The process of starting a business

Prior to the first meeting, collect all the material you have related to your business idea and bring it along with you: eventual business plans, calculations or simply an idea. During this first meeting you will go through your idea and goals together with our business advisor. You will be given a registration number for “Lissu”, an interactive web-based tool designed to help you write a business plan and which can be used to assess the financial viability of your proposed enterprise. Consider this first meeting a “recognizance” exercise. Slightly fewer than half of those attending a first meeting take a break from the process of becoming an entrepreneur at this point and allow their idea to mature while slightly more than half continue with the process.

Prior to the second meeting, prepare a business plan using Lissu.

During the second meeting, together with Sanna, you will go through your business plan and your possibilities for financing the enterprise. You will also compose an overview of your business, including prospective customers, tax issues, the current market, and the competition: in other words, what kind of environment will your business operate in?

Prior to the third meeting, specify your customers. Who are they? How do they behave? Create a list of tangible customer groups and/or other businesses.

Now it is time to prepare a budget as well as financing and profitability calculations for a three-year period. During the third meeting you will review these calculations with Sanna. This is the most time-consuming phase for a prospective entrepreneur. Also, it can take some time to digest all the economic matters related to a business, as this phase includes learning about many new concepts and the filling in of many different forms.

Once your calculations are completed, if needed, you can seek financing from your bank or Finnvera. Please note that the finances need to be in order before you can apply for possible start-up grants from the Employment and Economic Development Offices (TE-services).

Once the financing is arranged (and you have received a decision on the start-up grant, if you have applied for this), the company can be registered in the necessary registers. You can do this together with Sanna.

Approximately 1-2 months after starting your business you should visit Concordia for a business check-up. During this meeting you will review various tax issues (including VAT), insurances, invoicing and the overall condition of your business to see how your business is developing.

You can seek help from Concordia even after your business is up and running or whenever you want to expand or develop your business. Concordia’s business advisors are here to help.