Starting your own business - Feel the fear and do it anyway

Start Your Own Business - Feel The
Fear - But Do It Anyway!

Feel The Fear and Do It Anyway
Starting your own business should be one of the most terrifying
things you ever do. If it isn't you might not be trying hard enough
or maybe you just don't get where you really are. Thinking about
starting a business is a bit like queuing up for a massive roller
coaster. You should be really excited, yet afraid of how it may feel
and what it may do to you.
The feeling should almost be perverse in so far as you know you
want to do it, you believe that you can do it, you know that you are
going to leave behind the safety and security of a salary or wage,
yet you still want to do it.
I have started a few businesses and when things are going great
people will say to me "boy you are a lucky guy, running your own
successful business". I generally explain that luck had nothing to do
with it and I may quote one of my favourite quotes (no idea who's
it is) "Success is all about luck, ask any failure".
Kieran Moulden www.trueblueloans.co.uk Copyright © 2014, All Right Reserved

Background
I have started a few businesses and thankfully they have
been successful. Now lets quickly define what I see as
success. Success to me is:
1. Not going bust.
2. Not losing any investors money.
3. Not losing all my money.
4. Being able to pay staff each month.
5. Be able to pay suppliers each month.
6. Enjoying myself – most of the time.
If you happen to build a business that fits the above criteria I
would define it as successful. OK, we all want to make
millions or build something that changes the world, or be the
next Apple, but if that does not happen what would you see
as successful?

The Idea
You don't have to be original
I have never started a business where I was the first in the market.
I’m just not smart enough to invent sometime new. What I can do
is see where there is room in a market for me to squeeze in.
I see business plans where entrepreneur’s claim to have seen a gap
in the market and the market has been crying out for this product
and they are going to satisfy the demand and and and….. Maybe
they all do see this “gap”, I just see that there are few markets that
are truly saturated and can’t squeeze another player in.
So, if you have always wanted to start a business but you can’t find
that original idea for a business, don’t worry. Just stop trying to
look so hard and see what is around, that you think you could do,
where some companies are surviving and not doing it brilliantly and
investigate.

Research
Dig, Dig, Dig
Be honest with yourself – it is harder than you think.
Ok, we have the idea, we can visualise and feel it happening. Lets
see what is out there, what it costs, what skills are required, where
would it be base, can I really do it, do I need additional skills and
people, can I really afford it.
With the internet it is easy to undertake research on most if not all
industries. You should be able to see what other compan ies are
doing, what they are selling, maybe even where they are buying
and who their customers are. There are so many review sites that
you should be able to get an opinion and view from existing and
past customers.
Find out everything you can about the industry, ask as many people
as you can, visit trade shows and exhibitions for that industry. Be
certain that you have found out as much as possible before moving
onto the next step.

The Structure of the Business
You have a business partner
Great so you have £5,000 to put into the business and you have a photographer
you know who wants to be involved. He says that he will put in £5,000 but he
wants 25% equity in the business.
You are happy with the split and you know that whilst he will not be involved in
the running of the business he will supply photos for you to sell.
I would strongly recommend that anyone with partners and shareholders in
the business gets, and agrees, a shareholder agreement. Please don’t believe
that nothing will go wrong or your great friend who is now your co director will
not turn out to be a demon in disguise. A shareholder agreement will protect
you both and set out the rules for the business relationship.
It is a great idea to have a lawyer draw one up for you, but this can be
expensive. I have used for shareholder agreements, along with many other
documents a company called Click Docs (http://www.clickdocs.co.uk/). You can
buy a comprehensive shareholders agreement for a few pounds. You just need
to customise it and produce two copies that you and your fellow shareholder
sign and exchange.
Keep the details for this company, you will need them for other documents
later.

Setting Up The Company
This is what I do anyway
 I’m not saying that I am always right on what I say, but I do find this part of
the process great fun. It is a time where you can relax a bit and maybe
indulge yourself a little.
You need to come up with a company name and identity. If you are starting
up a Limited Company then you need to make sure it is unique and that no
one is going to get upset if you call yourself something that is close to what
they are called. I would not suggest calling yourself MacDonald's (UK) Ltd if
you were starting a takeaway business for instance.
It is easy to check on company names without spending any money. Just go
to Companies House (http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/) and look up
names to see if your chosen name has already been taken by someone. The
section to go to is in the red circle of the picture above.
Have fun and pick a name which represents you or your business.
If you don’t want to go through the hassle of picking a company name and
then registering it at Companies House then a good way to go is to pick one
of the many companies that will sell you a ready made Limited Company.
Just search in Google for “off the shelf companies” and take your pick. They
will sell you a ready made company or one with your choice of name for a
relatively small amount of money. I have used these companies a number of
times and found them all to be pretty good.

