...but it's kinda frightening! Does anyone have any tips, things to avoid, things to do, anything really from anyone who knows what it is to start out by yourself? Ta!
Doing what? First thing I'd recommend if you do go forward - get yourself a bloody good accountant I started up a new design/consultancy division for my then new company back in 2015 and it's still hard yards even now and that's with the backing of a company with an approx. £200m annual turnover - have to justify our existence every quarter.
I've been self-employed for twenty+ years. Find something you are good at, find a market and stick to it. Don't be a busy fool by trying to please everyone for little money and a lot of hours. Give yourself time off, that is Saturday, Sunday and Monday for me. Good luck, if I can do it anyone can.
Depending on what you're planning you need to research why you think you will fill the gap you believe exists and have a realistic and sensible business plan. Also you need to have the necessary funds to give it a go whether savings or agreed Bank overdraft or whatever. Plan for the worst and hope for the best.
The majority of successful businesses are not built on fear, so whilst it's important to plan it's also important to be brave. Focus on what you know and if you can avoid it then do not enter into a business venture with a partner. Even if you don't intend to borrow or need money, speak to a few banks about a start up and if all three/four flat out reject the proposal then there's a good chance it needs refined. Consultants too, use them if you can afford them. We are good!
The key thing I have learnt about running a business is how to adapt as you grow and not to get grand designs too early. The other thing is to get a business off the ground you have to graft. You have to do the extra hours and when something seems a bit of a chew, you just have to get it done. There will come a time when you can get someone else to do it for you! The one thing I have seen from businesses which grow too quickly is how a fairly successful business can crumble in no time at all. As an example I know a good young joiner, who basically built a team of joiners hiring out their services to larger companies like ourselves. They were great quality and efficient in what they did. So when we were busy and needed labour we'd get them in. He had work all over the country and Scotland. He was doing very well. He was an ambitious young man and he looked at what we were doing, and he thought he could do likewise. He told me of his plans and whilst it was not great for us in some ways, I'm a big believer in helping people like that - I always think about where our company was when we got a helping hand. I told him what I thought and explained he only had two real options: 1. Spend some money to get a structure in place to cope with making a big jump in turnover 2. Take his time and build slowly I think he thought I was trying to scaremonger and said he would just see how it goes. I feared the worst. All of sudden he was offering site management services, taking on a full package construction projects, and becoming a principle contractor. He ignored everything I said and rang me one night saying it was all getting on top of him, he was working silly hours, his wife was sick, and to top it all off he was losing money across his projects. He felt everything had conspired against him and he was having no luck. He was having H&S issues, the works. I took him back to our conversation and told him he simply needed to honour his commitments, back out of what he could without losing reputation, then strip it back to where he was. It was painful exercise for him. He lost a lot of money. However he is now growing again slowly and has just employed an experienced project manager to help him make the next step. They are putting a structure in place and spending some of the money he has made. I'm pretty confident he will make a success of it this time. The things I would say 1. Work your ****ing bollocks off (sounds obvious but there is no substitute) 2. Don't grow too quickly and lose track 3. Re-invest in your company continuously whether that be in stock, improving systems, training, staff. Don't make some money and think "**** yeah I've made it" 4. When you are big enough to get experts/consultants in then do so - just ensure they are going to grow your margins 5. Learn from your mistakes but be brave enough to make them 6. Never be afraid to open your lugs and take advice - just make sure the final judgement call is your own as there is nothing worse than pain when you knew something was wrong but didn't trust your instinct 7. When the time comes and you have to employ someone, don't do it on a whim. Go the extra mile, use all available contacts to find out about that person. There is nothing worse than employing someone who lets you down. You only have one person to blame! 8. Don't forget to let off steam now and again at a whore house
I started my business 34 years ago my advice would be - be the best that you can at what you do, I've never looked for work in the last 24 years if you offer a good job for a fair price, you will not have to look for work, work will come looking for you
1. Don't be afraid to use your house as collateral on a business loan, no matter how risky you think your enterprise might be. 2. If your customers give you **** (for ANY reason), tell them to go **** themselves. 3. Keep a fridge in the office stocked with super strength lager and don't be afraid to use it. 4. Buy a throne. 5. Get as many company credit cards as you can and spend, spend, spend. It's free money after all! 6. Don't forget to let off steam now and then at a whore house. Hope this helps.
A good business plan is essential. While it sounds boring it helps you plan properly. A good SWOT analysis to identify your niche and how to exploit it and then a budget and cash flow. Remember while starting the business you will require cash for equipment, office space etc and it may take a while to start generating any. Oh and a secretary with big tits - don't forget that.
Be prepared to fail, a lot of new businesses fail in the first 12 months so ensure that your liabilities are covered to limit the damage, lot of good advice above but it can depend on the business sector you are going into as well.
My head says this sounds about right, but Jak's secretary idea and General's promise of free money are considerably more exciting. I've checked through the idea, as it's pretty close to what I've done for the past 15 years or so, and it seems right - the feedback's really positive. I've gone via the Gov funded StartUpLoans company first, all seems to be going quite well, and just applied for a business overdraft which I'm not sure I'll get but we'll see - it's not critical. I've instructed on web development, which is pivotal, have a legal mate looking over my t's & c's, another friend is an accountant (who I'll use once the funding appears) and I've done a full and comprehensive plan for both the site and the business (had to submit that as part of funding). Even done a sales forecast. Can register an 'office' locally for £25 a year (for Companies House/HMRC docs) and pay a bit more for virtual premises, and have done two logo's on the cheap!! Next phase I think is to create some supporting collateral - marketing crap, sales pitch, presentation - then I can actually 'sell' something to ensure I have enough revenue to start out. I've gone with Hubspot for CRM, ClearBooks for financing, have a few options on marketing and a set of data I can potentially use. I will aim to use a cardless/direct debit system for payments to avoid too much heavy lifting on invoices. Won't need premises for a few months - and even then only if there's revenue to support it. I think that's most bases covered?
Thanks mate, that's how I've seen it. Honestly in my industry perhaps more than any I've seen the standard of top level management is absolutely on its knees. People are doing the same crap they were doing 30 years ago, and mostly playing the blame game when it just doesn't work.
The accountant stuff is very important, I'm self-employed/contractor, and there's tonnes of hoops to jump through regarding registering your company, registering for VAT, complying with all tax and dividend payment laws etc, and my accountants have literally handled everything for not much money and just let me know how much to pay myself. You obviously trust your friend, but best to check his qualifications and history of managing accounts like this anyway. If you've got the funding secured then good luck, my advice would be start small and grow steadily, I've seen a few friends business's fold due to attempting far too much too soon, all the success stories I know have achieved steady and incremental growth after a cautious start.
Cracking but that's the easy bit. All you have to.do now is get your arse out of bed every morning and graft for 14 hours seven days a week! Joking aside, good luck.
