what are the roles in a research project

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Building and managing a research team

Building your team, what is a research team.

What constitutes a research team in one department or institution might be described elsewhere as a research group, research centre, research unit or research institute. Regardless of the terminology used, the key characteristic of a research team is that it comprises a group of people working together in a committed way towards a common research goal.

Research team diversity

There are many different configurations of research teams in academia and boundaries can be 'fuzzy'. They may comprise co-investigators, fractional or pooled staff, technical and clerical staff and postgraduate research students. There may also be inter- and intra-institutional dimensions and increasingly international ones; some team members' contributions may well be largely virtual, via email, phone or videoconference.

Also, team members may have different disciplinary backgrounds, different motivations and aspirations, and different cultural backgrounds. Over time, team members' roles may change from being core (fully dedicated to the research goal) to peripheral (committed to this research goal, but also working in one or more other teams), and vice-versa.

Assessing the balance and composition of your team. 

Ideally, the balance and composition of the team in terms of skills, expertise and other contributions will be appropriate to achieve the team's objectives, i.e. for the  research goal the team is working towards. The research team leader needs to be confident that team members have, or can develop, the necessary skills and knowledge for the research in hand, and you will make recruitment decisions on that basis.

There is also another perspective on the effective team which it is good to consider. In addition to knowledge, experience and skills individuals have different behavioural traits or characteristics they bring to the way they carry out their work and these can be aligned to particular roles in the team: some are very good at seeing a big picture, others very good at detailed work. Some are very oriented towards action - good at just getting things done; others are natural communicators and networkers. The need for these different roles will emerge at different times and it is worth considering the composition of your team to ensure you have a balance of strengths. 

To find out more about specific team roles and the research by Meredith Belbin on which they are based, see the section further down this page. 

Managing your team

Your responsibilities as a manager of the group.

These are the responsibilities identified in Adair's action-centred leadership model :

• establish, agree and communicate standards of performance and behaviour
• establish style, culture, approach of the group - soft skill elements
• monitor and maintain discipline, ethics, integrity and focus on objectives
• anticipate and resolve group conflict, struggles or disagreements
• assess and change as necessary the balance and composition of the group
• develop team-working, cooperation, morale and team-spirit
• develop the collective maturity and capability of the group - progressively increase group freedom and authority
• encourage the team towards objectives and aims - motivate the group and provide a collective sense of purpose
• identify, develop and agree team- and project-leadership roles within group
• enable, facilitate and ensure effective internal and external group communications
• identify and meet group training needs
• give feedback to the group on overall progress; consult with, and seek feedback and input from the group.

Team  roles and development

A research team consists of people working together in a committed way towards a common research goal. Teams, like individuals and organisations mature and develop and have a fairly clearly defined growth cycle. Bruce Tuckman's 1965 four-stage model explains this cycle. It may be helpful  to reflect on your team's current stage of development  in order to identify relevant approaches to leadership and management. In addition to understanding the development of your team over time, having an understanding of the preferred ‘team roles', the characteristics and expected social behaviour, of individual team members, including the team leader, will help ensure that the team performs effectively together. Using team role or individual profiling tools can offer insights into building and maintaining an effective team, but team role analysis is most useful if all members evaluate their own and others' preferred roles, whichever tools are chosen.

There are a number of team role and individual profile tools available and your institution's staff development department or equivalent may have registered practitioners in one or more of these who can help you and your team understand your preferred team roles or working styles.

In the 1970s, Meredith Belbin and colleagues at the Henley Management College identified nine team roles, based on long-term psychometric tests and studies of business teams. Belbin defined team roles as "a tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way". The resulting role definitions fall into three categories, each with strengths and allowable weaknesses, and have been used widely in practice for team development in the intervening decades. Further research by Belbin has led to the addition of a tenth ‘Specialist' role in recent years. Watch this short introduction to the work of Belbin , or read about the team roles.

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15 Key Project Roles & Their Responsibilities

Managing a project is a team effort that involves several key project roles and each has its own responsibilities so everything can progress as smoothly as possible. Before you begin that project, take a moment to understand the project management roles and their responsibilities so you can assemble an effective project team.

Now let’s review 15 critical project roles and their responsibilities in the project life cycle. Some of these project management roles are individual roles and others involve multiple participants.

1. Project Sponsor

While there might be a superior position, like executive sponsor, for most projects there’s a project sponsor sitting on top of the project roles pyramid. This is the person who’s deeply invested in the project and its success.

The project sponsor is in direct communication with the stakeholders which is the reason the project has been initiated. They tend to monitor the budget and hold the purse strings of the project. They also have the final say in making any project decisions, which include resources.

The project manager reports to the project sponsor and helps with the project charter , which is a statement of scope, objectives and people involved in the project.

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Project Charter Template

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2. Project Manager

The project manager is the one who’s responsible for the project. They plan it, develop a schedule, assemble a project team and manage their workload throughout the project’s life cycle. Project managers are also responsible for managing risk and the budget.

The project manager is the one who drives the project forward, but they’re not working independently. They collaborate with multiple project roles and are also responsible for reporting on progress to the project sponsor and any stakeholders who also have a vested interest in the project.

The project manager is the point person for vendors and independent contractors, creating contracts and managing their services. You can think of the project manager as a bridge that connects the executives or clients to the project team working on the project deliverables.

3. Senior Project Manager

A senior project manager is an experienced professional in the project management field. Senior project managers are usually employed by large organizations that have an extense project portfolio. Senior project managers oversee the planning and execution of programs and large-scale initiatives that require the cross-functional collaboration of several departments of an organization.

Senior project managers may work in many different industries such as construction, manufacturing, retail or technology-related fields. It’s important that they demonstrate specific knowledge of their industry and years of experience proving their capability to deliver successful projects of that kind.

4. Project Coordinator

Often there’s a go-between that helps facilitate the project manager’s job in terms of project operations. They’ll work with the project team and are especially helpful when there are remote teams working in different time zones on the same project. The project coordinator helps to keep the operations running smoothly for the project manager and the project team.

5. Project Administrator

Project administrators support project managers, project coordinators and project analysts, so they’re usually employed by large organizations that have multiple project roles and a large project portfolio. Project administrators, as their name implies, are in charge of administrative tasks such as making reports, planning meetings and facilitating team collaboration activities.

6. Project Analyst

Project analysts act as support to project managers, program managers and PMOs. They’re responsible for gathering and analyzing data for project management decision-making. Project analysts facilitate the work of other project management roles by creating reports and project documentation, analyzing databases, doing quantitative and qualitative research, among other similar activities.

7. Project Director

Project directors lead project management teams and external parties such as contractors, sub-contractors and other individuals who participate in the execution of a project. In addition to this, they are the liaison between projects and key stakeholders in companies. Their scope is wider than project managers, as they can oversee multiple projects and are in charge of resource management decision-making. Project directors also oversee project managers and other project roles when it comes to areas such as quality management, performance reporting and budgeting.

8. Project Management Consultant

A project management consultant is a project management professional that offers services to external organizations and works for finite time periods that are defined by a contractual agreement. Project management consultants might be part of project management consulting firms or might work as a freelancer.

If you need to hire a project management consultant to manage a project or establish project management best practices in your organization, gather as many consulting proposals as possible so you can compare their approaches and determine who’s the best fit for your team.

9. Project Officer

This project management role is similar to that of a project coordinator, project administrator or project assistant. Project officers are in charge of administrative tasks and organizational aspects of running a project, such as creating and managing project documentation, scheduling project meetings, managing relationships with vendors and contractors, supporting project team members, among other duties.

10. Project Executive

Similar to a senior project manager, a project executive is an experienced project management professional who leads the project management efforts of an organization. They usually work for project-based organizations that have a project management office (PMO). They make high-level decisions related to staffing, purchasing and strategic planning and are responsible for the success of projects, programs and other large-scale initiatives.

11. Creative Project Manager

A creative project manager is a project manager who’s in charge of the planning, scheduling and tracking or creative projects in marketing and advertising. A creative project manager might be employed as an in-house project management expert to lead creative projects or can be part of a creative agency. Besides the traditional functions of a project manager, a creative project manager acts as the liaison between the creative team and the project stakeholders to deliver successful projects.

12. Change Control Board

A c hange control board or change review board is a group of project management team members who are in charge of approving changes to the project plan. This board is critical for filtering change requests because otherwise team members or stakeholders could make changes to the project plan, which if left unnoticed, could greatly affect the project schedule or budget. The project roles that can be part of this change control board can vary from one project to another, depending on the size of the organization.

13. Steering Committee

A steering committee is an advisory board that has governance over an organization or project. Steering committees are formed by a cross-functional team of executives. Steering committees oversee project management teams and ensure projects are aligned with their organization’s strategic goals and business objectives.

14. Project Management Office (PMO)

Sometimes an organization will have a segment devoted to developing a set of standards and policies to govern their project management and to make sure those standards and policies are being followed. This tends to occur only in larger organizations, which might not always apply.

However, if it does exist the project management office will decide on the processes used in a project and how to follow them. The PMO will also archive the project for historical data, collecting and analyzing its results. Project managers are supported by the PMO.

15. Project Owner

A project owner is a person within an organization who advocates for the initiation of a project and is held responsible for its success or failure. Project owners typically come up with the project vision, business case and help secure funding for the project from sponsors. Then, once the project gets approved, they work with project managers to make sure their vision guides the project planning and execution phases.

16. Project Leader

A project leader is a project management professional who excels at managing teams. The main responsibility of a project leader is to guide and support project team members to make sure they’re all working towards the same goal as they execute their tasks and produce deliverables.

This role is especially important in larger organizations where there are many employees from different departments working on projects and programs. While most of those employees have expertise in their respective fields, they’re typically not so well-versed in project management, which is where project leaders come into play.

