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5 things you need to know when becoming an entrepreneur

August 2021
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A well-known acronym is that “job” is short for “Just Over Broke”, which is a reason many people start a new business. Or perhaps you were recently made redundant.

Either way, few things are more exciting than becoming an entrepreneur and going at it on your own.

Like all business adventures, however, the initial enthusiasm for entrepreneurship can quickly fade to frustration at common failures and excessive legal red tape. Taxes, company filings, VAT submissions — these things can put a real dampener on that initial excitement.

Here are five things you need to know when becoming an entrepreneur to help you remain positive and confident in achieving your goals.

1. What is an entrepreneur?

Merriam Webster defines an entrepreneur as:

“One who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise”

The Oxford dictionary defines one as:

“A person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.”

So, entrepreneurship contains, by definition, a certain amount of risk, as well as the skills of “organising” and “managing”.

An entrepreneur is not just someone who has a bright idea. They also put their neck out and organise and manage people and things, to achieve a realisation of that idea.

2. Learn about entrepreneurship from other entrepreneurs

Risk-takers are more likely to get hurt.

The way to reduce your chance of “getting hurt” or failing is to learn from other risk-takers.

Go to networking events, connect with people online, read up on successful entrepreneurs, and do everything you can to understand the mistakes they made which you could avoid.

It’s a good idea to dedicate 30 minutes a day to reading books by these entrepreneurs as well.

3. Never stop learning

studying

Perhaps someday you’ll write your own book about how you made it. But even if you do, it doesn’t mean

you have reached a point where you can now stop learning.

The truly successful entrepreneurs never stop learning.

Whether they learn by regularly signing up for cutting-edge webinars or chatting to other entrepreneurs, or by reading books by entrepreneurs, true entrepreneurs never do stop learning.

To be successful as an entrepreneur, you must have a hunger for knowledge in as many fields as possible. You never know where your next big idea might come from, so cultivate a natural curiosity for all things.

4. Detect your competition before even having any

To succeed, you must be ahead of the game. You must know where competitors might challenge you long before they get the opportunity to do so.

When coming up with a new idea, you must also come up with ways to defend the idea when it gets attacked.

The best ideas will charge forward with little competition longer than weaker ideas. The best ideas are unique and innovative.

It’s difficult for competitors to challenge innovative ideas. But if it is genuinely a good idea, then it will be competed with eventually.

Be ready with your next product or idea by that time, and your competitors will always be playing catch-up with you.

Steve Jobs was an expert at this.

5. Know your limits, but only so you can surpass them

If you could run the 100-meter dash in 20 seconds, it would be foolish to try and run it the following time in 12 seconds.

But you could aim for 19.8 seconds. Then aim for 19.5. Then 18, etc.

You must know your limits because:

  • You’ll feel good every time you beat your limit.
  • You’ll suffer fewer moments of despair because you aimed too high.
  • You’ll gain in confidence and self-assurance.

Too many entrepreneurs look at the big names — Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs — and aim for the top in their first few months.

Bezos started Amazon by taking orders in his garage and delivering them himself. Musk was bullied as a child. Jobs was ousted from Apple, then turned lemons into lemonade by becoming a majority shareholder in Pixar and helping the company revolutionise animation.

Every entrepreneur has faced adversity, and every entrepreneur has taken time to get where they are today.

Don’t aim for the moon. Aim, initially, for one floor above the last one you reached, then another, and so on.

And if you get knocked down, keep aiming a little higher than before until you do reach the highest of goals.

About author
Julia Richards
Julia Richards

Our head of content, Julia has spent the past 20 years assisting entrepreneurs with all aspects of business launch and growth strategies in various industries around the globe.

