So You Want to Start a Business

The 7 Step Guide to Create, Start & Grow Your Own Business

Ingrid Thompson

• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781683507437
• eBook ISBN: 9781683507444
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Entrepreneurship
• Index: Business

Get it right—from the start! "Entrepreneurship is like a roller coaster ride, exhilarating yet terrifying... Allow Ingrid to guide you" (Adam Franklin, bestselling author of Web Marketing That Works ). Often, people leap into starting a business to pursue their passion without fully realizing what they've gotten themselves into. They may love what they do—but the financial and administrative side of the business ends up being more than they bargained for. So You Want to Start a Business takes you through the seven essential elements required to create a thriving business. With examples, exercises, and invaluable guidance, Ingrid Thompson provides a practical guide to unleashing one's inner entrepreneur. With over twenty years' experience helping people create successful businesses, Ingrid knows exactly how to help people decide what kind of business to start—and start out on the right foot.

1. YOU

‘I wake up every morning thinking … this is my last day. And I jam everything into it. There’s no time for mediocrity. This is no damned dress rehearsal.’

ANITA RODDICK

You’re enjoying Friday night drinks after a difficult week and someone says, ‘We should start our own business. We’re the brains here. If we worked this hard for ourselves, imagine how much money we would make!’

The next morning, at your Pilates class, you just can’t shake the idea. As you head to the coffee shop across the road for breakfast, you wonder if it just might be possible.

You think about the other people who have created their own businesses and consider what they have … Success. Flexibility. Creative freedom. Fulfilment. They are their own boss. They make a difference, while living their dream. People respect them for what they have achieved. By the time you’ve finished breakfast and are walking home, the creative ideas are flowing and you can imagine all of this for yourself.

And, then, there she is – that little voice inside your head that asks you all the really difficult questions and discourages you from doing what you want. (Call me nuts, but I named mine Natalie. I find it helps to separate myself from her – it gives her less power over my thoughts and my actions.)

Natalie’s talking in that tone of voice that lets you know she thinks you’re crazy … ‘What do you know about running a business? And, anyway, what sort of business would you start?’ She plants a huge seed of doubt in your mind. You think, ‘Yeah, who am I to start a business? It was different for all of the others. They probably had loads of help, lots of money and already knew people. It’s a nice dream, but it could never really happen …’

Or could it?

In this part of the book, we are going to humour Natalie and play devil’s advocate, but in the process, we’re going to help you get really clear on what you want and whether you have what it takes to achieve it. What does it take to be someone who creates a business and life they love? What makes people who start their own businesses different to other people? What are some of the key characteristics of people who create successful businesses?

Today, people are creating businesses more than at any other time in history. Setting the right foundations will put you on track to join the others who have become enormously successful. They all had to start somewhere – just like you.

Faced with a decision, we can feel stuck at a crossroads – we have the choice to go somewhere we have been before, where it is familiar, comfortable, easier. And we have the choice to step up to a new level. What stops many people is an inner glass ceiling. But this ceiling is self-imposed. Letting it stop you is self-sabotage.

By the end of this chapter, you will have clarity about what you really want and what it takes to start a business. I will challenge you to commit to the process or decide it truly isn’t for you – but based on a strong, hard look at yourself and what you want to achieve rather than baseless feelings that you couldn’t do it even if you tried. If you really want to learn, you can do anything! Complete the activities under each section and unleash your inner entrepreneur.

Are you escaping from or moving towards?

In the 1100s, in the remote mountains of northern Europe, there stood a walled village with a gatekeeper. Along the road came a man and his family.

On approach, the man called, ‘Good gatekeeper, hello and fine day,’ to which the gatekeeper replied, ‘Hello and fine day to you, good fellow.’

‘Good gatekeeper, we have travelled far looking to make our home in a new village. What kind of people live in your village?’

‘Tell me, good fellow,’ said the gatekeeper, ‘what kind of people did you find in your last village?’

‘Good gatekeeper, the village we have left behind is filled with scoundrels and thieves.’

The gatekeeper shook his head. ‘Good fellow, you will find that this village is also filled with scoundrels and thieves.’

So the man and his family bid the gatekeeper, ‘Fond farewell,’ and continued on along the road.

By and by, another man and his family came along the same road and, on approach, the man called to the gatekeeper, ‘Good gatekeeper, hello and fine day,’ to which the gatekeeper replied, ‘Hello and fine day to you, good fellow.’

‘Good gatekeeper, we have travelled far looking to make a home in a new village. What kind of people live in your village?’

‘Tell me, good fellow,’ said the gatekeeper, ‘what kind of people were in your last village?’

‘Good gatekeeper, the village we have left behind is filled with people generous and friendly. The salt of the earth.’

The gatekeeper smiled. ‘Good fellow, you will find that this village is also filled with people who are generous and friendly. The salt of the earth.’

I love this story because it illustrates how we create our own world in so many ways. How often do we hear of someone who has to move house because they have the “neighbours from hell”? They move, only to find themselves living next to another set of neighbours from hell. Or what about that person we know who has to leave their job because it’s so awful? They escape the job they hate, only to find themselves signing up for an equally awful job. They leave behind one overly controlling manager, only to find themselves working for an equally or even more controlling manager.

When considering starting your own business, there are two important questions:

• 
  What are you escaping from?
• 
  What are you moving towards?

For many people, the answers to these questions are intrinsically linked. You might be escaping from the regimen of having to be at a desk, having to be in the workplace at 8:30am on the dot, having to work long hours, having to meet other people’s expectations, and still feeling like nothing you do really matters.

You might be moving towards having the flexibility to work at 10pm at night or 4pm in the afternoon if that is what works for you, having the need to work like crazy only when you want to meet a deadline, and having the option to go for a surf or attend a morning yoga class whenever you want – every day if you want!

Activity: Escaping From and Moving Towards

Take the time now to think about both questions – what are you escaping from and what are you moving towards? Use two pages in your notebook and write one question at the top of one page, the other question at the top of the other. Take the first question and set a timer for five minutes. Write down as many answers as you can – list all the things that you believe you are escaping from. When the timer goes o...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Content
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1. You
• 2. Your Idea
• 3: Your Clients
• 4. Your Brand
• 5. Your Structure
• 6. Your Finances
• 7. Your Marketing
• Conclusion: Run With It!
• Free Gift For You
• References
• Acknowledgements
• About the author
• About Healthy Numbers and additional resources