17. PMO Director

A PMO director is an experienced project management professional who leads the efforts of a PMO office. The responsibilities of a PMO director include defining the project management best practices that will be followed by an organization, choosing project management methodologies and deciding how resources will be allocated across projects and programs.

18. Project Team Members

These are the people who execute the tasks assigned to them by the project manager. There can be a team lead, who manages the team, who the team reports to and who in turn reports their progress to the project manager. In general, all team members are on equal footing.

The project team members have skills relevant to the project and can work with varying degrees of autonomy depending on the project management methodology that’s used in the project. They’re responsible for executing their tasks and updating their statuses to the project manager to track the overall project progress.

More Project Management Templates

ProjectManager isn’t only one of the best project management software in the market, it’s a hub of project management templates , blogs, videos and guides. Here are a few free templates for anyone on the project management team.

Project Plan Template

While some members of the project management team are not involved in the process of creating a project plan, they’re all informed about it to some degree. This free project plan template is a great place to start creating a simple project plan anyone can understand.

Project Budget

The project budget is a key project management document that sets the limits for spending on a project. This free project budget template helps project managers create a project budget that can easily be shared with stakeholders and other project management roles.

Gantt Chart Template

Gantt chart templates are versatile tools that can be used by project managers, program managers, PMOs and team members. This free Gantt chart template for Excel is ideal for any of these project roles.

How ProjectManager Helps Everyone on Your Project Team

The project team needs project tools to help them work more effectively and track progress. ProjectManager is award-winning project management software that’s packed with features that help everyone working on the project.

Live Project Tracking Updates

Let’s start with the project sponsor. They’re interested in how the project is progressing against where it should be in the project plan. When team members update their statuses on ProjectManager, that data instantly reflects throughout the software. Project sponsors aren’t interested in the nitty-gritty, so a real-time dashboard gives them a bird’s-eye view of the project’s progress as it’s happening.

Gantt Charts for Project Planning & Scheduling

When it comes to planning and scheduling the project, project managers will find the online Gantt chart tool especially helpful. Task lists on spreadsheets are easy to upload and can open up in ProjectManager as a new project. Then just add the task duration and it populates a timeline. From here, the project manager can make milestones, assign team members tasks and even attach relevant documents and images for direction.

Resource Management Calendars

Of course, project managers need more than just tools to monitor the project. They need to reallocate resources to keep things moving smoothly. ProjectManager has tools to manage tasks and resources to see if team members have enough work. Reallocate their workload from the workload page.

Related Content

ProjectManager offers a wealth of resources for all roles in project management. We have hundreds of tutorial videos and blog posts that cover all aspects of project management.

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ProjectManager has tools for every project role. Online software means ProjectManager is reflecting the actual project as it’s happening, so better decisions can be made. No matter what your project role is, there are features that can help you do your job better. See for yourself by taking this free 30-day trial today.

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How to engage stakeholders in research: design principles to support improvement

Annette boaz.

1 Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education, a partnership between Kingston University and St George’s, University of London, London, United Kingdom

Stephen Hanney

2 Health Economics Research Group, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, United Kingdom

Robert Borst

3 Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Alison O’Shea

Maarten kok.

4 VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Associated Data

Closing the gap between research production and research use is a key challenge for the health research system. Stakeholder engagement is being increasingly promoted across the board by health research funding organisations, and indeed by many researchers themselves, as an important pathway to achieving impact. This opinion piece draws on a study of stakeholder engagement in research and a systematic literature search conducted as part of the study.

This paper provides a short conceptualisation of stakeholder engagement, followed by ‘design principles’ that we put forward based on a combination of existing literature and new empirical insights from our recently completed longitudinal study of stakeholder engagement. The design principles for stakeholder engagement are organised into three groups, namely organisational, values and practices. The organisational principles are to clarify the objectives of stakeholder engagement; embed stakeholder engagement in a framework or model of research use; identify the necessary resources for stakeholder engagement; put in place plans for organisational learning and rewarding of effective stakeholder engagement; and to recognise that some stakeholders have the potential to play a key role. The principles relating to values are to foster shared commitment to the values and objectives of stakeholder engagement in the project team; share understanding that stakeholder engagement is often about more than individuals; encourage individual stakeholders and their organisations to value engagement; recognise potential tension between productivity and inclusion; and to generate a shared commitment to sustained and continuous stakeholder engagement. Finally, in terms of practices, the principles suggest that it is important to plan stakeholder engagement activity as part of the research programme of work; build flexibility within the research process to accommodate engagement and the outcomes of engagement; consider how input from stakeholders can be gathered systematically to meet objectives; consider how input from stakeholders can be collated, analysed and used; and to recognise that identification and involvement of stakeholders is an iterative and ongoing process.

It is anticipated that the principles will be useful in planning stakeholder engagement activity within research programmes and in monitoring and evaluating stakeholder engagement. A next step will be to address the remaining gap in the stakeholder engagement literature concerned with how we assess the impact of stakeholder engagement on research use.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12961-018-0337-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Closing the gap between research production and research use is a key challenge for the health research system. Stakeholder engagement is being increasingly promoted across the board by health research funding organisations, and indeed by many researchers themselves, as an important pathway to achieving impact [ 1 ]. The literature is diverse, with a rapidly expanding but still relatively small number of papers specifically referring to ‘stakeholder engagement’, and a larger number of publications discussing issues that at least partly overlap with stakeholder engagement. Several of the papers explicitly analysing stakeholder engagement come from the field of environmental research (e.g. Jolibert and Wesselink [ 2 ], Phillipson et al. [ 3 ]). However, stakeholder engagement is also gaining traction in the health field. A recent supplement in this journal consolidated learning relating to tools and approaches to stakeholder engagement within the United Kingdom Department for International Development’s Future Health Systems research consortium [ 4 ]. In particular, in health, there is an important stream of analysis from North America. A review for the United States Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality drew on papers from a range of fields [ 5 ].

This opinion piece provides a short conceptualisation of stakeholder engagement, followed by ‘design principles’ that we put forward based on a combination of existing literature and new empirical insights from our recently completed longitudinal study of stakeholder engagement in research. We have drawn on a systematic literature search conducted to inform the wider study and in particular to conceptualise stakeholder engagement (Additional file  1 ).

Literature review

Conceptualising stakeholder engagement: what does the literature say.

Stakeholders have been defined as “ individuals, organizations or communities that have a direct interest in the process and outcomes of a project, research or policy endeavor ” ([ 6 ], p. 5). In seeking to conceptualise stakeholders, Concannon et al. [ 7 ] developed the 7Ps Framework to identify stakeholders in Patient-Centered Outcomes Research and Comparative Effectiveness Research in the United States of America. The 7Ps are patients and the public, providers, purchasers, payers, public policy-makers and policy advocates working in the non-governmental sector, product makers, and principal investigators. The seven categories signal an overlap with the large literature on patient and public involvement (PPI) in research. However, our focus here is on multi-stakeholder engagement, where diverse groups of stakeholders take part in the research process. Deverka et al. [ 6 ] define engagement as “ an iterative process of actively soliciting the knowledge, experience, judgment and values of individuals selected to represent a broad range of direct interest in a particular issue, for the dual purposes of: creating a shared understanding; making relevant, transparent and effective decisions ” ([ 6 ], p. 5).

Roles, activities and phases of stakeholder engagement: What does the literature say?

There are additional issues about the definition of stakeholder engagement when the nature of the engagement activities is considered. For example, there are issues about how far co-creation/participatory action research approaches can be considered to be stakeholder engagement or something so far beyond the usual stakeholder engagement that they are really in a different category [ 8 ]. Similarly, there is a large and currently distinct literature on PPI in research [ 9 ], including the development of reporting guidelines such as GRIPP2 [ 10 ]. There are a number of parallels in the issues discussed in these literatures as well as some interesting differences (particularly in terms of power inequalities). However, herein, we conceptualise PPI as a subset of stakeholder engagement in-line with most of the literature, including Concannon et al. [ 7 ].

Most of the stakeholder engagement literature highlights the broad range of activities in which stakeholders can engage depending on their own skills and attributes and the capacity and wishes of the researchers conducting specific studies. At the broadest level of a research system, or research funding body, Lomas [ 11 ] claimed there were many activities in which stakeholders could be engaged in a ‘linkage and exchange’ approach for health services research. These were setting priorities, funding programmes, assessing applications, conducting research and communicating findings. The importance of engaging a wide range of stakeholders in priority-setting has often been emphasised. The pioneering study by Kogan and Henkel [ 12 ] analysed both the importance of engaging policy-makers in setting research agendas to meet their needs, and the obstacles to making the process work well. These obstacles included issues around how far the assessment of needs-based research should focus on the relevance and practical impact of the research as well as its scientific merit. Many of the more recent studies explicitly examining stakeholder engagement also set out a range of activities in which stakeholders may be involved. These are often related to phases of the research processes. Concannon et al. [ 7 ] provide a list of roles related to stages and used the identified roles in a subsequent review [ 13 ].

Knowledge translation (KT) is one of many terms used to describe efforts to ensure research evidence is used to inform decision-making [ 14 ]. Although the importance of engaging stakeholders in KT is recognised, it has been acknowledged that stakeholder engagement is often overlooked in favour of more conventional dissemination strategies [ 15 ]. Integrated KT has been developed as an approach to collaborative research in which researchers work with stakeholders who identify a problem and have the influence and sometimes authority to implement the knowledge generated through research [ 16 , 17 ]. Grimshaw et al. [ 14 ] argue that different groups of stakeholders are likely to be engaged depending on the type of research that is being translated.

Assessing the impact of stakeholder engagement: What does the literature say?