The Business Plan
Write honestly and to impress
 The task of writing a business plan can seem daunting, but it does not have to be. I have written a
few and the most recent one I wrote, I used an online plan called Live Plan (www.liveplan.com). The
reason I started using online planning software was because I wanted to be able to update and
change the plan over time and also keep a structured approach to the various sections of the plan.
You may wonder why you need a business plan and you may question if you need one, but you do
need one. That is for sure.
A business plan should be your guide, something that you can measure your success against. You
will almost certainly be expected to provide a copy for your business bank, maybe for your landlord
(if you rent space) and definitely for any external investors.
Your plans should cover everything that you want other people to know about your planned
business. Every business is slightly different to the next and every business plan is going to be
slightly different. This is what I covered in a recent plan:
1. Executive Summary
a. Who we are
b. Who we sell to
c. What we are trying to achieve
d. Financial summary
2. The Company
a. Company overview
b. Company structure
c. Management team
d. Shareholding

The Business Plan
3. Products and Services
a. Products
b. Trade associations
c. Competitors
d. Future products
4. Target Market
a. Market overview
b. Market needs
c. Market growth
d. Market trends
e. Key customers
5. Strategy & Implementation
a. Marketing plan
b. Competitive edge
c. Exit Strategy
6. Financial plan
a. Gross revenue
b. Personnel plan
c. Budget
7. Financial Statement
a. P&L
b. Balance sheet
8. Appendix
Cont.

Website
Domains, ISP's, Developers
 So now you have legally formed the company and now maybe need a website.
It is really is quite simple to set up a website. I tend to do it this way.
I find an ISP (Internet Service Provider) such as 1and1.co.uk (there are hundred to choose from). and
I select their cheapest package. I then search for a domain name (company-name.co.uk or .com or
now .co). So if your company name is Biz Plan (UK) Ltd you might be lucky and be able to secure the
domain www.bizplan.co.uk. Once you have secured the domain you need to decide if you want to
build the site yourself.
We are going to presume that you are setting up an online business selling original photographs. So
we know that we need to have a site that we can display the photos and also we want to be able to
sell online so we need a shopping cart and a way for people to pay us.
We probably don’t want to spend a fortune on setting up the site, but it needs to look impressive
and needs to look professional. Most of all it needs to work.
In this situation I would recommend finding a Freelancer to help you. I’m certainly not saying that
this is the only way to do it, or indeed the best way to do it, but I have used a site called
Freelancer.com many times. At Freelancer.com you can write a brief of what you want and
developers from around the world will bid on your project. You can then review the bids, look at
feedback from other customers and select the freelancer you wish to use.
You place money in an Escrow account so it is safe and you do not need to release it until the
website is finished and delivered.
The more detailed the brief the better. Be clear in what you are looking for and what your
expectations are.

Website
Domains, ISP's, Developers
Maybe you want a site with the following pages:
Home
About Us
Our Products (photos)
Check Out
Contact Us
The checkout section might need to be a plus in shopping basket function from your ISP, or from Paypal.
The brief might be as simple as:
5 page website needed with all design and logo included. To be built and posted on my ISL (1and1.co.uk). The pages will be:
Home
About Us
Our Products (photos)
Check Out
Contact Us
The Contact Us must have a contact us form which emails to me personal email address. The products page needs to be
easy to update myself from an editor. Needs to have a shopping trolley and check out section. I will provide all written
copy for the site. I ideally want the design to be very modern mainly in blue and back.
Even a simple brief like the one above should give you enough to get started and should not cost very much money at all.

Bank and Money
Sell, Sell, Sell
Whatever happens you will need a bank account for your business. You may
need to borrow some money from the bank or you may need to raise external
finance.
Let presume that you have some money, say £5,000 and you need another
5,000. You are planning on selling 25% of the business for that £5,000. You are
lucky and have an investor lined up so you don’t need to borrow from the bank.
Select the bank you wish to use. There are some interesting offers from banks
why want to attract you as a customer. In my humble opinion, I would look for
free banking more than anything else. In 13 years of running my own business I
have yet to pay any bank charges. Make an appointment with a local business
manager, take along your business plan and sell hard. You should get free
banking for at least the first two years of operation.
Don’t underestimate the importance of your relationship with the bank. You
may not need to borrow from them at the moment, but you need to keep the
door open, just in case you do need to borrow in the future.

Are We Ready?
Is it time?
We are ready, I think for you to launch. Of course I have over
simplified the whole process and made it seem easy, but it
does not have to be very complicated.
You have your photos on the site, the shopping basket is
ready, you have a way for people to pay you. What could go
wrong?
Test – that what you need to do. Get some friends and family
to test the process from end to end. Make sure the website
works, make sure they can see the photos easily, check the
payment system works, check you know how to send the
photos.
Assume nothing will work – test, test , test.

Marketing
Will they come, will they buy?
Now this is truly a subject in itself. But you will have
researched and decided how you were going to market
you company way back in the planning stages. But just
in case you haven’t, an easy place to start is going to be
Google. At Google, be it .co.uk or .com it is easy to set
up a Pay Per Click account in their Adwords business.
Here you pay some money up front, select which words
you would click on if you were searching for photos to
buy and away you go.
Have a look at Adwords, well just search it on Google!

Starting your own business - Feel the fear and do it anyway

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