Advice About Setting Up Your Own Business

Title:Advice About Setting Up Your Own BusinessWord Count:678Summary:Are you thinking about setting up your ownbusiness? Have you an idea for a new business butare unsure about how to proceed? If you haveanswered yes to either of these questions, thisarticle could be of benefit to you. I am going towrite about how to plan and create a successfulsmall business.

Keywords:self-employed, discipline, loan, yellow pages,business, advert, money, exhibitions, costs,successArticle Body:Are you thinking about setting up your ownbusiness? Have you an idea for a new business butare unsure about how to proceed? If you haveanswered yes to either of these questions, thisarticle could be of benefit to you. I am going towrite about how to plan and create a successfulsmall business.Many people are looking at ways in which they canbecome self-employed as they have had enough ofbeing dictated to and fed up of long andfrustrating commutes to work. They want thefreedom of being their own boss and to be able to

choose their own hours of work.Leaving a full time career can be quite a scaryprospect however. The security of having aregular income and other benefits such as apension and a share save scheme can seem hard tolet go. I am sure many people whether rightly orwrongly have opted to stick with this security andto merely keep their business plan as an idea,which they never see through or use.Other people are willing and happy to take therisk and see it as a way of getting out of the ratrace.When you have an idea for a new business you thenneed to think of a name to call it. I would keepthis name quite short as it makes it easier toremember for people. It obviously needs to havesomething to do with the business sector you areentering.

You will now need to work out how much money youwill need to set up the business. This can be quitedaunting but is essential. In the short term Iwould advise to keep these start up costs as lowas possible, you can always buy or rent bettermachinery in the future as an example.Once you are aware of how much money you need, youthen have to find it. You may have enough yourselfvia savings or a redundancy payout, however mostpeople are not in this position. If you do not haveenough money, you could try and raise money viathe family, by seeking a partner or by releasingthe equity from your house. There is also theoption of a business loan.The next stage is to market your product orservice. There are many ways of doing thisincluding:The internet via a website

An advert in the newspaperDirect marketing in the form of leafletsAn advert in the yellow pagesExhibitionsTrade fairsI would advise finding out where other people fromyour industry advertise as they will have triedand tested many of the above options.You then need to work out how much to charge foryour product or service. I always keep thesecharges fairly low at the outset in order toattract as many people as I can and to get someincome in. I then hope that word of mouth will takeover and the idea is that after a few months I willbe in a position to increase my fees.

It is also important to realise that we will makemistakes along the way. When this happens we needto think positive and not to beat ourselves up.It is an experience we can learn from.Always have belief in yourself. At times anybusiness will go through a rocky period, this iswhen we need to be strong. In my opinion the morework we put in, the more rewards we are likely toobtain.Self-discipline is one of the keys to your success.Being able to choose your own hours of work mayseem like a dream but it can prove to be manypeoples downfall. We have to ensure that we workthe required amount of hours. It is far too easyto stay in bed for that extra hour or to arrangeyet another game of golf. These things are fineonce you are established, but this is a long wayoff at this stage.