A final consideration about the nature of the body of literature specifically on stakeholder engagement is that not only is it still quite limited in total, but there are also notable areas where authors claim it is particularly sparse. In particular, Hinchcliff et al. [ 18 ] examined the literature on multi-stakeholder health services research collaborations in an attempt to address the question of whether it was worth investing in them. They identified very few studies (Harvey et al’s. [ 19 ] 2011 evaluation of a Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care being one exception) and concluded that their generalisability was questionable. They therefore suggested that “ The lack of reliable evidence compels implementers to rely largely on trial and error, risking variable success ” ([ 18 ], p. 124).

The nature of engagement activity is less contentious than the arguments about its potential impact. Research impacts on non-academic audiences are defined by the United Kingdom Higher Education Funding Council as: “ benefits to one or more areas of the economy, society, culture, public policy and services, health, production, environment, international development or quality of life, whether locally, regionally, nationally or internationally ” [ 20 ]. Various studies have attempted to assess a range of impacts of research (especially health research) and/or attempted to identify facilitators and barriers of research use in policy-making. There are also a growing number of reviews of such studies [ 21 – 27 ]. While these are not explicitly studies of stakeholder engagement, many of them have identified some form of collaboration between researchers and users as one of the factors most likely to lead to the research making an impact. However, this wider range of literature does not go into detail in terms of analysing the nature of the processes of stakeholder engagement that leads to impact.

Studies specifically focusing on the impact of stakeholder engagement are less common, although it is a growing area of interest [ 28 , 29 ]. Jolibert and Wesselink [ 2 ] found a few examples of impact, but suggested ways to increase impact through what they describe as sustained interactions. Concannon et al. concluded that approximately 20% of their study participants “ reported that stakeholder engagement improved the relevance of research, increased stakeholder trust... enhanced mutual learning by stakeholders, and researchers about each other, or improved research adoption ” ([ 13 ], p. 1697), whereas 6% reported improved transparency and 9% increased understanding of research processes. Also, while Forsythe et al. referred to a lack of evidence about impact, they also observed that “ Commonly reported contributions included changes to project methods, outcomes or goals; improvement of measurement tools; and interpretation of qualitative data ” ([ 30 ], p. 13). In the United States, the Center for Medical Technology Policy website makes a strong statement about the impact of stakeholder engagement: “ Including the perspectives of all key stakeholders has powerful benefits, enhancing both the short- and long-term relevance of clinical research efforts ” [ 31 ].

Assessing the impact of stakeholder engagement: a new study

Given the diversity of stakeholder engagement and the thin evidence base for its impact, our study set out to identify a set of indicators that might be used to identify stakeholder engagement with potential for impact. We identified a study called the European study on Quantifying Utility of Investment in Protection from Tobacco (EQUIPT) and then conducted our own study, Stakeholder Engagement in EQUIPT (SEE-Impact) as a prospective study of stakeholder engagement running alongside. EQUIPT, a major European Commission (EC) – funded project, aimed to achieve impact through extensive stakeholder engagement. Both studies are briefly described in Box 1.

The results of the EQUIPT study have now been published [ 32 , 33 ] and a full account of the main methods from SEE-Impact have been submitted for publication. Papers on the full findings are being finalised. Herein, our aim is to address the statement in our original funding proposal in 2013 that it should be possible to identify aspects of the stakeholder engagement (and perhaps other features of the processes) that might be viewed as intermediate indicators of the eventual impact achieved.

Our analysis of the complex and nuanced process of stakeholder engagement has resulted not in a list of indicators, but in a set of design principles. We hope that these design principles will help to inform the future development of stakeholder engagement as a mechanism for promoting research impact. These principles, rooted in both the existing literature and in the findings from our prospective study of stakeholder engagement, are intended to inform the planning and delivery of stakeholder engagement activities. It is anticipated that they will also provide a structure for building a narrative account of stakeholder engagement as part of an evaluation of an individual project or programme. They might also provide a starting point for the development of future indicators.

Design principles for stakeholder engagement in research

The project team (comprising members of the SEE-Impact research team and collaborators from EQUIPT) met for a 2 day analysis workshop. One aim of the workshop was to begin to build a consensus among the team on what seemed to be the key design principles emerging from the SEE-Impact data and the on-going literature review. SEE-Impact data included observational data, interviews and document analysis. The research team continued to develop the principles through an ongoing period of deliberation, informed by the impact study and the literature. As part of this process, the principles were categorised into three groups, namely organisational, values and practices.

In this section, we first present empirical evidence from the SEE-Impact study that informed our development of the design principles. We then briefly summarise published evidence for each group of design principles in order to situate them in the wider literature.

Design principles and empirical evidence from the stakeholder engagement in EQUIPT for impact (SEE-impact) study

The stakeholder engagement study (SEE-Impact) and the project being studied (EQUIPT) are described in Box 1. In terms of the organisational level principles, the EQUIPT project objectives for stakeholder engagement were clear, as set out in the proposal, protocol and project documents [ 34 ]. The key aims of stakeholder engagement activity were to access the knowledge and skills (described in the protocol as co-creation innovation in the working space) and to increase influence and impact (described in the protocol as dissemination innovation in the transfer space through stakeholder engagement).

In terms of values, the commitment to stakeholder engagement was more clearly demonstrated by some of the EQUIPT project team members than others. For some team members, previous successful experience of an interactive form of working with stakeholders had built a commitment to this particular way of working. It also provided experience of practical elements of working with stakeholders, but perhaps most importantly lived experience of the practical benefits of engagement. For other members of the team, too, working with stakeholders fitted closely with their ethos and values. For example, the Hungarian team talked about their pragmatic approach to research and the need to conduct useful and usable research, with stakeholder engagement being a key component. However, a small group within the wider project team did not seem committed to ensuring stakeholder engagement remained a core element of the project. They favoured a particular, individualised approach to stakeholders and, over time, partially reshaped the stakeholder engagement activities to something more akin to research participation (that is, taking part in a research study as a means of generating specific data as determined by researchers, rather than as co-producers of research). Finally, not all stakeholders identified by the project team were interested in engaging with the project. In particular, the lack of policy priority given to smoking cessation (the focus of the return on investment (ROI) tool) made engagement of policy stakeholders in the Netherlands very difficult to achieve.

In terms of practices, while the EQUIPT project protocol did set out how the stakeholder engagement would operate [ 34 ], there was not as much flexibility as the investigators would have liked in terms of the project plan and this had an impact on the nature of the stakeholder engagement activities. In particular, time intensive methods of engagement originally proposed in the protocol (particularly the large number of face-to-face meetings) began to look unrealistic to members of the team. The lack of flexibility came in part from the funder. The EC told the project team at an early point that there was no scope for negotiation around the project end date. Thus, initial delays in the project put a strain on the project timetable and deliverables. Members of the team proposed a shift from face-to-face meetings with stakeholders to Skype meetings in an effort to ‘catch up’. The technical team producing the new version of the ROI tool for roll out in Europe added to a sense of urgency in ‘speeding up’ the stakeholder engagement work with their need for data to feed into their work. Nevertheless, despite the practical difficulties, in EQUIPT, a significant amount of consideration had been given to stakeholder engagement, including planning how the input provided by stakeholders might be gathered, collated, analysed and used. Vokó et al. highlight that it is important to “ fully analyse several aspects of stakeholder engagement in research ” ([ 32 ], p. 15) and note that there is a tendency to ignore the value of early stakeholder engagement when it comes to development and transferability in the work of economic evaluation. EQUIPT’s careful consideration and the methods adopted facilitated a much more rigorous approach to stakeholder engagement than is often experienced.

Design principles and supporting literature

The design principles for stakeholder engagement are organised into three groups, namely organisational, values and practices, albeit with some inevitable overlaps. We look at each category in turn, alongside a consideration of some of the relevant literature.

Organisational

• Clarify the objectives of stakeholder engagement
• Embed stakeholder engagement in a framework or model of research use
• Identify the necessary resources for stakeholder engagement
• Put in place plans for organisational learning and rewarding of effective stakeholder engagement
• Recognise that some stakeholders have the potential to play a key role

Some examples from the literature

It is desirable to have a conceptual framework that situates stakeholder engagement as part of a plan for promoting research use in practice. Deverka et al. [ 6 ] proposed an ‘analytic-deliberative’ conceptual model for stakeholder engagement which “ illustrates the inputs, methods and outputs relevant to CER [comparative effectiveness research]. The model differentiates methods at each stage of the project; depicts the relationship between components; and identifies outcome measures for evaluation of the process ” ([ 6 ], p. 1). Furthermore, having a clear evaluation plan is considered critical. Concannon et al. recommended conducting “ evaluative research on the impact of stakeholder engagement on the relevance, transparency and adoption of research ” ([ 13 ], p. 1698). Esmail et al. argue that evaluations of stakeholder engagement should be “ designed a priori as an embedded component of the research process ” ([ 35 ], p. 142). They suggest that, where possible, evaluations should use predefined, validated tools. Jolibert and Wesselink [ 2 ] point out that linking stakeholders’ contributions with specific research objectives is important in order to establish when and how to engage and with whom. They argue that, at the recruitment stage, stakeholders should be made aware of, for example, their role/s, what they could contribute, costs in terms of time and effort, and benefits. Concannon et al. also conclude that funding is needed “ to account for the costs of implementing meaningful engagement activities ” ([ 7 ], p. 989).

