Business tips: Getting your operations up and running

If you are ‘pressing go’ on your new business, what are the key elements to have in place before you begin trading?

The complexity of your operational model will vary greatly, depending on the kind of business you’re setting up. A small two-person design agency will have a simpler operational set-up than a wholesale food production business, for obvious reasons. So, this stage of the journey is about pinning down those key operational needs and getting an effective strategy together for how this business is going to work, in the real world.

Find your premises or workspace

Every business needs some kind of workspace, whether it’s your own home, an office or a factory space. This is the place where the actual work will be done and the central hub of your operations, so put some careful thought into what space will be needed. In terms of location, the type of business will also dictate whether you can be based where you are, or should you be where your customers are.

Our two-person design agency could feasibly operate from a co-working office, a startup incubator space or from a spare room/garage/summer house in the founder’s home. The wholesale food production business, however, will need factory space to house its production equipment, a chilled store for the food, an office for the admin staff and managers, and space for delivery vehicles and incoming supplier deliveries etc.

Buy your equipment and tech

You’ll have set aside some of your initial funding to buy the basic equipment and technology needed for the business. This will include all the machinery, plant, office furniture, IT, computing and telecommunications equipment required to run the business, plus any vehicles you’ll need.

Once you have your premises ready to roll, you can start moving your equipment in and actually ‘setting up shop’ in your brand new workspace.

Source your key suppliers

Most businesses will rely on some form of the supply chain to keep the business ticking over. The design agency will probably need paper, printer ink and (no doubt) a lot of coffee to stay operational. And our food production business will need raw ingredients, cardboard boxes and product packaging to be able to produce their key products.

Your next step is to source the suppliers you need and set up contracts with these external companies. You may have pre-existing contacts in the industry, or you may be starting with a clean slate. Either way, it’s important to build up a trusted supply network, where you’ve negotiated a good price and decent payment terms. Ultimately, your business can sink or swim based on the stability of your supply chain, so these relationships will be crucial to your success.

Get the logistics and delivery elements in place

Getting the finished product/service to your end customer is the main goal of any business, so the final piece of your operational puzzle will be sorting out your logistics and delivery systems.

For a small service-based startup, like the design agency, the end offering is likely to be either wholly digital or a mix of print and digital. The end delivery process is relatively straightforward and will mostly consist of getting the final signed-off assets to the customer. For a complex manufacturing or production startup, like the food business, the delivery systems will be a vital part of their offering. As a food business, you’ve got to meet all relevant food hygiene timescales and standards, and get your fresh, high-quality food products safely to your customers.

A delivery system should be customised to each company’s specific needs, so it’s sensible to put plenty of thought into making this system efficient, cost-effective and productive.

If you’re at the early stages of planning out your business idea, please do get in touch. We’ll help you get your operations in order and properly aligned with your business model.