John Dyck, Ph.D. ⋅ Spring , TX Career Strategies ⋅ 30 years experience

Contact the Small Business Administration (SBA) in your area. They present regular workshops.

Also most universities have a Small Business Development Center (SBDC) that provides similar services. The SBDCs are usually associated with the college of business. The SBDCs are a subdivision of the SBA.

Regardless, first step is to write a business plan. Google business plans. The SBDC and SBA have templates for business plans.

A couple of questions I always ask of someone in your position.

1. Do you want to work fewer hours, same number of hours or more hours than you do in your current position? answer is more

2. How much of your own money do you have to invest in this venture?

Most startups like your's start with personal and/or family money.

Hard to get financing without a track record.

You have got to convince bank you do not need the money before they will loan you the money.

Good luck/

Heather Gillbanks ⋅ Houston , TX General Electric ⋅ 26 years experience

Hi Dominic,

Good for you for trying to help others. That is always a great basis for a product line,

I am not familiar with your area of SC, however a quick search turned up several startup related groups either in your town or in the Columbia area:
http://www.meetup.com/cities/us/sc/elgin/?country=us&__orig_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.meetup.com%2Fcities%2Fus%2Fsc%2Felgin%2F&city=elgin&__cluster=app&state=sc&radius=25&mview=&pageToken=default%7C48

I have had pretty good luck with Meetup here in Houston - maybe you will find the same.

There are also MANY (like, seriously a ton) of Innovation/ Startup/ Small business/ Product Management related LinkedIn groups that you can join today, for free.

Best of luck - as a startup coach I know how exciting getting something off the ground can be!

-heather

Joel Padua ⋅ Aurora , IL HIFE- Heartland Institute of Financial Education ⋅ 5 years experience

Hi Dominic
I know a product that gives comfort to various consumers, but what kind of product specifically your're into.

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Joel Padua

Rolf Versluis ⋅ Alpharetta , GA Adcap Network Systems, Inc. ⋅ 21 years experience

There are some good ideas on how to get that done in the book Bold, by Peter Diamandis. I recommend you take a look at it. Chapter 7 and 8 specifically.

http://www.boldbook.com/