In a Canadian study looking at stakeholder involvement in KT as a means of leading to more evidence-informed healthcare, Holmes et al. [ 36 ] identify a range of complexities which, they argue, need to be taken into account by funding schemes in order to meet funders’ and stakeholders’ expected ROI. Stakeholder involvement in research and implementing its findings is complex and time consuming, and the authors recommend an advocacy role where funders support a range of activities to address barriers to effective KT. These include carrying out an assessment of stakeholders’ KT needs “ to identify gaps and opportunities and avoid duplication of efforts ” ([ 36 ], p. 6). Kramer et al. [ 37 ] looked at the involvement of intermediary organisations as research partners on three interventions across four sectors, namely manufacturing, transportation, service and electrical utilities sectors. The authors describe the difficulties, benefits and challenges from the perspectives of both researchers and research partners and stress the importance of allowing the design of the protocol to be collaborative and flexible. Researchers need to honour, trust and respect their partners’ knowledge and expertise, and take into account their needs and priorities. Failure to meet these criteria will significantly dampen stakeholders’ enthusiasm. They also point out the importance of having a model of collaborative research with clear guidelines of how to conduct partnership research projects in order to further facilitate the use of research by practitioners. There would be an invested interest in “ the research question, design and findings, and this would prove to be very valuable as a knowledge transfer strategy ” ([ 37 ], p. 330).

The main literature on stakeholder analysis of policy-making is also useful for highlighting that some stakeholders have more potential to play a key role in the policy deliberations than others. For example, as part of their review of stakeholder analysis of health policy-making, Brugha and Varvasovszky [ 38 ] described an example in which the Hungarian Ministries of Finance and Industry were non-mobilised, high-influence, low-interest stakeholders in debates about public health interventions, but might, in some circumstances, become mobilised high-interest actors.

6) Foster shared commitment to the values and objectives of stakeholder engagement in the project team

7) Share understanding that stakeholder engagement is often about more than individuals

8) Encourage individual stakeholders and their organisations to value engagement

9) Recognise potential tension between productivity and inclusion

10) Generate a shared commitment to sustained and continuous stakeholder engagement

Concannon et al. [ 7 ] stress that researchers and stakeholders should be committed to the processes from the outset. Hinchcliff et al. [ 18 ] argue that it is important to define expectations and roles and provide time. Hering et al.’s [ 39 ] global study of water science and technology used stakeholder involvement in the objectives and approaches of the research for the co-production of knowledge as part of transdisciplinary research. Key aspects of particular value to the research included early identification and involvement of stakeholders, continuous engagement with stakeholders, and availability to stakeholders of supporting materials and in multiple languages. Mallery et al. recommend continuing to build trust with stakeholders “ throughout the engagement process ” ([ 5 ], p. 27).

11) Plan stakeholder engagement activity as part of the research programme of work

12) Build flexibility within the research process to accommodate engagement and the outcomes of engagement

13) Consider how input from stakeholders can be gathered systematically to meet objectives

14) Consider how input from stakeholders can be collated, analysed and used

• 15) Recognise identification and involvement of stakeholders is an iterative and ongoing process

Forsythe et al. [ 30 ] highlight the importance of careful and strategic selection of stakeholders. As part of evidence and experience-based guidance to researchers and practice personnel about forming and carrying out effective research partnerships, Ovretveit et al. [ 40 ] developed a guide to categorise and describe types of partnerships or approaches to collaborative working. The guide sets out a framework for the roles and tasks, and the allocation of responsibilities for each partner involved. Roles and tasks are assigned to three main categories, namely questions, design and data, reporting and dissemination, and implementation and integration into organisation or policy. Concannon et al. [ 13 ] suggest the need to develop (and validate) stakeholder engagement tools to support engagement work. Forsythe et al. also stress the importance of “ establishing ‘parameters and expectations for roles’, giving stakeholders guidance, and allowing time for stakeholders to ‘get comfortable with their roles’ as important tasks ” ([ 30 ], p. 19).

The review of methods of stakeholder engagement conducted by Mallery et al. [ 5 ] identified a range of innovative methods and stressed the potential for engaging stakeholders at different points in the research process. The five methods highlighted for consideration were online collaborative forums, product development challenge contests, online communities, grassroots community organising and collaborative research. Jolibert and Wesselink [ 2 ] explored levels and types of stakeholder engagement in 38 EC-funded biodiversity research projects and the impacts of collaborative research on policy, society and science. They looked at how and when stakeholders were involved and the roles played, and argue that greater engagement throughout the whole of the research process, rather than, for example, at the dissemination stage, tends to lead to improved assessment of environmental change and effective policy proposals. Jolibert and Wesselink suggest, following Huberman’s [ 41 ] work in education, that it is desirable to have ‘sustained interactivity’ between researchers and users. Concannon et al. suggest that “ General principles can be drawn from community-based participatory research, which underscores that engagement is a relationship-building process ” ([ 7 ], p. 988). They found that, if bi-directional relationships are sustained over time, stakeholders can serve as ambassadors for high-integrity evidence even where the findings are contrary to generally accepted beliefs. Hinchcliff et al. point to the importance of “ building respect and trust through ongoing interaction ” ([ 18 ], p. 125). Forsythe et al. flag up the importance of continuous involvement and using in-person contact to build relationships [ 30 ]. They also stress the value in having a flexible approach that can adapt to the practical needs of stakeholders. A recent supplement of this journal edited by Paina et al. [ 4 ] also highlighted the importance of flexibility in making space for stakeholder engagement in research processes.

Based on the literature and the application of initial principles to our study, we have developed the elaborated design principles presented in Box 2.

Conclusions

There is a growing interest in stakeholder engagement as a potentially promising approach to promoting research impact. There is also a developing literature mapping out who potential stakeholders might be (the ‘who’), considering approaches to stakeholder engagement (the ‘how’) and identifying rationales for stakeholder engagement (the ‘why’). In this paper, evidence from the literature around these dimensions has been combined with the findings from our study of stakeholder engagement in an EC-funded project to develop a set of design principles to inform future stakeholder engagement in research. The design principles encompass organisational factors, values and practices. We hope that the principles will be useful in planning stakeholder engagement activity within research programmes and in monitoring and evaluating stakeholder engagement. Active engagement of stakeholders may well shift our understanding of what research use looks like [ 39 ]. A next step will be to address the remaining gap in the stakeholder engagement literature concerned with how we assess the impact of stakeholder engagement on research use.

Box 1: Studying stakeholder engagement in tobacco control policy

EQUIPT: the European-study on Quantifying Utility of Investment in Protection from Tobacco

The EQUIPT study set out to work with stakeholders to develop a tool to help government officials, policy-makers and healthcare providers across Europe examine the cost effectiveness and impact of anti-smoking initiatives. The tool was developed as part of a €2 million European Commission grant. An earlier version had already been piloted with local authorities around the United Kingdom, with users able to draw on specific circumstances, statistics and data to predict the impact of tobacco control in their particular regions. The successful stakeholder engagement in the United Kingdom work encouraged the research team to fully integrate stakeholder engagement into the European study. In this study, the following stakeholders were identified: National and European stakeholders consisting of policy-makers, academics, health authorities, insurance companies, advocacy groups, ministries of finance, national committees, clinicians and health technology assessment (HTA) professionals, and experts on smoking cessation and HTA. Ninety three stakeholders took part. They were engaged in a variety of ways, including through one-to-one interviews, Skype meetings and events. Much of the engagement activity focused on the development of the return of investment tool for application in different countries.

SEE-Impact: Stakeholder Engagement in EQUIPT for Impact

SEE-IMPACT was a 3-year prospective study awarded £157,000 from the United Kingdom’s Medical Research Council funding as part of their joint Methodology Programme with the National Institute for Health Research, earmarked to boost understanding of the impact of health-related studies on society and the economy. The study compared and contrasted the way the EQUIPT decision support tool was taken up in a further four European countries – Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and Spain. The SEE-Impact study focused in particular on the ways in which stakeholders were engaged throughout the EQUIPT study. The study used a range of methods including interviews, surveys, observations and reviews of documents to develop a detailed understanding of how stakeholder engagement might work as a mechanism for promoting impact. An initial literature review on stakeholder engagement was used to distil a set of propositions for testing. Further details about the project can be found on the website of the MRC (now under United Kingdom Research and Innovation).

Box 2 Design principles for stakeholder engagement

1) Clarify the objectives of stakeholder engagement

The objectives might be one or more of accessing knowledge and skills; supporting interpretation of the results and drafting recommendations; supporting future influence and impact on policy and practice; increasing recruitment/enabling research; supporting transferability. The objectives need to be shared then among all parties.

2) Embed stakeholder engagement in a framework or model of research use

There are a number of models and frameworks designed to show how stakeholders might be engaged in a way that helps increase the chances of research being used in policy and practice, for example, the linkage and exchange model [ 9 ]

3) Identify the necessary resources for stakeholder engagement

Resources to consider are budget, time, skills and competences to manage engagement

4) Put in place plans for organisational learning and rewarding of effective stakeholder engagement, for example, through appropriate evaluation of stakeholder engagement

5) Recognise that some stakeholders have the potential to play a key role

Identify those stakeholders who are particularly interested in being engaged and those who are likely to be influential. Depending on the objective of stakeholder engagement, they may provide the most useful input, and are most likely to play a key role in using the results; their engagement should be especially encouraged

Ideally, make sure the commitment is there from the outset [ 6 ]

Consideration needs to be given to stakeholders’ roles where they act as representatives – their power and influence within organisations and networks they represent and how these change over time

Support and build capacity for stakeholders and their organisations to engage

Engagement may lead to greater relevance and impact, but may have implications for productivity in meeting project objectives (for example, in a timely fashion). Engaging stakeholders, taking into account their needs and inputs and adjusting elements of the research project based on their feedback takes time and can slow down the research process

Project teams and stakeholders see the value of links between research producers and research users to build ongoing collaborations in order to meet the objectives

This should be built into the project protocol or plan (see Pokhrel et al. [ 34 ])

It will also be important to build in mechanisms to allow researchers to have the independence to articulate what is out of scope

The importance of some face-to-face contact and interactions should be considered

This important aspect of stakeholder engagement needs to be considered earlier than often happens

15) Recognising identification and involvement of stakeholders is an iterative and ongoing process

Ongoing interaction will be fostered by taking the time and creating the structures to build trustful relationships ([ 6 , 12 ])

Additional file

SEE-Impact study literature search. (DOCX 17 kb)

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of the EQUIPT team, in particular, the Principal Investigator Subhash Pokhrel.