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Not monitoring results How many people downloaded your app last week? Was it more or less? Did you do something about it? Were sales up or down? Did you do something about it? Good things rarely happen by chance. They happen because someone monitored key metrics and then made the necessary changes to make it happen. Doing too much too soon Every mountain-climb begins with a single step. Doing too much too soon is a sure way to stumble early. Build slowly. Build stably. Choosing the wrong legal business structure Picking the incorrect company legal structure can end up being quite costly in the end. Not protecting your business Whether trademarks or intellectual property, you must protect what is yours. Not doing so will not give you any legal right to fight the issue in court. Having your numbers wrong This isn’t only related to money. If you have your calculations wrong regarding anything in business, it can lead to some really bad decisions. 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August 2021
5 things you need to know when becoming an entrepreneur

1. What is an entrepreneur? 2. Learn about entrepreneurship from other entrepreneurs 3. Never stop learning 4. Detect your competition before even having any 5. Know your limits, but only so you can surpass them A well-known acronym is that “job” is short for “Just Over Broke”, which is a reason many people start a new business. Or perhaps you were recently made redundant. Either way, few things are more exciting than becoming an entrepreneur and going at it on your own. Like all business adventures, however, the initial enthusiasm for entrepreneurship can quickly fade to frustration at common failures and excessive legal red tape. Taxes, company filings, VAT submissions — these things can put a real dampener on that initial excitement. Here are five things you need to know when becoming an entrepreneur to help you remain positive and confident in achieving your goals. 1. What is an entrepreneur? Merriam Webster defines an entrepreneur as: “One who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise” The Oxford dictionary defines one as: “A person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.” So, entrepreneurship contains, by definition, a certain amount of risk, as well as the skills of “organising” and “managing”. An entrepreneur is not just someone who has a bright idea. They also put their neck out and organise and manage people and things, to achieve a realisation of that idea. 2. Learn about entrepreneurship from other entrepreneurs Risk-takers are more likely to get hurt. The way to reduce your chance of “getting hurt” or failing is to learn from other risk-takers. Go to networking events, connect with people online, read up on successful entrepreneurs, and do everything you can to understand the mistakes they made which you could avoid. It’s a good idea to dedicate 30 minutes a day to reading books by these entrepreneurs as well. 3. Never stop learning Perhaps someday you’ll write your own book about how you made it. But even if you do, it doesn’t mean you have reached a point where you can now stop learning. The truly successful entrepreneurs never stop learning. Whether they learn by regularly signing up for cutting-edge webinars or chatting to other entrepreneurs, or by reading books by entrepreneurs, true entrepreneurs never do stop learning. To be successful as an entrepreneur, you must have a hunger for knowledge in as many fields as possible. You never know where your next big idea might come from, so cultivate a natural curiosity for all things. 4. Detect your competition before even having any To succeed, you must be ahead of the game. You must know where competitors might challenge you long before they get the opportunity to do so. When coming up with a new idea, you must also come up with ways to defend the idea when it gets attacked. The best ideas will charge forward with little competition longer than weaker ideas. The best ideas are unique and innovative. It’s difficult for competitors to challenge innovative ideas. But if it is genuinely a good idea, then it will be competed with eventually. Be ready with your next product or idea by that time, and your competitors will always be playing catch-up with you. Steve Jobs was an expert at this. 5. Know your limits, but only so you can surpass them If you could run the 100-meter dash in 20 seconds, it would be foolish to try and run it the following time in 12 seconds. But you could aim for 19.8 seconds. Then aim for 19.5. Then 18, etc. You must know your limits because: You’ll feel good every time you beat your limit. You’ll suffer fewer moments of despair because you aimed too high. You’ll gain in confidence and self-assurance. Too many entrepreneurs look at the big names — Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs — and aim for the top in their first few months. Bezos started Amazon by taking orders in his garage and delivering them himself. Musk was bullied as a child. Jobs was ousted from Apple, then turned lemons into lemonade by becoming a majority shareholder in Pixar and helping the company revolutionise animation. Every entrepreneur has faced adversity, and every entrepreneur has taken time to get where they are today. Don’t aim for the moon. Aim, initially, for one floor above the last one you reached, then another, and so on. And if you get knocked down, keep aiming a little higher than before until you do reach the highest of goals. About author Julia Richards Our head of content, Julia has spent the past 20 years assisting entrepreneurs with all aspects of business launch and growth strategies in various industries around the globe.

