Ideas - Planning Your Business

Planning your business

Simple ideas for budding entrepreneurs

Infinite Ideas

Copyright information

First published in 1997 by David Grant Publishing; revised and updated edition published 2012 by

Infinite Ideas Limited
36 St Giles
Oxford
OX1 3LD
United Kingdom
www.infideas.com

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of small passages for the purposes of criticism or review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP, UK, without the permission in writing of the publisher. Requests to the publisher should be addressed to the Permissions Department, Infinite Ideas Limited, 36 St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3LD, UK, or faxed to +44 (0) 1865 514777.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9781908864994

Brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Welcome!

About Planning your business

Can you really learn how to plan to grow your new or recently formed business in just one hour? The answer is a resounding Yes.

The only bit of waffle in this book

This book is written for people with neither the time nor the patience to trawl through page after page of jargon and management-speak. Many people would have you believe that starting and growing a new business is a dangerous activity that will ruin your health, your marriage and your finances. They say that youve either got to be seriously rich already or very, very lucky to have any chance at all of succeeding. This is nonsense. The financial and personal rewards of starting a business can be colossal, but if there is one critical factor that will determine the fate of your new venture it is the way you plan it.

This book recognizes that time is precious. We believe that you can learn all you really need to know quickly and without fuss. The aim is to distil the essential, practical advice so that you can start to use it straight away. Running a growing business will change your life. The hour or so that you spend with this book will help to ensure that it changes it for the better.

Is this book for you?

Do you ever

• sit through endless hours at work thinking this could all be done so much better?
• fantasize on your way home about going it alone?
• feel envious as friends and former colleagues talk of the excitement and rewards of running their own shows?
• wish that you were able to hand-pick your colleagues instead of having to work with people who constantly let you down?

If so, you are one of the millions of people worldwide who dream each year of starting their own business. However, you might not be suited to it. Planning your business will help you to evaluate your prospects if you are, and may prevent you making an expensive mistake if you are not.

Why plan anyway?

Here are four good reasons:

• Nobody especially your financial backers and other professional advisers will take your business proposals seriously if you dont.
• Its the only way to discover how much money you are going to need, and when you are going to need it.
• You can make your mistakes in your head (or on paper) much less painful than making them in the market.
• It will force you to look at the future and the real world your business will be operating in and not the past, which is largely irrelevant in todays mercurial business climate.

Dont make the mistake of thinking that planning a business is easy. Research shows that it can take 200 to 400 man hours to plan a business properly. However, in just an hour or so this book will put you on the right track. It will be time well spent. It will provide the platform for your future.

How to use this book

The message in this e-book is its OK to skim. You dont have to read it all at once, or follow every tip to the letter. Planning Your Business has been written to dip into, so feel free to flick through it to find the help you most need. It is a collection of hands-on tips that will help you to plan your business both for the purpose of raising capital and for the long-term health of your venture. You will be able to discover exactly what ground you will need to cover to succeed.

You will find that there are graphic features used throughout this book.

You?

This means something to think about it sets the scene and identifies the problems by prompting you to think about situations which should instantly feel familiar.

Act!

With the problems diagnosed, these features give you an action plan this will help you to get your own ideas in order.

Tips

This feature appears at the end of each chapter. It is a checklist which condenses all the advice given throughout the chapter. Similar features appear within chapters, all of which are overflowing with practical tips!

As you read through the book you will come across a lot of practical advice. But if you are really pushed for time you can always flick to the tips feature at the end of each chapter to get an instant overview. These are also a useful reminder when you come back to look at this book in the future.

With Planning your business in your briefcase your new venture is set to fly. Good luck!

1. Have you got what it takes?

Whats in this chapter for you

• Know your strengths and weaknesses
• Test the big idea
• Decide the best structure for your business
• Know the likely pitfalls

One of the best things I ever did for my business was to spend an hour thinking about me about what I really wanted out of life, and about my real skills, not those I had been told I possessed, or that I had built my career on. I had a reputation for being great with people, a true team-builder. In fact I realized that my core characteristic was ruthless determination to win, regardless of others.

Diane Cawl, telecommunications entrepreneur

Know your strengths and weaknesses

Growing your business depends on you and no-one else. There is no hiding place for the entrepreneur, and nowhere to shift the blame to. So you need more than just a good idea to go solo. Take a cool look at yourself and what you have achieved. You must be honest accept that you do have weaknesses but, on the other hand, dont underestimate your strengths.

You?

Ask yourself some searching questions.

• Are you really motivated? Are you self-confident, determined, persistent and realistic? Have you got a positive approach? If you plan to work from home, can you resist the chores you didnt finish at the weekend or the delights of daytime TV?
• Can you learn? Can you accept advice from professional advisers like accountants, solicitors, bankers and so on? Can you also accept setbacks and learn from them? And have you got enough detailed technical knowledge of your business? Do you know when to ask for help?
• What about your personal circumstances? Have you got the full support of your family?
• Are you healthy physically, emotionally and mentally?
• Be honest have you got the energy to work harder than ever before, and for longer?
• Can you sell? Not just your product or service, but yourself too?
• Do you know the market thoroughly?
• Are you a good problem solver?

If the answer to at least 75 per cent of these questions isnt Yes, you can save an hour or so of your life by stopping reading this book now.