How do i go about starting up my own small business without much money behind me?

I'd like to start up my own private tuition business. I already tutor at nights once i've finished my other day job. I'd like to do this full time but would need some sort of grant or funding and i don't have a clue how i'd go about this. Any websites i've looked at tell me i need a "business plan" etc. I do not have a business brain, all i want to do is teach! I live in Scotland. Thanks.

Why would you need a grant or funding?
What sort of tutoring is it?

If you are already tutoring then you obviously have the necessary equipment and therefore you don't need any funding for that.

If you cannot even figure out how to start up then you should give up the idea now.
For any business you need to at least have a clue how to start it - you obviously don't.

Just be a teacher then - why do you need a business if all you want to do is teach. Surely demand for good teachers is extremely high?

If your motivation to run a business and make profit is not high don't do it as it wont work if there is no passion for that.

If you do want, success, money and recognition it can be done from scratch.

You don't need a business plan to start a business. You do need one to get funding. Without a proven business and no personal investment you are unlikely to get funding. Banks/Lenders are businesses too they want to be confident in getting their money back and making a profit. At this stage it's an idea.

I've done it sucessfully twice while being in debt. The truth is with business plans they are just best guesses or estimates. If I write a business book and market it on the internet as an ebook - my biz plan might say sales will be 100 copies a month by month six but the truth is you don't know what you will be selling, until you do it, it's a calculated guess. Could be zero could be 500 a month.

If you don't have a business brain that also is not a problem. To get a business off the ground you just need common sense and the right activity.

I think you are a little caught up in what you should do land rather than what you need to do. Your challenge is to get paying customers. Not to write about how you might get them and how many you may or may not get in a period of time. If you had 20 customers all paying you Â£50 a class 5 nights per week that would generate Â£5000 per week so why would you need a business case or funding.

The trick is to get as many paying customers as quickly and easily as possible. If you can do that you have a business and you don't need funding or plans... as Nike say - Just do it!

I'd spend my time planning how to get customers. You can have the best biz plan in the world, loads of capital investment but if you don't have a customer you don't have a business.

I'm not sure what you tutor in or who your potential customers are so it's difficult to suggest the best ways to get customers.

A friend of mine was Â£50k in debt. Had Â£145 in his pocket and was not particularly good at anything but what he was good at was putting people who are good at things together. He agreed with a coaching company that they would hold a coaching seminar for free if he got the customers. He used some of his Â£145 to print postcards with - Do you think you would make a good coach? printed on one side and a small form to fill out and post back on the back of the card.He got loads of these sent out (somehow not sure but there were loads) He got 20 people to the event and charged them Â£2000 each. That's Â£40k in a week by somebody with less than no funding an no business plan. He sold his last company last year for Â£10 Million having founded it 6 years ago!

well we need to know how many students you currently tutor, what I would recommend is to grow what you are currently doing at home then if you can sustain that maybe rent a small storefront to grow even more this will show that you can sustain a business and make a profit. Small tutoring schools have poped up all over the US and are quite popular if you can sustain small classes I'm sure the bankers will be knocking down your door to lend you money so you can hire more tutors and open more store fronts

Try these sites...http://www.entrepreneur.com/businessplan/index.html

http://www.cpag.org.uk/scotland/taxcredits/tax_credits_going_back_to_work_18.htm

http://www.support2business.co.uk/content/view/32/49/

http://www.presentationhelper.co.uk/business/small_business_grant_scotland.htm

I hope they help!

My advice would be keep doing you day job and then put an advertisement the mall adds column of your local paper to extend you teaching that you do privately.
Stress the fact that you can coach children through their exams.
Also people who require adult learning. Ultimately you may be able to do it full time.

Don't do it full time from the beginning. Try to keep another job to support your teaching until you don't need one of the jobs. If you need funding... well, one of my "friends" got a grant from Lottery fund. I have no idea how much it was unfortunately. Most of people that I know started with programmes like Kumon before going solo.

Use this basic checklist to make sure all the important steps are taken before you launch your new venture. This business checklist will make sure that you cross all your t's and dot all your i's before your business launch.

Steps to Starting a Business -
http://www.developer-resource.com/starting-a-business.htm

Other sites you might find helpful are:
SBA - http://www.sba.gov/
SCORE - http://www.score.org
Small Business Resource - http://www.small-business-software.net
Business Link - http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/home

You will likely find the last link the most helpful because of your location.

Goodluck!

A business plan can be as simple or complex as you like, depending on its purpose. It's always good to have a plan, whatever you're doing. In its simplest form, you make a note of what you want to do, where and how you're going to do it, what you need to get started, who you're going to do it for, what you'll charge them and how you'll reach them. Outline how much it will cost to start up, what you're regular running costs are and make sure that your projected sales will cover that and leave you a bit of profit.

Contact your local Business Link for free help and advice on starting your business. They run free seminars on starting up and go through all the basic things that you need to know about starting a business. They will also allocate a business advisor to you who keeps in touch with you on your progress. Even when you've been running for a number of years they do free business reviews. Our last one was very useful.

Build up your evening clients to a healthy level before you give up your day job. Check that there is a demand for tuition during the day. It depends on the type of client you're targeting. That's all part of the market research you do for your business plan so that you have a sound marketing plan to ensure your business success. Marketing - how you let people know about what you do - is key.

Good luck!

Work ten times as hard as you would have to do normally.

Try Google website, there are many funding organisations, but you should know the business you want to do in mine.

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