Business plan?!

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I literally have zero clue about starting a business - can anybody give me an idiots guide? It’s a building business, small one man band but looking for investment?!

Should clarify, investment will be from
Someone we know and they already know dp is brilliant at what he does etc but don’t want it to be a favour, what it to be a genuine investment/partnership etc

Ok...first things first. Is DP a qualified builder? With all necessary certificates?

What is the investment for? Is it to buy a vehicle? Tools? A website?

Yes he is, I guess so yeah, the necessary start up funds to “go it alone” as it were rather than working for others, so vehicle, website, branding yada yada!

www.gov.uk/browse/business/setting-up

This has a lot of what you need to know. There are links for all the steps to take and each link has more information.

So the "write a business plan" links to templates which you can follow and fill in the blanks to create your business plan.

If this investment is from a family member or friend I really would think carefully about this. I never mix business with my personal life, it's risky business when things go wrong. For a builder it is worth speaking to an accountant, a limited set up may be better. What kind of return is expected from the investment? It all needs to be agreed, documented and signed by both parties.

It is easy to 'give away' a share in the business, at the start, when the business is worth nothing etc.

Then, you become successful, and you find the investor who bought a share now owns a big chunk, and you need to pay them off.

What is the proposed investor exit route?

Think of the divorce before the marriage.