August 2021
Top 10 Small Business Ideas For Beginners

1. Small Business Consulting 2. Dance School 3. Catering Service 4. Mobile Restaurant 5. English Academy 6. Dog Walker 7. Purchase and sale of used items 8. Wedding planning 9. Creation of videos for companies 10. Home shopping delivery Other ideas Many people start a small business purely for the joy of business itself and not for the love of following some particular vocation. In this case, the critical factor to determine before embarking on the venture is whether or not it will be profitable. Here are ten small business ideas that can be made profitable, with only a little bit of work. 1. Small Business Consulting If you’ve ever run any kind of business with success, you are qualified to offer consulting services. As with any service, the more experience you have, the more likely you can charge premium rates. Try to focus on an industry you’ve worked in before, but also find ways to expand your “product line” — the types of consulting that you offer. 2. Dance School There is no shortage of people wanting to learn to dance. Depending on the types of classes you will offer, you might even be able to start this business off in your own home. 3. Catering Service To get a catering service going, you need to have someone to cook, as well as access to utensils and dishware. The latter can be hired out. And there are plenty of great chefs around looking for work. Then again, maybe you’re a top-secret chef waiting to be discovered? 4. Mobile Restaurant In a post-COVID-19 world, the mobile restaurant may be the only way to stay profitable for restaurateurs. Offer top-quality food, ensure social distancing is in place, and you’ll be set to attract plenty of foot traffic to your restaurant on the go. 5. English Academy English is the second-most widely spoken language in the world. And there are hundreds of thousands of people who have come to the UK from abroad. These people need to learn English. If priced competitively, and if you offer ingenious services, you can make this type of business take off. 6. Dog Walker Man’s best friend can take a lot of upkeep. Busy people have little time to take their dogs out for the required one or two walks a day. Surprisingly, this is actually a reasonably high-paying job with lots of free time. If dog walking is not your thing, then other pet-related services might be another choice. 7. Purchase and sale of used items Whether you do it through eBay or your own website, there are plenty of people looking to buy good-quality used goods. You could provide a niche for them, offering only certain types of goods which have been personally curated. Or you could offer a unique service where you collect old goods and thereby save the person from having to go to the dump. Like all businesses, the only limit is your imagination on the type of premium-quality service you can offer. 8. Wedding planning Weddings are renowned as extravagant affairs. In 2020, the average cost of a wedding in the UK was over £16,000. Wedding costs span the gamut from photography to catering to the reception. And the person in charge of organising all of that is the wedding planner. It’s a high-pressured position requiring a lot of skill. If you have some experience as an event planner, wedding planning might be the thing for you. 9. Creation of videos for companies Gone are the days where videos were only made by high-priced professionals in Hollywood. The reduction in the cost of video equipment and editing software puts this business opportunity within the hands of everyone. Video is the way of the future when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation. If you have any experience in creating videos or films, this is an option for you. 10. Home shopping delivery COVID-19 has changed the world, and the way people shop has also changed. Since the pandemic, online purchasing skyrocketed, and lockdown rules prevented people from going to shops. Many people were (and some still are) afraid to shop. This is a business opportunity waiting to be seized. Offer to do people’s shopping for them, and charge either an hourly fee for your time or a fixed price per shopping outing. Other ideas The key is to always look for new areas of demand and to seize any opportunities in those areas. Factually, almost any business can be made profitable. The only limits are the entrepreneur’s determination and imagination. About author Julia Richards Our head of content, Julia has spent the past 20 years assisting entrepreneurs with all aspects of business launch and growth strategies in various industries around the globe.

