Steps to starting a business

This lesson is designed to introduce students to the process of setting up a business and explore what it means to be enterprising. For students who are interested in becoming business owners, this lesson is a good introduction to important enterprise skills.

The first activity can be delivered as an introduction to setting up a business. The second activity can be covered in one session, or it can be delivered as a longer-term business project or series of sessions, allowing the concepts to be explored in more depth.

By the end of the lesson students will be able to:

• Understand the skills needed to be enterprising and their strengths in these areas
• Identify the seven key steps to setting up a business and how to apply these
• Demonstrate how to plan and pitch a business idea

The Starting a business handbook includes the student sheets for this lesson, with useful tips and relevant websites to refer to in future. It can also be used independently by students who are keen to plan their future business ideas in more depth.

Explore this topic further and visit BBC Teach where Radio 1 DJ Greg James brings the concept of different company types to life at a music festival in a series of short films.