Unit 2 M2 Business Research

M2

Regulations and laws for small businesses including ownership

It is very time consuming to register my business and to research all the laws and regulations I would have to follow when in business and to also understand that there would be serious consequences if I failed to keep the legislation. The outgoings of tax and national insurance, if I did not declare my business in the three months expected of starting up, to the HMRC and did not complete a tax return form, then this would be seen as fraud and if found out I would receive a heavy fine or I could even go to jail. My business would suffer badly because my business is new and in the first month I am financially make just about a profit and if a heavy fine is introduced to my business I may not even be able to break-even which then I may have to consider shutting my business down as payments will not be
able to be paid on time and therefore declare my business as bankrupt.
As my ownership is a sole-trader I would have to make sure I have the correct advice and support needed to start-up such as having; an accountant, a financial advisor and web designer. If I did not have these set out the consequences would be that my business wouldn’t be organised and ready and important things such as having a reliable and a sensible price for insurance, mortgages, pensions and investing wouldn’t be sorted as I wouldn’t know much about having to do things like this as this would my first time in setting up my own business. Therefore advice and support is vital. I would have to ensure that I paid all my staff at least the minimum wage because otherwise this would be breaking the law of the national minimum wage act. The consequences for this can be very serious which will have to be taken to court and I may be heavily fined or even jailed for a period
of time which will also be kept on record which isn’t good for business.

Marketing and sales

The impact on my new business if I did not carry out market research before the start-up of my business would be not being able to define exactly what my business service has to offer and so I will not be able to tell my potential
Primary market research (as opposed to secondary research) offers the benefit of direct contact, through a survey or interview, with certain markets and/or customer groups. This type of research can be tailored to meet the needs of an organization and provide specific and detailed information.
An additional benefit of primary vs. secondary research is the confidentiality of the findings. Secondary data is available publicly (at a cost or for free, but it is information in the public domain) while primary research data is collected directly by the organization that deploys the research. The results are, therefore, available to that organization only, providing an "insight edge" against the competition.
However, because this method is time-consuming and expensive, most organizations rely on secondary market research, which is collecting and analyzing existing published data that has been prepared by a third-party such as technical reports, newspaper articles or press releases, among others.