August 2021
10 easy steps to starting your own business

Company Startup Checklist 1. Write a Business Plan 2. Get help and training 3. Choose the location of your business 4. Learn about your financing options 5. Define your business structure 6. Register your business name 7. Set up your branding 8. Register your business with Companies House 9. Set up an email list and start getting subscribers 10. Work out a budget Starting a business can be a heady, exciting experience. Sometimes people start businesses on a whim; more often they start one only after years of planning. Whatever your method, once you actually get down to the nitty-gritty of getting the business going, enthusiasm might fade quickly due to all the complexities and legalities you begin to encounter. The solution to this is to lay out a clear plan of what is essential to get your business going. Company Startup Checklist 1. Write a Business Plan Rare is a business that does not require an initial investment or a bank loan to get started. To get either of these things, you need a business plan. The plan must serve two purposes: It must answer critical questions — to your own satisfaction — of how you are going to get the business off the ground and into a steady level of profitability. To do this will require an analysis of your “objectives, strategies, sales, marketing and financial forecasts.” (source) It must answer these same questions — as well as inspire confidence — in any potential investor or bank you may be applying to for a loan. To impress investors, presentation is key, and it would be well worth your while to invest some time into making that presentation look top-notch. 2. Get help and training In the early stages of a business, your time is often less valuable than your money. Even if you have secured seed funding or a bank loan, the less you have to dig into that reserve, the easier it will be to pay it back later. The pivotal question is what kind of help and training do you need? There are so many courses (many of which simply want to take your money) that it becomes difficult to choose. Try not to sign up for every single course or seminar that exists out there. Pick resources that are: Affordable (based on your budget) Valuable (in your field) There are also plenty of free resources online. Try and dedicate some time each day to learning more about your field, about marketing, and about business in general. 3. Choose the location of your business You don’t necessarily need an address that begins with “One Canada Square”. Then again, maybe you do. Your location depends on what you do and who your market is. You need to strike a balance between monthly costs versus potential business. A shoe-selling business that is not located on the main thoroughfare is unlikely to receive many customs off the street. After the COVID-19 crisis, there is less of a stigma for businesses that operate entirely from home. 4. Learn about your financing options Too many people rush into business with the idea that they’re going to invest as much as possible and then reap in millions in rewards. It is vital to keep a clear and level head. Even if your business plan and concept is solid, crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic can come along and dash all your hopes in a fortnight. A few workable rules of thumb when starting out are: Start slow Focus on earning, and borrow only what you need to earn even more Still, finance is often necessary, but bank loans are not the only option. Depending on the nature of your business, a GoFundMe page might even be appropriate. Look at your options, and don’t jump into extreme debt unless you absolutely must. 5. Define your business structure You have to know the type of business you’re going to create. Are you going to operate as a sole trader and be personally liable for any business debts? Will you form a limited company or a limited partnership? There are pros and cons to operating as a sole trader versus a limited company. Investigate each option to know which one is right for you. If you’re starting a non-profit business, a “Limited by Guarantee” is probably the type you’ll need to open. 6. Register your business name There are some restrictions to the company name you’re allowed to register in the UK, such as: The name cannot be the same as another company’s Offensive names are not allowed And other restrictions covered in the link above Aside from the legal restrictions, some rules of thumb for great company names are: Memorable Communicates what the company does or sells Has something “catchy” to it, a play on words Shorter is better Think about your company name carefully. Ask your friends. Get feedback. The more people you ask, the more likely your name will become a hit. 7. Set up your branding Along with your name, your branding must stick out and be memorable. This step is best done in conjunction with choosing the name. It’s best to do this step with a professional. Branding encompasses many things, not just “colour scheme”. So, you’ll need someone expert at all aspects of creating a brand, including: A professional logo A slick website Colour schemes Letterheads, email signatures, social media accounts, etc. It’s not a good idea to change branding drastically later on as it might cause confusion for your customers. So think about this point of branding long and hard before finally settling on it. 8. Register your business with Companies House If you register your company with Companies House using the UK Government’s website, it will also automatically register you for Corporation Tax, saving you a step in the process. 9. Set up an email list and start getting subscribers No matter what other promotional/marketing tools you will be using, your email list will always be your mainstay. You can start getting subscribers even before you’ve registered your company. The trick is to offer something for free — an incentive — and then get potential future buyers to sign up. Once they’ve signed up, your job is to provide useful and helpful content to them via email, which keeps them anticipating your later emails. There are myriad tools you can use to set this up quickly on the internet. A lot of those tools also offer easy templates to help you create professional emails that sell. 10. Work out a budget You likely touched on this when you wrote your business plan. But a budget is so vital to the day-to-day running of your business that it is something you must continually go back to and look at. In a sense, this could come under the heading of “Do your accounting”, but it’s not quite the same thing. Create a budget and keep going back to it, modifying it according to the amount of cash you have on hand. All the best businesses have worked out how to be prudent and frugal while still turning out a regular profit. About author Julia Richards Our head of content, Julia has spent the past 20 years assisting entrepreneurs with all aspects of business launch and growth strategies in various industries around the globe.