The SEE-Impact study (Stakeholder Engagement in EQUIPT for Impact), received funding from the United Kingdom Medical Research Council to explore the engagement of stakeholders in the EQUIPT project.

The funding body had no role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript.

Abbreviations

Authors’ contributions

AB and SH conceived of the study. All authors contributed to the design, data collection and analysis. An initial draft of the paper was produced by AB, with all authors contributing significantly to its development and revision. The final version has been approved by all authors.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical approval for the study entitled ‘Stakeholder Engagement in EQUIPT for Impact (SEE-IMPACT)’ was gained from the Research Ethics Committee, the Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education, St George’s University of London and Kingston University, on 18th March 2014.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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Maarten Kok, Email: [email protected] .

What CIOs need from their CEOs and boards to make IT digital ready

To innovate at scale and outperform competitors in the digital age, companies need to be tech forward . That means embedding tech into their business strategy and operating model. For most organizations, that requires a digital-ready IT function—one that is fast, adaptable, focused on the end user, and able to deliver business value.

As any CIO or tech leader can tell you, however, transforming IT and modernizing a business’s technology estate is a significant challenge. Making matters worse, many CEOs and board members still cast a jaundiced eye on large tech projects, which have traditionally run over budget and delivered below expectations. Unfortunately, this mindset undermines the support CIOs need to successfully drive their tech transformations.

To understand how CEOs and board members can better support their tech leaders, we spoke with about 120 senior tech leaders and 30 senior business executives over the past 18 months. 1 We spoke with 147 senior executives across 11 sectors in German-speaking countries. Eighty-one percent were senior tech leaders (CIOs, CTOs, senior tech leaders), 15 percent were CEOs or other senior business leaders, and 4 percent were chief digital officers. These detailed interviews provided a range of insights, but these five, in particular, highlight the best measures CEOs and boards can take to provide CIOs with the support they need:

Ensure a long-term mandate and support (by understanding the true value of tech)

• Align on priorities (to keep IT from “serving many masters”)

Make the business a magnet for tech talent (to attract top engineers, not just C-suite-level executives)

Understand tech implications (so that complexities don’t block business priorities), build up technical literacy (to maintain commitment to the transformation).

These should not surprise any business leader. The issue, however, is that for all the agreement on these priorities, boards and CEOs too often don’t deliver on them. Based on these conversations and our own experience, we estimate that in more than three-quarters of organizations, CEOs and boards struggle to provide the required long-term mandate and support, to align on a vision and priorities, and to be clear about the complexities of technology and the tech implications of business decisions. Furthermore, more than 50 percent grapple with both poor tech literacy and making the business a magnet for top talent. CIOs themselves also have an important role to play in addressing these issues.

Few executives would debate the importance of modernizing IT as part of a successful digital transformation. The problem, however, is that CEOs and boards often view IT as a cost center and waver in their support for both the size of investment and the duration of work needed to modernize it.

To change this mindset, IT leaders need to help CEOs and board members understand how tech inhibits or drives value. Some CIOs have found it useful to price the cost of technical debt and compare it with how much fundamental business value an investment in cloud might drive. More than 75 percent of the $1 trillion of value at stake in the cloud , for example, is in accelerated product development and growth from new and enhanced use cases.

Some CIOs have succeeded in building support for a tech transformation by beginning it with a “cleanup” phase that removes IT pain points in the business. Johnson & Johnson took this approach by focusing on improving the experience of the 140,000 employees engaging with the company’s technology. Employee-satisfaction scores increased (in some cases, by more than 50 points on key products), costs to business for project delivery dropped through a 20 percent reduction in the need for “coordination” resources, and speed of product delivery increased 20 percent.

To ensure support for the long term, CIOs need to articulate not only how IT generates value but also what the timelines are for doing so. Efficiency gains can happen within months, but the big payoffs often take two or more years. A recent McKinsey study with nearly 700 technology leaders showed that leading organizations are deliberate in grounding each initiative in an explicit P&L result and building in specific metrics to track progress against business outcomes. Unless CIOs can consistently show progress against such meaningful key performance indicators (KPIs) as the number of requests successfully handled automatically, percentage growth of basket size, or reduction in processing times, they should expect board support to lag.

A common mistake is splitting required long-term IT transformations into small projects as an antidote to the traditional process of multiyear projects. The problem is that smaller projects often devolve into a set of uncoordinated and unrelated initiatives that lack the critical mass to deliver real impact. Boards and CEOs can help address this issue by challenging CIOs to clarify how initiatives fit into the broader transformation road map, to report on actual business outcomes rather than technology progress (and ensuring that CIOs reprioritize and reallocate resources accordingly), and to make business leaders co-responsible for their domains or platforms.

Questions for the CEO and board

• When reviewing IT transformation proposals, are business outcomes explicitly tied to each initiative?
• Do IT costs include the price of tech debt, and are those factored into funding decisions?
• Do you fund large (long-term) efforts in annual cycles based on achieved outcomes?

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Align on priorities (to keep it from ‘serving many masters’).

Without clear alignment on strategic priorities, IT is often put into the position of “serving many masters” as different parts of the organization make different demands for IT support. Exacerbating the issue is that functions tend to create business cases that are overly optimistic in terms of cost and payoff, and internal battles erupt to secure IT funding.

As a result, the CIO has to dissipate resources across many often-unconnected initiatives, which makes it virtually impossible to invest in the larger, cross-functional efforts that enable state-of-the-art platforms and architectures, reduce tech debt, and benefit the organization overall. Furthermore, this misalignment means there is often no mechanism to reprioritize initiatives and make difficult but important trade-off decisions.

Boards and CEOs can help mitigate this issue in a number of ways. First, they need to explicitly align on the strategic goals for the business. For example, do they want to grow new digital businesses, develop new revenue streams, and extend their customer base, or is the overall goal to increase selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) efficiency? With this alignment in place, the CIO can prioritize the right initiatives and help the board make important trade-off decisions between creating value and lowering costs.

Second, they can demand that reprioritization decisions are based on outcomes that the business has agreed on before an initiative begins. This helps make it clear which initiatives are working and which ones aren’t and simplifies the process of reallocating resources.

• Do you know how much of your IT portfolio is targeting efficiency improvements and how much is targeting growth?
• Have you empowered business and IT to jointly set priorities for individual business and functional domains?
• Do you hold business and IT accountable for business outcomes, and are business and IT jointly working together toward them?

McKinsey research shows that people and talent strategies are among the highest-value moves a business can make, yet talent strategy ranks toward the bottom of initiatives companies pursue. Boards and CEOs need to reverse that by moving beyond hiring initiatives toward a comprehensive view of how to attract and keep talent.

Profile of successful tech leaders

Successful technology leaders today have a deep understanding of both business and technology. They combine a range of skills, from strong communication to change management to people leadership. For more on the evolving role of the CIO, read “ The CIO challenge: Modern business needs a new kind of tech leader ” and “ The CIO agenda for the next 12 months: Six make-or-break priorities .”

That starts with elevating the role of tech in the business. Having the CIO report directly to the CEO or even bringing the CIO onto the board sends a strong signal about tech’s importance (see sidebar, “Profile of successful tech leaders”). Some 57 percent of top-performing IT organizations say their senior leaders are very involved in strategic planning, versus just 17 percent in the bottom quartile. Allianz, for example, appointed the former CEO of Allianz Technology SE, Barbara Karuth-Zelle, as a board member responsible for operations and IT. 2 Andreas Schüler, “Barbara Karuth-Zelle: A new kind of manager,” Allianz SE, September 25, 2020, allianz.com. Boards, in fact, should consider adding tech leaders to their membership as a way to preserve talent. One company with an IT budget of more than $1 billion lost its highly skilled CIO because it wouldn’t bring him onto the board.

The other area where boards and CEOs can have outsized impact is around hiring the type and scale of talent needed for a successful tech transformation. While boards have tended to focus on hiring C-suite and senior-management roles, digital businesses rely on top engineers to execute the change that’s needed. In fact, top engineers are ten times more productive than novices, and often even more. It can’t be a matter of just hiring a handful of people, which isn’t enough to build up a critical mass of talent. As a result, top talent is often frustrated by organizational inertia and either leaves again quickly or adapts its behavior to the legacy organization.

To find this talent, CEOs and boards can help by removing typical constraints in the HR function that slow down the recruiting process, push for new paths to advertise and find talent, and hold HR accountable for meeting KPIs on hiring and churn.

Boards can also play a large role in retaining tech talent by supporting an engineering culture where top people have the freedom—and accountability—to innovate. Boards and CEOs can push for initiatives that reduce managerial oversight and hurdles, prioritize and fund initiatives that use cutting-edge technology, support innovative programs by approving funding and resources, and actively communicate these priorities to both the organization and the marketplace.

Compensation is important as well, of course, and boards can help create more innovative pay packages. But top talent is motivated by more than compensation. It looks for opportunities to build skills, diverse pathways to grow in an organization, and a compelling purpose. So boards need to challenge the HR function to develop more flexible career pathways and upskilling opportunities.

• Do you know what tech talent you will need in two years?
• What percentage of the initiatives you’ve funded are staffed with top engineers and use innovative technologies?
• Are your top-talent churn rates high? If so, have you identified the reasons why?
• Have you successfully hired young professional talent at scale from leading technology firms in the past three years?
• Do you have a structured and funded program to continuously reskill and upskill your technology talent?

