or solicitor you can work with. Getting a trained legal brain on your side early doesn’t just mean someone who can check and write contracts for you.

They can also help you establish and register your business in the best possible way, making sure you don’t pay any tax you don’t need to, and even be an expert consultant who can give some weight to your pitches to investors or banks while you’re looking for funding. A sufficiently prestigious lawyer may be able to help your search for funding by actually connecting you to investors!

As well as helping you gain funding, they can also warn you off a deal that might seem too good to be true. With a lawyer on your side you’ll never fall for the trap of signing a deal before you’ve fully scrutinised it, and avoid being locked into something that’s not the best for your company.