Greg Nazvanov - Working For Yourself: From starting out to finishing up

Dr Greg Nazvanov MBA CFP(r) is a professional financial planner and wealth management consultant with a successful track record of commitment to his clients. In 2007 he was named one of Australias Top 50 best financial planners by the Australian Financial ReviewSmart Investor. The following year he was named as one of the Top 10 financial advisers in Australia in the prestigious AustralianFinancial Review Smart Investor Masterclass for Financial Planning. The award recognises his high level of knowledge and expertise that enables him to provide exceptional advice to his clients.

With over a decade of expertise in business and financial management as well as being a Master of Business Administration (MGSM), a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia (FINSIA) and a SMSF Specialist Adviser (SPAA and Kaplan), Dr Nazvanov is in high demand on the public speaking circuit and is generally regarded as one of Australias thought-leaders in the business advisory field. He is quoted regularly in the media, in publications such as The Australian, The Planner, and the AustralianFinancial Review. Dr Nazvanov is a passionate philanthropist who has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to charity and cultural organisations. He buys paintings from Aboriginal art groups then donates them to charities. Both activities bring huge benefits, by supporting the Aboriginal artists and generating funds for the needy in Australia and overseas.

Greg is the author of books on several areas of investing: financial planning, Aboriginal art, Islamic finance, retirement, Australian and UK pensions, real estate, estate planning and asset protection, business succession and management. He is also a founder of a group on Linkedin called Private Banking and Wealth Management Specialists and is a founder of several proprietary financial indexes.

Connect with Greg at www.linkedin.com/in/gregnazvanov.

The author will be donating 100% of the royalties generated by sales of this book to the following charities:

• The Royal Childrens Hospital (RCH) Melbourne www.rch.org.au/foundation
• The Starlight Foundation www.starlight.org.au

To help kids and create a better world.

Preface
1 Planning your business
2 Preparing your business plan
3 Starting a business from home
4 Buying a business
5 Buying a franchise
6 The importance of cash flow
7 Hiring and keeping the right staff
8 New and traditional ways to market your business
9 Financial reporting and compliance
10 Business growth
11 Protecting your business
12 Business succession planning
Afterword
Glossary and list of abbreviations
Useful websites

CONGRATULATIONS on picking up this book! You have taken the first step to working for yourself. Perhaps you are tired of your current job and keen to explore other options. You may be coming back to work after a break in your career to have a family or care for an elderly relative. You may be straight out of uni. You may have lost your job through a redundancy or re-structure. There are many paths to becoming your own boss.

One of the first decisions you have to make is what work you will undertake. How will you generate an income? Perhaps you have a skill you can teach, a product you can make, goods or services you can sell? There are thousands of different ways to work for yourself. You may prefer to buy an existing business or look at a franchise opportunity.

This book has been written with the intent of providing an overview for all types of businesses. It gives some helpful tips to consider before venturing into business ownership. It takes you from the very first decisions you need to make to wrapping up your business and putting in place a succession plan.

The book intends to be a one-stop shop for small business owners. There are whole books written on information that I have condensed into single chapters. In one volume, discussion on starting, managing and moving out from your own business, can only be an overview. But we hope that the book will provoke further thought and research and save you some time and money as you embark upon the path to working for yourself.

Working For Yourself concentrates unashamedly on the financial side of starting and growing your own business. A virtual jungle of potential financial dangers challenges small business owners. The vast majority of people will naively attempt to navigate through this jungle on their own with very little, if any, financial education or experience. It is alarming to note that most people will never even consider seeking some form of guidance or construct a strategic roadmap to help get them to where they want to go. Equally alarming, is the fact that they will probably never employ an experienced, highly trained guide to help; someone who would point out the pitfalls and dangers and allow them to reach their final destination safe and sound. This book has been written with the intent of addressing this and throughout readers will find recommendations to seek professional help.

I am a big advocate and practitioner of social media and new generation marketing and this book is right up-to-date in these areas.

I wish you luck on your journey to finding professional and personal fulfilment through working for yourself.

TEMPTING as it may be to just hand in your notice, print up some business cards and get started, there are several important decisions to make before you can start working for yourself. The time and effort you put into the planning at the early stages of your new life being your own boss will be well worth it in the long run.

The ever-changing needs of consumers makes it complicated to select the right business to own. Theres a world of possibilities out there for anyone who wants to start a business. The question is: how can you narrow the possibilities down to find the type of business thats right for you? Research proves that most businesses do not survive for more than three years after inception due to poor business choices at the outset. Its paramount to choose a business which you understand from an operational standpoint, or for which you have a particular passion, if you are to break that three-year threshold.