The Small Business Start-Up Workbook: A step-by-step guide to starting the business you've dreamed of

The Small Business Start-Up Workbook offers a distinctive approach to small business start-up. Avoiding the traditional business plan mantra and textbook approaches churned out by business school curriculum, The Small Business Start-Up Workbook weaves together real-life case studies and practical exercises, interspersed with expert advice from leading UK entrepreneurs.

Discover what business icons like Dame Anita Roddick, Julie Meyer, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, and Simon Woodroffe would have done differently, what their biggest mistakes have been and what they’ve learnt as they reveal their best and worst decisions and contribute their tips for succeeding in business.

The Small Business Start-Up Workbook prepares you so you know what to expect BEFORE you submit that letter of resignation. It will help you to identify and explore your initial idea, clearly identify your goals, vision, and targets, research, plan, market and sell effectively, and acquire the skills and expertise needed to achieve your goals.

I won’t be alone in teaching you about starting-up in business, You’ll find insider tips and entrepreneurial secrets from leading business people who’ve been interviewed especially for this book, including Anita Roddick and Julie Meyer, Stelios Haji-Ioannou and Simon Woodroffe. Plus, there’s a toolkit of tips, templates, practical exercises, (yes you’ll be getting your hands dirty) checklists, worksheets and case studies to whet your entrepreneurial appetite. You’ll discover how to research and formulate your business idea; how to stay motivated and manage your time-starved life, and how to use competitive intelligence to your advantage.

Rather than plain old business plan know-how and the traditional acumen churned out by the business school curriculum, you’ll uncover the mechanics of success is small business start-up, by learning from successful business leaders, who spill the beans on their worst decisions and mistakes. In essence, this is the nuts and bolts of REAL business start-up, as experienced by real people, who’ve run real businesses.

As the Founder of The Body Shop, I often get asked to talk about entrepreneurship even by hallowed institutions like Harvard and Stanford. It makes me smile that the Ivy League is so keen to learn how to be an entrepreneur, because I m not at all convinced it is a subject you can teach. How do you teach obsession, because more often than not it s obsession that drives an entrepreneur s vision? How do you learn to be an outsider, if you are not one already? Why would you march to a different drumbeat if you are instinctively part of the crowd?

One of the great challenges for entrepreneurs is to sit down, reflect and wait to collect information. We all suffer from hurry sickness. We have an abundance of energy and commitments. We can create something out of nothing, but we re not very good at organization and follow through. We are essentially outsiders and that is the best definition of an entrepreneur I have ever come across.

So here s my advice to all you budding entrepreneurs. Be optimistic. Successful entrepreneurs don t work within systems, they hate hierarchies and structures and try to destroy them. They have an inherent creativity and wildness that is very difficult to capture.

Finally, be passionate about ideas. Entrepreneurs want to create a livelihood from an idea that has obsessed them. Not necessarily a business, but a livelihood. Money will grease the wheels, but becoming a millionaire is not the aim of a true entrepreneur. In fact, most entrepreneurs I know don t give a damn about the accumulation of money. They are totally indifferent to it they don t know what they earn and they don t care. They don t care about the nameplate culture. What gets their juices going is seeing how far an idea can go.

So read this book, learn from other people s experiences, take note of all the helpful hints and tips to help you successfully launch your ideas. This book is to guide you through the transition of starting out on your own and you can use it as a handbook through every process.

Dame Anita Roddick

Packed with real-life case studies and practical exercises; checklists and worksheets, this book provides a step-by-step guide to researching and formulating your business idea; planning the right marketing strategies; sourcing opportunities, markets and finance; and managing a team that will drive your vision forward with you.

You ll discover what well-known entrepreneurs would have done differently with hindsight, what their biggest mistakes have been and what they ve learnt, as Dame Anita Roddick, Julie Meyer, Stelios Haji-Ioannou and Simon Woodroffe (among others) reveal their best and worst decisions and contribute their wisdom and tips for succeeding in business.

You’ll learn how to:
DEVELOP, RESEARCH AND PLAN ‘THE IDEA’
DESIGN AND CREATE THE RIGHT PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
DEFINE AND UNDERSTAND YOUR CUSTOMERS AND TARGET AUDIENCE
SECURE FINANCE AND MANAGE CASH FLOW AND ACCOUNTS
CREATE A WINNING BRAND AND MARKETING MESSAGE
GAIN AND RETAIN CUSTOMERS
ACHIEVE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
PLAN, CREATE, LAUNCH AND PROMOTE YOUR WEBSITE
MANAGE YOUR BUSINESS AND TIME

This fresh approach to small business start-up also includes information and recommendations on making your business ethical and socially responsible, along with exercises to help build self-confidence and visualize success. All this fits snugly alongside the more traditional business start-up topics such as cash-flow management, competitor intelligence, and how to create a website that works.

A lot has been written about the notion that entrepreneurship cannot be taught some say success in business and life is to do with personality and psyche, rather than business school savvy. True, there are common characteristics among the elite entrepreneurs, (which we explore in Chapter Two) but there are also many variables that go toward making a business actually work; from personalities and people to the viability of an idea, state of the market and, often, circumstances outside a business owner s control.

Certainly, there is no entrepreneurial elixir you can swiftly drink to make you automatically successful (except your own home-made passion-fuelled one). But you can prepare yourself to seize opportunities and make it happen for you.

All you can do is make sure you develop the skills and characteristics you need to make the best decisions throughout your life in business. As Anita Roddick says, there are certain skills that are critical in helping entrepreneurs on the road to success

MAKE YOUR OWN LUCOZADE
“Energy has to be the major one,” says Anita. “Communication too has to be the major skill, because if you can t communicate you re just not there on any level. Networking too, these are the skills that you need to succeed. Having antennae for what s out there and what s about to come, that s a real skill too, as are design, language, marketing.”

“To get these skills you just have to ask questions, read books, get information. The last thing you need to do is go to business school. But you must have this energy and drive.”

You may have no experience of management and zero business acumen (neither did I, neither did Anita), but you may have good instincts, a strong desire to achieve your goals, determination, energy and bounds of enthusiasm. If this sounds like you, then you would make a fantastic entrepreneur.

Harness your raw passion because this is your key strength as an entrepreneur

Customers buy from people who are passionate about what they are selling or doing.
Suppliers choose to supply to people who are passionate about their business
Investors invest in businesses that have passionate people at the helm. Use it, work it.

Let your undiluted, undisputed passion flow and shape your purpose and actions. Use your passion as fuel, as your own Lucozade energy drink and guide your passion for growth. Consciously direct it by referring to your INSPIRATION AND IDEAS book as you schedule your weekly goals and tasks. And record every milestone, as these can be overlooked when peering out from a paper pile the size of a Peruvian mountain.

STEP TWO: PRACTICE SELF-BELIEF
BELIEVE AND YOU WILL ACHIEVE
1. Do you believe in yourself?
2. Do you believe in your business idea?