The CIO Agenda

Boards and CEOs generally have a good sense of complex issues related to supply chain and operations, but that level of insight often does not extend to IT. That oversight can have drastic strategic consequences, such as failing to scale digital offerings or struggling to integrate incompatible systems after an acquisition.

The board at one retail chain was pushing to expand its footprint to more than 1,000 stores. Its IT systems, however, couldn’t support that expansion, as many of its stores were deeply tied into legacy systems and interfaces. As is too often the case when replacing large systems, this limitation required significant, costly, and time-consuming revisions, ultimately delaying the company’s expansion ambitions.

To get better guidance from their boards and CEOs, CIOs can help by providing a clear view of how efficient their IT actually is through an independently vetted evaluation. Once that baseline is established, boards can then thoughtfully challenge their CIOs to drive tech improvements that matter to the business. One exercise that’s proven useful is for the board to ask the CIO to identify IT’s top ten limitations and opportunities and to prioritize what needs to be fixed in order to deliver on the business’s goals with the talent and resources available. Such clarity allows the board to make much more thoughtful business decisions because it understands their implications for the tech side.

• When approving IT efforts, do you consider what needs to be successfully changed in order to capitalize on the outcomes?
• Can you explain deviations from IT cost benchmarks?
• Have you been able to launch new products and services within six months?
• Do you understand the dependencies between your main IT efforts?

Technical literacy at the CEO and board level is a strong driver of transformational success. Board members are highly accomplished and have a broad range of sophisticated business experience and the skills to match, but rarely in IT or technology. As a result, they often still view IT as overhead where costs need to be controlled. When something goes wrong—and for something as complex as a tech transformation, there are bound to be setbacks—the board is quick to try to scale back commitments and reduce funding.

With sufficient tech literacy, however, boards and CEOs can become effective challenge partners who recognize the need to invest in IT by hiring talent, providing budget, and focusing resources to build up the digital capabilities companies need to compete. By “tech literacy” in this context, we mean a baseline understanding of the ways technology can drive value and which hurdles to navigate first. Some companies’ efforts to enhance top management’s tech literacy include putting board members through a multiday tech training program. The CEO of an insurance company made board members attend such a program, which provided explanations of the most important technologies and their capabilities as well as reviews of inspirational examples with outside speakers. This seminar helped lead to substantively better discussions at the board level on tech topics.

• Does your board membership include technology experts?
• Do you have regular tech training for board members?
• Did you discuss a technology topic in the last board meeting?

A tech transformation is an endeavor that requires the entire organization. Without clear and forceful leadership from the CEO and board, however, such a transformation is simply not possible.

Thomas Elsner is a partner in McKinsey’s Munich office, Peter Maier is an expert in the Stuttgart office, Gérard Richter is a senior partner in the Frankfurt office, and Katja Zolper is an associate partner in the Düsseldorf office.

The authors wish to thank Stefan Biesdorf, Oliver Bossert, Karel Dörner, Jan Kalinna, Julia Müller-Kemler, Björn Münstermann, Florian Niedermann, Peter Peters, Wolf Richter, and Henning Soller for their contributions to this article.

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Jill Barnholtz-Sloan Named CBIIT’s Acting Director

June 6, 2024 , by NCI CBIIT Staff

Dr. Jill Barnholtz-Sloan  is now the acting director for  NCI Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology  (CBIIT). She takes this role after Dr. Tony Kerlavage, the previous director for seven years, retired on May 31, 2024.

Dr. Barnholtz-Sloan, who has been with CBIIT for the past three years, shows an extensive involvement in and a profound understanding of data. She has strong relationships with CBIIT and NCI staff, and possesses clear knowledge of NCI research programs. As both an active researcher and administrator, she has insight into how to translate data into real-world solutions to help diagnose, prevent, and treat cancer.

Along with her new acting director responsibilities, Jill will maintain her position as associate director for the  Informatics and Data Science Program  within CBIIT. In this capacity, she spearheads initiatives to formulate informatics and  data science  strategies while supporting collaboration throughout NCI, NIH, and beyond. She’ll also continue her role as senior investigator in the  Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics Trans-Divisional Research Program .

Dr. Barnholtz-Sloan is a sought-out expert in informatics and data science. She finds and addresses new ways for ensuring that CBIIT’s rich data tools are available to investigators globally.

“I am thrilled to have this opportunity to ensure CBIIT’s excellence in data science,  data sharing , and technology; I’ll continue to innovate in these areas that impact the cancer research community,” notes Dr. Barnholtz-Sloan.

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How To Start A Business In 11 Steps (2024 Guide)

Updated: Apr 7, 2024, 1:44pm

Table of Contents

Before you begin: get in the right mindset, 1. determine your business concept, 2. research your competitors and market, 3. create your business plan, 4. choose your business structure, 5. register your business and get licenses, 6. get your finances in order, 7. fund your business, 8. apply for business insurance, 9. get the right business tools, 10. market your business, 11. scale your business, what are the best states to start a business, bottom line, frequently asked questions (faqs).

Starting a business is one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences you can have. But where do you begin? There are several ways to approach creating a business, along with many important considerations. To help take the guesswork out of the process and improve your chances of success, follow our comprehensive guide on how to start a business. We’ll walk you through each step of the process, from defining your business idea to registering, launching and growing your business.

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The public often hears about overnight successes because they make for a great headline. However, it’s rarely that simple—they don’t see the years of dreaming, building and positioning before a big public launch. For this reason, remember to focus on your business journey and don’t measure your success against someone else’s.

Consistency Is Key

New business owners tend to feed off their motivation initially but get frustrated when that motivation wanes. This is why it’s essential to create habits and follow routines that power you through when motivation goes away.

Take the Next Step

Some business owners dive in headfirst without looking and make things up as they go along. Then, there are business owners who stay stuck in analysis paralysis and never start. Perhaps you’re a mixture of the two—and that’s right where you need to be. The best way to accomplish any business or personal goal is to write out every possible step it takes to achieve the goal. Then, order those steps by what needs to happen first. Some steps may take minutes while others take a long time. The point is to always take the next step.

Most business advice tells you to monetize what you love, but it misses two other very important elements: it needs to be profitable and something you’re good at. For example, you may love music, but how viable is your business idea if you’re not a great singer or songwriter? Maybe you love making soap and want to open a soap shop in your small town that already has three close by—it won’t be easy to corner the market when you’re creating the same product as other nearby stores.

If you don’t have a firm idea of what your business will entail, ask yourself the following questions:

• What do you love to do?
• What do you hate to do?
• Can you think of something that would make those things easier?
• What are you good at?
• What do others come to you for advice about?
• If you were given ten minutes to give a five-minute speech on any topic, what would it be?
• What’s something you’ve always wanted to do, but lacked resources for?

These questions can lead you to an idea for your business. If you already have an idea, they might help you expand it. Once you have your idea, measure it against whether you’re good at it and if it’s profitable.

Your business idea also doesn’t have to be the next Scrub Daddy or Squatty Potty. Instead, you can take an existing product and improve upon it. You can also sell a digital product so there’s little overhead.

What Kind of Business Should You Start?

Before you choose the type of business to start, there are some key things to consider:

• What type of funding do you have?
• How much time do you have to invest in your business?
• Do you prefer to work from home or at an office or workshop?
• What interests and passions do you have?
• Can you sell information (such as a course), rather than a product?
• What skills or expertise do you have?
• How fast do you need to scale your business?
• What kind of support do you have to start your business?
• Are you partnering with someone else?
• Does the franchise model make more sense to you?

Consider Popular Business Ideas

Not sure what business to start? Consider one of these popular business ideas:

• Start a Franchise
• Start a Blog
• Start an Online Store
• Start a Dropshipping Business
• Start a Cleaning Business
• Start a Bookkeeping Business
• Start a Clothing Business
• Start a Landscaping Business
• Start a Consulting Business
• Start a Photography Business
• Start a Vending Machine Business

Most entrepreneurs spend more time on their products than they do getting to know the competition. If you ever apply for outside funding, the potential lender or partner wants to know: what sets you (or your business idea) apart? If market analysis indicates your product or service is saturated in your area, see if you can think of a different approach. Take housekeeping, for example—rather than general cleaning services, you might specialize in homes with pets or focus on garage cleanups.

Primary Research

The first stage of any competition study is primary research, which entails obtaining data directly from potential customers rather than basing your conclusions on past data. You can use questionnaires, surveys and interviews to learn what consumers want. Surveying friends and family isn’t recommended unless they’re your target market. People who say they’d buy something and people who do are very different. The last thing you want is to take so much stock in what they say, create the product and flop when you try to sell it because all of the people who said they’d buy it don’t because the product isn’t something they’d buy.

Secondary Research

Utilize existing sources of information, such as census data, to gather information when you do secondary research. The current data may be studied, compiled and analyzed in various ways that are appropriate for your needs but it may not be as detailed as primary research.

Conduct a SWOT Analysis

SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Conducting a SWOT analysis allows you to look at the facts about how your product or idea might perform if taken to market, and it can also help you make decisions about the direction of your idea. Your business idea might have some weaknesses that you hadn’t considered or there may be some opportunities to improve on a competitor’s product.

Asking pertinent questions during a SWOT analysis can help you identify and address weaknesses before they tank your new business.