August 2021
5 Unique Ways to Improve Positivity in Your Startup

 Take a walk  Disconnect from the internet every night  Plan things  Reward your staff, even for small victories  Educate yourself If you want to be successful in business, you need to learn to channel and improve positivity. This becomes even more important when you’re running a startup. The early years of a startup are taxing ones, especially if the startup is an ambitious one and has had a lot of investment put into it. The stress can be unbelievable, and it is important to find avenues to either alleviate that stress or to sublimate it into an emotion that is more conducive to productivity. I looked back over my many years in business and found that I have engaged in many different activities in order to stay positive, but these are by far my top five. Take a walk This is a difficult one for an executive to do, especially an executive in a startup. You can get so caught up in the day-to-day grind, the urgent necessity to get in new business, to handle accounting, to get in seed funds. In the midst of all these problems, you might think that it is utterly and completely impossible to take even five minutes out of your day for a stroll. But it’s vital. I can tell you this from personal experience. Not only is staring at a screen for too long bad for your vision, but you can also become far too fixated on the immediate problem (or problems) which face you to find any solution to them. Take a walk. Look outside. Catch a breather. Forget the workday for just a few minutes. You’ll find that you’re far more energetic and positive when you return to the office. Disconnect from the internet every night You need to switch off social media, the news, your emails, everything before you go to bed. Forget the business, forget the online world. Do something enjoyable that does not involve the internet. Read a book — an actual paperback book instead of your Kindle or other e-readers. Or take up a hobby that has you working with your hands. Cook something — anything that gets you out of the digital world and disconnected from work. You’ll find you’re much more refreshed in the mornings, and far more likely to remain positive about the upcoming workday. Plan things Startups and entrepreneurship are all about the excitement of creating something new. We entrepreneurs are a special breed. In a sense, we’re artists — sculpting our businesses and our future until we realize the final product many years later: Our masterpiece, a business worth having and working in. It’s not about money, it’s about creating something BIG. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of micromanagement, not only with your employees but also yourself — tidying up every little thing when it really just needs to be left alone. If you sit down and plan things, work things out for your business, layout the BIG goals and targets, you’ll find that your mental attitude expands to encompass new avenues. This action of planning things does wonders to stop sweating the little things and increase your positivity. Reward your staff, even for small victories I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: The first few years of a startup can be tough. And your staff are in it as much as you are. Focus on the wins and reward your staff every time a small victory is obtained — a new client, a weekly revenue target, anything. And the rewards don’t have to be extravagant. It can be as simple as closing early on a Friday afternoon and buying cake and drinks for everyone, or maybe a bunch of movie tickets or football match tickets for the crew. It doesn’t matter so much what the reward is, only that there is a reward. Positivity is contagious, and if your staff feel like the startup is moving forward like their efforts are appreciated, their own positivity will rub off on you and vice versa until an immense sense of camaraderie is generated in the team. And that’s when things really start rolling. Educate yourself As an entrepreneur, you don’t have the luxury of ever stopping your education. Whether that education comes in the form of books you read at night (see point #2 above) or actual courses and degrees that you take in order to add to your qualifications, you must continue to improve your abilities. It is your abilities that will take your startup to success or lead it down to failure. A good team will get you there, but you are ultimately responsible for the team’s production. You are responsible for finding that team. The more you learn, the more you educate yourself, the more know-how you will have to improve your business and to pick the right people to help you. Better education leads to better chances of success, and nothing cranks up a sense of positivity like success itself. About author Julia Richards Our head of content, Julia has spent the past 20 years assisting entrepreneurs with all aspects of business launch and growth strategies in various industries around the globe.

