Features

A plan shaped by your business

Bizwise turns the work of starting and running a small UK business into tasks. Your business facts determine what applies. Your stage determines when to do it. Each task explains how, with links to official sources.

Test the idea before you build the business

Work through four stages, one at a time: Validate to find out whether the idea has demand, Establish to make it a real business, Launch to start trading, and Operate to run and grow it.

  1. Validate
  2. Establish
  3. Launch
  4. Operate

In Validate, "Agree the demand test and its pass criteria" comes before "Run the demand test and record the result". You lock in the success criteria before the test runs. The result is judged against those criteria, so you cannot reinterpret success afterwards.

Know why a task is there and how to do it

The library has 239 tasks across departments, legal structures and life events. Each task has a stage, a repeat schedule, an essential marker and the business facts that switch it on.

  • Why your business needs the task.
  • Steps with links and what to have ready.
  • How long it takes and what it costs.
  • Official sources you can check.

Guidance was checked against GOV.UK, HMRC, Companies House, the ICO, the ASA and HSE in October 2026.

Eight departments, with tasks that apply to you

Every business starts with these departments, in this order. The guide adds more when a niche needs them. These are library examples; your business facts determine which enter your plan.

Marketing

Test demand and plan how to reach customers.

  • Build a landing page with a way to capture interest
  • Define the target customers, with a profile for each
  • Review marketing against objectives and budget

Sales

Set prices and organise the work of making a sale.

  • Set the pricing
  • Set up a way to take orders and payments
  • Follow up every open lead on a set rhythm

Customers

Understand what happens after the sale.

  • Record how many customers stay and how many leave
  • Record why each lost customer left
  • Check ratings and new reviews on each site, and respond

Product

Define and test what you sell, whether it is a product, software or a service.

  • Define the offer: what is sold, to whom, at what price
  • Make a prototype or sample and test it with customers
  • Keep a log of customer feedback, requests and new ideas

Operations

Plan how you deliver the work and handle problems.

  • Complete a basic health and safety risk assessment
  • Map the core process, from order to delivery
  • Set up a customer support channel and a complaints process

Technology

Organise your systems, access and backups.

  • Record who has access to each tool and account
  • Set up backup for business files and data
  • Remove access when someone leaves

Finance

Keep the plan, decisions and reviews in Bizwise. Your books stay in your accounting software.

  • Open a business bank account
  • Set the first-year budget by department
  • Prepare the year-end records for the accountant

Work through setup and legal tasks. Bizwise flags points where a solicitor should review.

  • Choose the legal structure: sole trader, partnership or limited company
  • Check whether the ICO data protection fee applies, and register if it does
  • Write terms and conditions or terms of sale

Bizwise provides guidance. It is not legal, tax or financial advice.

Add the work a change brings

Life events switch on tasks as your business changes.

  • First employee: "Register as an employer for PAYE", "Set up a workplace pension" and "Run payroll and pay pension contributions". Hiring also brings "Check the person's right to work" and "Issue a written employment contract".
  • VAT threshold: "Register for VAT and choose the scheme" and "File VAT returns".
  • Premises: "Register for business rates", "Insure the premises" and "Complete a fire risk assessment".
  • Company changes: "Update Companies House".

Essentials come before the actions they protect

The rules engine checks gates. Hard gates cannot be overridden. You must complete the essentials before taking live payments, handling personal data or regulated trading.

Warning gates let you proceed after giving a reason, which Bizwise records as a decision. They apply to moving stage with essentials outstanding, running full campaigns before Launch and test spend over the test budget.

Rules also decide which tasks apply and schedule repeating work and statutory deadlines. A failed AI call does not change a rules outcome or break the plan.

Get help with the work in front of you

The guide uses your own OpenAI API key. Its jobs are:

  • Run the first conversation about your business.
  • Build your business plan with niche research and cited sources.
  • Answer questions in chat, add tasks and record changes.
  • Tailor task guidance to your business.
  • Draft documents and flag where a solicitor should review.
  • Suggest gaps in your plan.
  • Set budget targets.
  • Review readiness for the next stage.
  • Re-check requirements every 90 days.
  • Give verdicts on demand tests and campaigns.

Bizwise provides guidance. It is not legal, tax or financial advice.

Plan a campaign across its channels

Campaigns can use several channels together. An influencer campaign, for example, can use creators, paid social and email. Library tasks include "Run the campaign and record spend as it happens" and "Review the result against the success measure, with the AI's verdict".

See the headline numbers for your business

Bizwise shows headline business metrics and adds more as you reach each stage.

Run more than one business

You sign in with a Bizwise account. One owner can run several businesses, and staff are invited per business.

Your OpenAI key stays in your computer's keychain

Your key is held in the operating system keychain on your computer. It is sent with each AI request and is never stored on the Bizwise server. OpenAI bills you for use of your key.

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