f you’ve followed step 4 then can I say welcome – welcome to freedom. You will not regret it. This is where life begins. Now I request from you all your passion and energy within yourself to be channelled into starting your very own business. In summary you need to, loosely in this order, do the following:
1.Get The Tools
Get the tools means get whatever you need to do your business from the start. Now this depends on what type of business you are doing but you need the tools to actually provide the service or product! The key word in the last sentence is NEED. Its nice to have a fax machine, computer and attractive personal assistant but is it necessary if your choice of business is becoming a builder? The more cash you can save in the early days the better.
There are certain primary tools that will be needed depending on what type of business you are starting. It is down to you to decide whether they are needed or not. My advice is that if you are in doubt on whether you need it or not then forget it. If you can preserve cash by not buying unnecessary tools then do so. You can always acquire it if you do need it. But how do we decide whether its necessary? Lets look at the possible primary tools needed:
This is not an exhaustive list. There are other primary tools depending on what type of business you are considering. Carefully evaluate whether they are necessary now or can they wait until you are more established. Do not make the mistake of ploughing all your capital in all of the primary tools if you have no idea whether you’re going to be in business in the next 6 months as you’ve not even had your first order.
2.Get Educated
This is very important. I have fallen foul of this. I entered in to the bar and nightclub business without any real understanding of the liqueur trade. I am learning now and still learning – the hard way! With hindsight I should have found out a lot more – but the place was such a bargain I couldn’t resist! To get educated you can do the following:
Please, please, please do NOT go on expensive courses held in swanky hotels telling you how you can make a fortune in whatever business. The only businesses that can make you the kind of money they claim is the ‘running of expensive courses in swanky hotels’ type business! Everything you need can be found from the resources mentioned above. You don’t need to spend hundreds or even thousands of pounds to be spoon fed basic information.
3.Promote
Its no good starting a business unless you let people know you’re in business. The way you do this is by promoting this fact.
4.Inform Authorities
Not only do you have to let your potential customers know you’re in business you have to inform the authorities. The following authorities will be interested in your new business venture:
5.Financial
As I’ve mentioned earlier cash is king. That is why everything to do with the cash that comes in and out is the most important thing – NOT PROFIT! You pay bills with cash not profit. Profit is a notional figure which is an expected figure based on the agreed terms of your purchase and sale. However if your customer defaults then the profit turns quickly to a loss.
Lets look at this in more detail:
6.Understand Your Competitors
Its not just you out there you know. There are others doing exactly what you’re doing – trying to make a living. The key thing is that you know who, what, why & where – and how and when!
7.Understand Your Customers
8.Build Alliances
This is something I need to get stuck into. Its all about teaming up with non-competing businesses and selling each others products and services. We’ve all heard about lastminute.com. The key to their success of being the first internet site based in the UK to make a profit was their aggressive alliance program. If you used the internet or walk through the high street you would see lastminute.com somewhere. The great thing is that even if none of these alliances didn’t work it still got their name out there alongside the ‘big boys’. It just so happened that aligning themselves with household names made them a household name which meant more hits to their site hence more sales.
Now depending on what your business is there are many non-competing businesses that could sell your product or service and theirs! You may find that selling their product or service could be more profitable than your own product or service.
