Starting a new business

This guide is based on my own experience building up four successful companies, and from working for others in many different trades and industries. It is a quick and basic sequence of the stepping stones that will take someone from starry-eyed newbie to grizzled veteran, listing the simple steps for starting a new business.

Obviously I'd need a lot more than one web pages to cover the subject properly, but hopefully this will do for starters - do please check out the details at the end for the book Business Survival and Prosperity Guaranteed.

Want to change

Being happy with your current life and job won’t really do it. For me, I had a driving ambition, yearning need to be my own boss. Be it independence, flexibility, security or an increased income, you need to have a motivating drive to kick-start your action.

Follow your passion

Life is too short not to enjoy every single breath, so why not look for ways to you’re your passion in life into an income? Your enthusiasm will shine through as well, and you’ll be willing to put in the extra hours, and go the extra mile when necessary - it won't feel like 'work'.

Find and match a suitable 'niche'

Having a passion is not enough though, you need to be able to match that to a potential market. I know many an excellent performer who has failed to check how to match their skills to a paying market – should one even exist. A bit of research however should help you to identify where your skills will lead to an income.

Know what you want

You should have clear aims and goals in mind before you start – what do you want to achieve, and when by? Just wanting to escape from your current circumstances is not enough you – need something to run to, not away from.

Know where you are

Be honest about your current skills and abilities. Wanting to start a new business, and throwing money at problems will in no way compensate for being not having the knowledge. And it won’t just be your trade / profession; there are a whole load of business skills required to be a businessman or woman.

Find out what you need to learn. Are you willing to put in the effort required? You can pick up quite a few things along the way, but if you know you won’t follow things through then save yourself time, effort and money but not starting. Sorry, but I do want to be honest with you.

Plan

Once you know where you are now, and where you want to go to, it will be possible to build yourself a road map, with each stage you’ll need to be tackle clearly laid out and in order. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time...

Ethics and working practices

The only way I know to run a long-term and profitable company is to work to the highest possible standard of ethics. Respect the customers you choose to work with, provide outstanding service. Establish an impeccable reputation, then the work will come in through repeat sales, referrals and recommendations. ‘Over deliver’ – ‘raving fans’ are the best form of advertising.

You are in business to make money, not spend it!

Watch the overheads, only buy what you have to, get the best price and be as creative as possible with your expenditure. There is just so much to say on this on this, but prudent budgeting will do more than help you through the difficult times, it will often make the difference between failure and success. As soon as the money starts coming in, pay off loans first, build up reserves in case of trouble and invest back into your new business. The toys come later!

Always test first

Never rush into any large expenditure without being fairly sure of the result. Test part of a mailing list first. If at all possible ask to rent a shop or unit for a trial period first before signing up long-term, after all, it’s in the landlord’s best interest to have a financially viable tenant. At the very least, carry out a bit of research first to check that you have a viable market for your products and/or services.

Automate as much as possible

Your time is precious – set up anything you can to work on auto pilot, or to be covered by specialists. Build a professional web site as soon as you can – it will help you focus on your key markets. There are details of an excellent web company in my links page.

Find as many relevant customers as possible

It’s no good having a new business if no one knows about it. Try as many different ways as you can – don’t forger to give free talks, send out press releases and shout out about how wonderful you are as loudly as you can - just try and shout at people who may actually buy from you.

Stay flexible, stay aware

Circumstances change, market dry up and our dear government can destroy your market place with the sweep of a pen. Keep up to date with what is going on, and stay flexible. When a particularly nasty and badly worded piece of legislation thundered straight at me, I stopped being an agent and concentrated simply on being a band leader – with a very large band! A simple step to the side, out of the way.

All of these topics, and a lot more besides, are covered in much greater detail in the book below. Click on the book for more details.

Starting a new business?