Start a business from home

Managing your business properly will improve your chances of success and prepare you to grow your business.

Developing relationships from a home-based business

The more you communicate with customers, suppliers and other entrepreneurs, the more business opportunities you will identify. Consider the following:

• Developing relationships with suppliers and other businesses might enable you to bid for public procurement contracts - something that would be impossible on your own - see joint ventures and partnering and an overview of selling to government.
• Information technology (IT) is the key to many aspects of business development - see plan your IT.
• Stay in touch with fellow entrepreneurs through networking, speaking at events, contacting local journalists and entering awards and competitions. Our events finder can help you find information on local networking events in your area - search the events finder. 
• Get involved in online networking - see Northern Ireland business networks and social media best practice for business.
• Consider using customer contact, feedback and loyalty schemes to retain customers and increase your sales - see manage your customer care.

Cashflow for home businesses

Cashflow is the lifeblood of every business. You must do all you can to ensure that money owed is coming into the business. You can ensure prompt payment by issuing invoices on time and having a system in place to alert you to non-payment - see cashflow management and getting paid on time.