August 2021
5 ways to get a professional business website up in 30 minutes

First, some terms Domain Hosting Domain Registration 1. GoDaddy 2. Wix 3. WordPress.com 4. Squarespace 5. Start My Business No excuse not to have a professional website Running a business without a website is like trying to drive across the UK with one missing wheel. Not only that, but Google now prioritises its ranking algorithm for mobile versions of websites. This means that if your website is not 100 per cent mobile-friendly then it will suffer in Google’s rankings. You simply cannot afford to have a substandard website. Fortunately, it is possible to create highly professional-looking websites with only a few clicks these days. There is a bit of a learning curve, but most of it is quite intuitive. First, some terms You need to be familiar with a few definitions before getting started or else you’ll get tripped up by the smallest things. I will define these in a very simplified manner, so if you’re a tech guy, please forgive the oversimplicity: Domain This is the actual name of the website which you see in your browser’s address bar. For example, on this particular website, the domain is startmybusiness.com. Google UK’s domain is google.co.uk. Hosting This is where the files of your website are actually stored. For example, you are viewing this page on the StartMyBusiness.com domain. You are viewing a specific file (this page) which sits on a computer somewhere and which has been “sent” to you after you typed in the “domain” into your browser’s address bar. That computer where this “file” sits is where the website is “hosted”. A single website is made up of very many files. Domain Registration Signing up for a domain which you own and can use for your website. This service is provided by what is called “Domain Registrars”. It can be likened to buying a postbox somewhere, except the postbox has a name and can be accessed via people’s computers. Okay, here are the easiest ways to get a website built yourself: 1. GoDaddy GoDaddy is one of the world’s hosting giants. It has been around since the early days of the internet and provides an incredibly smooth signup process from domain registration to website creation. It allows you to create websites using popular systems. The number of options might be overwhelming for you but the interface is very easy to use. So, simply clicking around and getting curious will get you half of the way there. They really do make the entire process from signup to hosting incredibly simple. 2. Wix Wix was founded in 2006 but has really gained traction in recent years. It offers a drag-and-drop interface for creating professional websites with very many features including contact forms and newsletter signups. My advice if you use Wix is to really take the time to learn the system. I have seen websites created with the Wix platform which looked appalling, and I’ve also seen sites that looked magnificent. This is true of any system, really. You do need to spend some time learning the ropes in order to create something that doesn’t look overly amateurish. 3. WordPress.com WordPress has become a household name. It is used on everything from personal blogs to massive news sites. Known primarily as a blogging platform, the system has come a long way from its humble beginnings on 27 May 2003, and is used for far more than blogging these days. There is a WordPress.org and WordPress.com. For the purposes of this article, we recommend the dot com version because it has fewer headaches, although they do charge a minimal monthly fee for hosting your website and registering your domain for you. You can, of course, use the dot org version and download the files yourself then upload them to your web hosting company. That starts getting a little complicated and in that case, you might as well just go with GoDaddy which automates most of that process for you anyway. 4. Squarespace This is another giant of online website creation and is Wix’s main competitor. I won’t bother comparing both systems here. You can read an in-depth comparison here if you want. Squarespace offers slightly less freedom in the design, which basically means that you’re less likely to mess it up if you’re not trained as a designer. 5. Start My Business We offer a unique service in that we have professional in-house designers who create your website for you entirely from scratch for the simple cost of registering your company. We also design your branding and take care of SEO for you. We won’t send you the website in 30 minutes, but you’ll spend far less time yourself getting a website up with our service than with the others mentioned above. No excuse not to have a professional website With so much choice, there is no excuse not to have a professional website for your business. It’s not even a choice of time vs money anymore because all the above services are so unbelievably cheap. But time is the main cost you’ll pay on the services listed, except our own. If you do put in the time to learn the basics of these online DIY tools you’ll come out with a stellar website which can attract tons of leads that become your future clients. About author Julia Richards Our head of content, Julia has spent the past 20 years assisting entrepreneurs with all aspects of business launch and growth strategies in various industries around the globe.

August 2021
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