The Importance of Business Plans & Interviews

Today, I would like to present some perspectives on two aspects of the Innovator and the Start-up Visa — the business plan and the interview.

How important is it to have a business plan? How long should your business plan be? What are the important areas that you need to focus on currently? A business plan should not be very long. But it needs to be of sufficient length to put across the key benefits of the business idea. So, we're talking about a report of 20 to 30 pages that provides a full analysis and the necessary financial information and details about yourself.

On the whole, it's better to use a person who is an expert at doing business plans to do it for you. We have our own in-house business plan writers who we work closely with. We have also found that it is incredibly important to do your research to ascertain which businesses might be competing with yours. We know that the Home Office carries out extensive inquiries after the plan is submitted to satisfy itself that the idea that you have presented is something original.

We also know that a majority of applications for Innovator and Start-up visas have been rejected recently. The reason for that is that the Home Office has lost confidence in the endorsing bodies and they are now second guessing all the endorsements that are put forward. This is a matter of concern to them and they have now taken up this matter with the endorsement bodies and the whole system is going to change in October in various ways. So the business plan needs a lot more care and consideration now.

The second aspect I'd like to cover is the interview. Now, until very recently, it was very uncommon for somebody to be interviewed if they made a Start-up or Innovator visa application. Now we know that in most cases, an interview is required. You're finding that business plans are being rejected more often than they're being accepted. And then if you get through that hurdle, you're finding that a fair percentage of people are failing the interview, which leads to a conclusion that the Home Office are becoming very fussy about which people they're going to allow into the country on the Start-up and Innovator visa.

As far as the interview is concerned, it has now become incredibly important to be aware of the sorts of questions you're going to be asked, and the manner in which you should approach the answers. Obviously, we've had clients who've been interviewed many times over the years. And we have the experience and knowledge of the sort of questions that are asked, and the ways in which it's most beneficial to respond.

So, the business plan and the interview, have now become much more important than before for a successful application and these are areas we can help you with. We have our own specialists in these fields who can help you give off your best impression at an interview, and others who can help you put your business plan together in the most convincing manner.