A business plan is a dynamic document that serves as a roadmap for establishing a new business. This document makes it simple for potential investors, financial institutions and company management to understand and absorb. Even if you intend to self-finance, a business plan can help you flesh out your idea and spot potential problems. When writing a well-rounded business plan, include the following sections:

• Executive summary: The executive summary should be the first item in the business plan, but it should be written last. It describes the proposed new business and highlights the goals of the company and the methods to achieve them.
• Company description: The company description covers what problems your product or service solves and why your business or idea is best. For example, maybe your background is in molecular engineering, and you’ve used that background to create a new type of athletic wear—you have the proper credentials to make the best material.
• Market analysis: This section of the business plan analyzes how well a company is positioned against its competitors. The market analysis should include target market, segmentation analysis, market size, growth rate, trends and a competitive environment assessment.
• Organization and structure: Write about the type of business organization you expect, what risk management strategies you propose and who will staff the management team. What are their qualifications? Will your business be a single-member limited liability company (LLC) or a corporation ?
• Mission and goals: This section should contain a brief mission statement and detail what the business wishes to accomplish and the steps to get there. These goals should be SMART (specific, measurable, action-orientated, realistic and time-bound).
• Products or services: This section describes how your business will operate. It includes what products you’ll offer to consumers at the beginning of the business, how they compare to existing competitors, how much your products cost, who will be responsible for creating the products, how you’ll source materials and how much they cost to make.
• Background summary: This portion of the business plan is the most time-consuming to write. Compile and summarize any data, articles and research studies on trends that could positively and negatively affect your business or industry.
• Marketing plan: The marketing plan identifies the characteristics of your product or service, summarizes the SWOT analysis and analyzes competitors. It also discusses how you’ll promote your business, how much money will be spent on marketing and how long the campaign is expected to last.
• Financial plan: The financial plan is perhaps the core of the business plan because, without money, the business will not move forward. Include a proposed budget in your financial plan along with projected financial statements, such as an income statement, a balance sheet and a statement of cash flows. Usually, five years of projected financial statements are acceptable. This section is also where you should include your funding request if you’re looking for outside funding.

Learn more: Download our free simple business plan template .

Come Up With an Exit Strategy

An exit strategy is important for any business that is seeking funding because it outlines how you’ll sell the company or transfer ownership if you decide to retire or move on to other projects. An exit strategy also allows you to get the most value out of your business when it’s time to sell. There are a few different options for exiting a business, and the best option for you depends on your goals and circumstances.

The most common exit strategies are:

• Selling the business to another party
• Passing the business down to family members
• Liquidating the business assets
• Closing the doors and walking away

Develop a Scalable Business Model

As your small business grows, it’s important to have a scalable business model so that you can accommodate additional customers without incurring additional costs. A scalable business model is one that can be replicated easily to serve more customers without a significant increase in expenses.

Some common scalable business models are:

• Subscription-based businesses
• Businesses that sell digital products
• Franchise businesses
• Network marketing businesses

Start Planning for Taxes

One of the most important things to do when starting a small business is to start planning for taxes. Taxes can be complex, and there are several different types of taxes you may be liable for, including income tax, self-employment tax, sales tax and property tax. Depending on the type of business you’re operating, you may also be required to pay other taxes, such as payroll tax or unemployment tax.

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When structuring your business, it’s essential to consider how each structure impacts the amount of taxes you owe, daily operations and whether your personal assets are at risk.

An LLC limits your personal liability for business debts. LLCs can be owned by one or more people or companies and must include a registered agent . These owners are referred to as members.

• LLCs offer liability protection for the owners
• They’re one of the easiest business entities to set up
• You can have a single-member LLC
• You may be required to file additional paperwork with your state on a regular basis
• LLCs can’t issue stock
• You’ll need to pay annual filing fees to your state

Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)

An LLP is similar to an LLC but is typically used for licensed business professionals such as an attorney or accountant. These arrangements require a partnership agreement.

• Partners have limited liability for the debts and actions of the LLP
• LLPs are easy to form and don’t require much paperwork
• There’s no limit to the number of partners in an LLP
• Partners are required to actively take part in the business
• LLPs can’t issue stock
• All partners are personally liable for any malpractice claims against the business

Sole Proprietorship

If you start a solo business, you might consider a sole proprietorship . The company and the owner, for legal and tax purposes, are considered the same. The business owner assumes liability for the business. So, if the business fails, the owner is personally and financially responsible for all business debts.

• Sole proprietorships are easy to form
• There’s no need to file additional paperwork with your state
• You’re in complete control of the business
• You’re personally liable for all business debts
• It can be difficult to raise money for a sole proprietorship
• The business may have a limited lifespan

Corporation

A corporation limits your personal liability for business debts just as an LLC does. A corporation can be taxed as a C corporation (C-corp) or an S corporation (S-corp). S-corp status offers pass-through taxation to small corporations that meet certain IRS requirements. Larger companies and startups hoping to attract venture capital are usually taxed as C-corps.

• Corporations offer liability protection for the owners
• The life span of a corporation is not limited
• A corporation can have an unlimited number of shareholders
• Corporations are subject to double taxation
• They’re more expensive and complicated to set up than other business structures
• The shareholders may have limited liability

Before you decide on a business structure, discuss your situation with a small business accountant and possibly an attorney, as each business type has different tax treatments that could affect your bottom line.

Helpful Resources

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There are several legal issues to address when starting a business after choosing the business structure. The following is a good checklist of items to consider when establishing your business:

Choose Your Business Name

Make it memorable but not too difficult. Choose the same domain name, if available, to establish your internet presence. A business name cannot be the same as another registered company in your state, nor can it infringe on another trademark or service mark that is already registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Business Name vs. DBA

There are business names, and then there are fictitious business names known as “Doing Business As” or DBA. You may need to file a DBA if you’re operating under a name that’s different from the legal name of your business. For example, “Mike’s Bike Shop” is doing business as “Mike’s Bikes.” The legal name of the business is “Mike’s Bike Shop,” and “Mike’s Bikes” is the DBA.

You may need to file a DBA with your state, county or city government offices. The benefits of a DBA include:

• It can help you open a business bank account under your business name
• A DBA can be used as a “trade name” to brand your products or services
• A DBA can be used to get a business license

Register Your Business and Obtain an EIN

You’ll officially create a corporation, LLC or other business entity by filing forms with your state’s business agency―usually the Secretary of State. As part of this process, you’ll need to choose a registered agent to accept legal documents on behalf of your business. You’ll also pay a filing fee. The state will send you a certificate that you can use to apply for licenses, a tax identification number (TIN) and business bank accounts.

Next, apply for an employer identification number (EIN) . All businesses, other than sole proprietorships with no employees, must have a federal employer identification number. Submit your application to the IRS and you’ll typically receive your number in minutes.

Get Appropriate Licenses and Permits

Legal requirements are determined by your industry and jurisdiction. Most businesses need a mixture of local, state and federal licenses to operate. Check with your local government office (and even an attorney) for licensing information tailored to your area.

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Open a Business Bank Account

Keep your business and personal finances separate. Here’s how to choose a business checking account —and why separate business accounts are essential. When you open a business bank account, you’ll need to provide your business name and your business tax identification number (EIN). This business bank account can be used for your business transactions, such as paying suppliers or invoicing customers. Most times, a bank will require a separate business bank account to issue a business loan or line of credit.

Hire a Bookkeeper or Get Accounting Software

If you sell a product, you need an inventory function in your accounting software to manage and track inventory. The software should have ledger and journal entries and the ability to generate financial statements.

Some software programs double as bookkeeping tools. These often include features such as check writing and managing receivables and payables. You can also use this software to track your income and expenses, generate invoices, run reports and calculate taxes.

There are many bookkeeping services available that can do all of this for you, and more. These services can be accessed online from any computer or mobile device and often include features such as bank reconciliation and invoicing. Check out the best accounting software for small business, or see if you want to handle the bookkeeping yourself.

Determine Your Break-Even Point

Before you fund your business, you must get an idea of your startup costs. To determine these, make a list of all the physical supplies you need, estimate the cost of any professional services you will require, determine the price of any licenses or permits required to operate and calculate the cost of office space or other real estate. Add in the costs of payroll and benefits, if applicable.

Businesses can take years to turn a profit, so it’s better to overestimate the startup costs and have too much money than too little. Many experts recommend having enough cash on hand to cover six months of operating expenses.

When you know how much you need to get started with your business, you need to know the point at which your business makes money. This figure is your break-even point.

In contrast, the contribution margin = total sales revenue – cost to make product

For example, let’s say you’re starting a small business that sells miniature birdhouses for fairy gardens. You have determined that it will cost you $500 in startup costs. Your variable costs are $0.40 per birdhouse produced, and you sell them for $1.50 each.

Let’s write these out so it’s easy to follow:

This means that you need to sell at least 456 units just to cover your costs. If you can sell more than 456 units in your first month, you will make a profit.

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There are many different ways to fund your business—some require considerable effort, while others are easier to obtain. Two categories of funding exist: internal and external.

Internal funding includes:

• Personal savings
• Credit cards
• Funds from friends and family

If you finance the business with your own funds or with credit cards, you have to pay the debt on the credit cards and you’ve lost a chunk of your wealth if the business fails. By allowing your family members or friends to invest in your business, you are risking hard feelings and strained relationships if the company goes under. Business owners who want to minimize these risks may consider external funding.

External funding includes:

• Small business loans
• Small business grants
• Angel investors
• Venture capital
• Crowdfunding

Small businesses may have to use a combination of several sources of capital. Consider how much money is needed, how long it will take before the company can repay it and how risk-tolerant you are. No matter which source you use, plan for profit. It’s far better to take home six figures than make seven figures and only keep $80,000 of it.

Funding ideas include:

• Invoice factoring: With invoice factoring , you can sell your unpaid invoices to a third party at a discount.
• Business lines of credit: Apply for a business line of credit , which is similar to a personal line of credit. The credit limit and interest rate will be based on your business’s revenue, credit score and financial history.
• Equipment financing: If you need to purchase expensive equipment for your business, you can finance it with a loan or lease.
• Small Business Administration (SBA) microloans: Microloans are up to $50,000 loans that can be used for working capital, inventory or supplies and machinery or equipment.
• Grants: The federal government offers grants for businesses that promote innovation, export growth or are located in historically disadvantaged areas. You can also find grants through local and regional organizations.
• Crowdfunding: With crowdfunding , you can raise money from a large group of people by soliciting donations or selling equity in your company.

