What you need to start with

You’ve decided to build and develop your own business.

Before you do, there are a few things you will need:

  • Conviction
  • Determination
  • Persistence
  • A business plan
  • A mentor

Conviction
You must be utterly convinced that your idea and your business will succeed. Anything less will result in second thoughts when times get tough.

Determination
Things will get hard and that’s when you need to grit your teeth and press on.

Persistence
If you have the conviction that what you’ve got others will want, you will find the persistence to keep on going when others would not.

A Business Plan – the beginning
This is a lot easier than it sounds, but it has to be done because you will need to measure your cash progress as time goes by.

I other words, you need a spreadsheet.

To start with, this can be a simple one with half a dozen income lines across the top with a total line, and your known expenses listed below with a total line below.

Then you will need the Bank Balance line at the bottom so you can see how you are progressing week by week.

The Complete Business Plan
Once you’ve got the measure of how this works, you will need to extend it through the complete first year and then add on the second year.

I would recommend putting weekend dates at the top of each column and making each page roughly one month. (So, four columns and a total column)

Link each month to the next month, and finally link the first year to the second.

If you wish you can create a summary page at the end of each year so that you can see at a glance how things are progressing.

If you do this, you can create a P&L summary sheet by copying the cashflow summary page and removing the VAT elements and taking your drawings/earnings out and putting them below the profit after tax line. This is because Directors’ drawings are taken from retained profit after any/all tax has been collected.

This sounds far more complicated than it is, but if you need help, give me a call, and I’ll talk you through it.

A Mentor
This is someone you can ask questions of and someone who can help guide you as you start to find your entrepreneurial feet.

You’ll find directions to mentoring organisations and individuals on Google or you could just ask me – at 0808-172-1900.

Now you’re ready to start marketing
Marketing is getting your name and your product/service out there. You can’t sell unless people know about you and what you’ve got to sell.

A word of caution
As you’ve only just started your business and now that you’ve built your spreadsheet cashflow system, you will be aware of the fact that everything you spend has to be earned back.

The golden rule is, spend as little as you can to start with and wait until money comes in before you spend more.

The first thing to do is to build your shop window, and I’ll cover this in the next blog, or you can contact me – 0808-172-1900

Next month’s blog: So you want to start marketing