How to start a business in 2024?
You want to join the entrepreneurial adventure and you are wondering how to create your business in France ? Whatever your project, we present to you all the major steps you need to take into account to get started.
We help you see things more clearly by sharing the 7 essential steps of creating a business .
STEP 1: Find a business idea
It’s important not to jump in headlong! Many people will probably tell you that knowing how to start a business is innate, and that some of us are entrepreneurial, while others are not. In reality, starting a business requires a lot of thought up front and is rarely done in the blink of an eye.
Identifying opportunities before creating a company is essential. This involves thinking about its concept (brand name, decoration, differentiating assets, company image, product or service categories, etc.). This is your chance to express your creativity! Be careful, however, that the chosen concept corresponds to the expectations of the customers you are targeting! So ask yourself the following question: “ does my idea create value for its users? ” If you can answer yes to this question, then you probably have a good business idea.
To help identify business opportunities , you need to be curious and seek inspiration, particularly in foreign countries to adapt them to a French clientele.
Also remember to observe the things that complicate your life and try to respond to them by making your daily life easier.
We often think about the savings made thanks to a product or service, but also focus on saving time, energy or simply the entertaining aspect of your project .
Whatever happens, the key word is the same: you must put yourself in your users’ shoes in order to find the idea that will best meet their needs.
When wondering how to start a business , it is recommended that you don’t go in blind. To do this, you need to set a course to follow.
The aim of the market study is to verify the feasibility and viability of your business creation project . This study will allow you to know your competitors, but above all to understand the expectations of your potential customers. You will thus collect and analyze a certain amount of information on a given market.
Do you have a business project and are you wondering if you can talk about it to those around you? Know that talking about a business idea is not a bad thing, on the contrary. To the question “ how to start a small business ?” ”, you are told “by making yourself as small as possible”. Indeed, you have to be careful who you talk to about it. It may seem interesting to talk about your project to those around you, to get the reactions of your potential customers, but these people must not take advantage of this to steal your idea.
The ideal is to talk about your idea after having completed a few steps (launch of a first collection, development of an MVP – minimum viable product, etc.). To always be one step ahead of people who might be tempted to use your idea.
Before you start creating your business , it is sometimes necessary to protect your idea. However, an idea cannot be protected by legal mechanisms as such. It is therefore not possible to prevent another person from embarking on the same idea as you.
A business idea is only subject to protection if it materializes. That is to say, if the idea has been materialized through a brand, a patent or a model. But be careful: here again, it is not the idea that is protected, but its materialization as a brand, patent or model.
Example : let’s consider the idea of a coffee capsule whose use is exclusively adapted to one type of coffee machine. This idea can be protected by filing a patent. But without this material support, the idea would not be subject to any protection.
Therefore, to protect your creation or innovation , you will need to take steps with the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI).
STEP 2: validate your business creation project
Wondering how to start a business ? Once you have defined your overall business idea, it is necessary to validate our project. For this, you can write a business model but also test your ideas.
The business model is defined as the core of the business plan. Its objective is to define the concept of your future structure. It will explain how you will develop. In other words, how are you going to make money?
The objective is to test your business idea on a sample of people representing the characteristics of your potential customers.
To do this, you can consider the “ Proof of concept ” method which allows you to verify the performance of your idea or concept.
So, at the end of your analysis, you will know whether or not you can continue your project. This allows you to quickly confirm your idea and be able to make the necessary modifications to your project.
You can also consider another method, that of the “ Minimum viable product ”, used when launching a product to check customer appreciation. And in the event of negative feedback, consider areas for modification or improvement .
Defining your clientele is an essential step in creating your business , since it will directly determine the success of your structure.