Choose the right funding source for your business by considering the amount of money you need, the time frame for repayment and your tolerance for risk.

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You need to have insurance for your business , even if it’s a home-based business or you don’t have any employees. The type of insurance you need depends on your business model and what risks you face. You might need more than one type of policy, and you might need additional coverage as your business grows. In most states, workers’ compensation insurance is required by law if you have employees.

Work With an Agent To Get Insured

An insurance agent can help determine what coverages are appropriate for your business and find policies from insurers that offer the best rates. An independent insurance agent represents several different insurers, so they can shop around for the best rates and coverage options.

Basic Types of Business Insurance Coverage

• Liability insurance protects your business against third-party claims of bodily injury, property damage and personal injury such as defamation or false advertising.
• Property insurance covers the physical assets of your business, including your office space, equipment and inventory.
• Business interruption insurance pays for the loss of income if your business is forced to close temporarily due to a covered event such as a natural disaster.
• Product liability insurance protects against claims that your products caused bodily injury or property damage.
• Employee practices liability insurance covers claims from employees alleging discrimination, sexual harassment or other wrongful termination.
• Workers’ compensation insurance covers medical expenses and income replacement for employees who are injured on the job.
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Business tools can help make your life easier and make your business run more smoothly. The right tools can help you save time, automate tasks and make better decisions.

Consider the following tools in your arsenal:

• Accounting software : Track your business income and expenses, prepare financial statements and file taxes. Examples include QuickBooks and FreshBooks.
• Customer relationship management (CRM) software : This will help you manage your customer relationships, track sales and marketing data and automate tasks like customer service and follow-ups. Examples include Zoho CRM and monday.com.
• Project management software : Plan, execute and track projects. It can also be used to manage employee tasks and allocate resources. Examples include Airtable and ClickUp.
• Credit card processor : This will allow you to accept credit card payments from customers. Examples include Stripe and PayPal.
• Point of sale (POS) : A system that allows you to process customer payments. Some accounting software and CRM software have POS features built-in. Examples include Clover and Lightspeed.
• Virtual private network (VPN) : Provides a secure, private connection between your computer and the internet. This is important for businesses that handle sensitive data. Examples include NordVPN and ExpressVPN.
• Merchant services : When customers make a purchase, the money is deposited into your business account. You can also use merchant services to set up recurring billing or subscription payments. Examples include Square and Stripe.
• Email hosting : This allows you to create a professional email address with your own domain name. Examples include G Suite and Microsoft Office 365.

Many business owners spend so much money creating their products that there isn’t a marketing budget by the time they’ve launched. Alternatively, they’ve spent so much time developing the product that marketing is an afterthought.

Create a Website

Even if you’re a brick-and-mortar business, a web presence is essential. Creating a website doesn’t take long, either—you can have one done in as little as a weekend. You can make a standard informational website or an e-commerce site where you sell products online. If you sell products or services offline, include a page on your site where customers can find your locations and hours. Other pages to add include an “About Us” page, product or service pages, frequently asked questions (FAQs), a blog and contact information.

Optimize Your Site for SEO

After getting a website or e-commerce store, focus on optimizing it for search engines (SEO). This way, when a potential customer searches for specific keywords for your products, the search engine can point them to your site. SEO is a long-term strategy, so don’t expect a ton of traffic from search engines initially—even if you’re using all the right keywords.

Create Relevant Content

Provide quality digital content on your site that makes it easy for customers to find the correct answers to their questions. Content marketing ideas include videos, customer testimonials, blog posts and demos. Consider content marketing one of the most critical tasks on your daily to-do list. This is used in conjunction with posting on social media.

Get Listed in Online Directories

Customers use online directories like Yelp, Google My Business and Facebook to find local businesses. Some city halls and chambers of commerce have business directories too. Include your business in as many relevant directories as possible. You can also create listings for your business on specific directories that focus on your industry.

Develop a Social Media Strategy

Your potential customers are using social media every day—you need to be there too. Post content that’s interesting and relevant to your audience. Use social media to drive traffic back to your website where customers can learn more about what you do and buy your products or services.

You don’t necessarily need to be on every social media platform available. However, you should have a presence on Facebook and Instagram because they offer e-commerce features that allow you to sell directly from your social media accounts. Both of these platforms have free ad training to help you market your business.

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To scale your business, you need to grow your customer base and revenue. This can be done by expanding your marketing efforts, improving your product or service, collaborating with other creators or adding new products or services that complement what you already offer.

Think about ways you can automate or outsource certain tasks so you can focus on scaling the business. For example, if social media marketing is taking up too much of your time, consider using a platform such as Hootsuite to help you manage your accounts more efficiently. You can also consider outsourcing the time-consumer completely.

You can also use technology to automate certain business processes, including accounting, email marketing and lead generation. Doing this will give you more time to focus on other aspects of your business.

When scaling your business, it’s important to keep an eye on your finances and make sure you’re still profitable. If you’re not making enough money to cover your costs, you need to either reduce your expenses or find ways to increase your revenue.

Build a Team

As your business grows, you’ll need to delegate tasks and put together a team of people who can help you run the day-to-day operations. This might include hiring additional staff, contractors or freelancers.

Resources for building a team include:

• Hiring platforms: To find the right candidates, hiring platforms, such as Indeed and Glassdoor, can help you post job descriptions, screen résumés and conduct video interviews.
• Job boards: Job boards such as Craigslist and Indeed allow you to post open positions for free.
• Social media: You can also use social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook to find potential employees.
• Freelance platforms: Using Upwork, Freelancer and Fiverr can help you find talented freelancers for one-time or short-term projects. You can also outsource certain tasks, such as customer service, social media marketing or bookkeeping.

You might also consider partnering with other businesses in your industry. For example, if you’re a wedding planner, you could partner with a florist, photographer, catering company or venue. This way, you can offer your customers a one-stop shop for all their wedding needs. Another example is an e-commerce store that partners with a fulfillment center. This type of partnership can help you save money on shipping and storage costs, and it can also help you get your products to your customers faster.

To find potential partnerships, search for businesses in your industry that complement what you do. For example, if you’re a web designer, you could partner with a digital marketing agency.

You can also search for businesses that serve the same target market as you but offer different products or services. For example, if you sell women’s clothing, you could partner with a jewelry store or a hair salon.

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To rank the best states to start a business in 2024, Forbes Advisor analyzed 18 key metrics across five categories to determine which states are the best and worst to start a business in. Our ranking takes into consideration factors that impact businesses and their ability to succeed, such as business costs, business climate, economy, workforce and financial accessibility in each state. Check out the full report .

Starting a small business takes time, effort and perseverance. But if you’re willing to put in the work, it can be a great way to achieve your dreams and goals. Be sure to do your research, create a solid business plan and pivot along the way. Once you’re operational, don’t forget to stay focused and organized so you can continue to grow your business.

How do I start a small business with no money?

There are several funding sources for brand-new businesses and most require a business plan to secure it. These include the SBA , private grants, angel investors, crowdfunding and venture capital.

What is the best business structure?

The best business structure for your business will depend entirely on what kind of company you form, your industry and what you want to accomplish. But any successful business structure will be one that will help your company set realistic goals and follow through on set tasks.

Do I need a business credit card?

You don’t need one, but a business credit card can be helpful for new small businesses. It allows you to start building business credit, which can help you down the road when you need to take out a loan or line of credit. Additionally, business credit cards often come with rewards and perks that can save you money on business expenses.

Do I need a special license or permit to start a small business?

The answer to this question will depend on the type of business you want to start and where you’re located. Some businesses, such as restaurants, will require a special permit or license to operate. Others, such as home daycare providers, may need to register with the state.

How much does it cost to create a business?

The cost of starting a business will vary depending on the size and type of company you want to create. For example, a home-based business will be less expensive to start than a brick-and-mortar store. Additionally, the cost of starting a business will increase if you need to rent or buy commercial space, hire employees or purchase inventory. You could potentially get started for free by dropshipping or selling digital goods.

How do I get a loan for a new business?

The best way to get a loan for a new business is to approach banks or other financial institutions and provide them with a business plan and your financial history. You can also look into government-backed loans, such as those offered by the SBA. Startups may also be able to get loans from alternative lenders, including online platforms such as Kiva.

Do I need a business degree to start a business?

No, you don’t need a business degree to start a business. However, acquiring a degree in business or a related field can provide you with the understanding and ability to run an effective company. Additionally, you may want to consider taking some business courses if you don’t have a degree to learn more about starting and running a business. You can find these online and at your local Small Business Administration office.

What are some easy businesses to start?

One of the easiest businesses to start also has the lowest overhead: selling digital goods. This can include items such as e-books, online courses, audio files or software. If you have expertise in a particular area or niche, this is a great option for you. Dropshipping is also a great option because you don’t have to keep inventory. You could also buy wholesale products or create your own. Once you create your product, you can sell it through your own website or third-party platforms such as Amazon or Etsy.

What is the most profitable type of business?

There is no one answer to this question because the most profitable type of business will vary depending on a number of factors, such as your industry, location, target market and business model. However, some businesses tend to be more profitable than others, such as luxury goods, high-end services, business-to-business companies and subscription-based businesses. If you’re not sure what type of business to start, consider your strengths and interests, as well as the needs of your target market, to help you choose a profitable business idea.

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Katherine Haan is a small business owner with nearly two decades of experience helping other business owners increase their incomes.