Okay, so you want to start a business?

Evening!

I'm going to take you on a thrilling trip into the past now, and I'll justify this by saying that I think it's only fair to start from the beginning of my Little Grasshopper journey to give you an insight into the process of starting my business.

When Max was born, like a lot of mothers, I dreaded the thought of returning to work. I'd always been fairly creative and had problems sitting still but something was luring me seductively towards creating for a purpose other than the pure enjoyment of it. 

How was I to choose a single thing I could love doing for potentially the rest of my days? As I soon discovered, it's all about passion. After dabbling in writing, painting and beading I found my passion lying in a pile of baby clothes. To be more specific: creating baby gifts out of baby clothes fashioned into bouquets. Who'd have thunk it?

Honestly, I was plagued with insecurities as I sat in the dark of my son's room at the 2am feed. What if nobody liked what I created? It would require time and effort, could I really afford that right now? Not to mention the finances of getting a business of sorts off the ground when I was on half paid maternity leave.

I started researching how I could make this a reality. I researched the competition in my hoped for market and looked for other businesses I would be in direct competition with in the A.C.T region. I talked to people about how I might approach starting something up. I jumped online and looked for local business support and mentoring. I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. There are numerous business support and development initiatives in Canberra. Here is a good place to start if you're thinking of taking the plunge into being your own boss and you live in the A.C.T.

• Canberra Business Point: Provided me with FREE advice on Business Planning  and where to start. They also offer a great range of courses on business, from Business Basics 101 to Social Media  Marketing. Go to www.canberrabusinesspoint.com.au for more information.
• The Lighthouse Business Innovation Centre is also an advisory and mentoring service which I have heard lots of wonderful things about. This is a service I will be accessing in the near future to grow my business. Go to www.lighthouseinnovation.com.au for more information.
• Go to www.business.act.gov.au for a comprehensive overview of who can help.

If you are not living in Canberra you can check out your local state business support by going to www.business.gov.au.

Next, I needed to think of a name for my business and get it registered. This was by no means as easy as it sounded. Jumping on the ASIC (Australian Securities and Investment Commission) website (www.asic.gov.au) and searching already existing business names turned out to be a time consuming and completely frustrating exercise.

Right. I needed a name relating to my one and only product at that stage of baby bouquets. Baby Blooms? Taken. Budding Babies? Taken. Blooming Babies. Little Buds. Little Daisies. Sprouting Bubs. Taken. Taken. Taken. Taken! Where, where where? I was asking myself. Just where are all these businesses? My excitement was waning as I made my way down my list of potential names. That lurking self doubt crept in again. Maybe this wasn't going to happen after all if I couldn't even think of a bloody name for my non-existent business.

Luckily, it came to me in the night and the next morning I ran the name past my husband and a few fabulous friends. The tag line was important as I hoped it might give my potential customers an insight into what the business actually was as the business name didn't give much away. Eventually a friend and I agreed on a great tag line for Little Grasshopper. Putting a little spring into baby gifts. Ha! Yes! I love a good double meaning.

And there it was. My idea had a name and now I could go ahead and register that name with the Office of Regulatory Services, which I did the very next week. A business (albeit very small and hobby like) was born.

I hope this post has been helpful as a starting point for you. Follow me into my next post where I will talk about my adventures into getting online.

Good luck and Cheers!

Lisa