“What They Don’t Tell You About Starting a Business” Introduction This and the following sections (Parts 1 to 10) are extracted from “What They Don’t Tell You About Starting a Business” by Ben Coker First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 Copyright © Ben Coker 2017 The moral right of Ben Coker to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved. Except in the case…
read more“What They Don’t Tell You About Starting a Business” Chapter 1 Your Own Business? Have you ever thought of owning your own business? Do you know why you should have your own business? Do you know what a business really is and how it works? Do you understand the difference between having a business and being ‘self-employed’? This book is designed to help you. To help you understand why you must have your own business. To help you decide on the…
read more“What They Don’t Tell You About Starting a Business” Chapter 2 What is a Business? Are you clear what a ‘business’ actually is? People in different cultures perceive ‘business’ in different ways. Sadly, most ethnic Western Europeans see ‘business’ in a poor light. Many who are employed even fail to understand that if there weren’t any businesses, they wouldn’t have an employer. The fact is that in western Europe ‘business’ is portrayed by the media as inherently ‘bad’, it’s purpose…
read more“What They Don’t Tell You About Starting a Business” Chapter 3 Start With Why Before even starting a business or even thinking about setting one up, it’s important to understand WHY you might want to do this at all. ? You and I start businesses for one or more of these reasons: We have a ‘great idea’ We want to work for ourselves rather than a ‘boss’ We want to ‘make money’ We are following a family tradition We just…
read more“What They Don’t Tell You About Starting a Business” Chapter 4 The Income Alternatives We all need to survive – to eat, clothe and shelter ourselves and for most people in the world this requires money. But, most people want to do more than just eke out an existence. Most people, depending on the culture in which they find themselves, aspire to a certain ‘lifestyle’ and whatever that is, it usually requires more than a basic subsistence level income. So…
read more“What They Don’t Tell You About Starting a Business” Chapter 5 What’s in it for You? Creating your own business is one of the most effective ways, if not the most effective way, of creating the environment you need for the life you would love to live. Having a business based around your passion can be a simple way of fulfilling that passion, of doing what you love to do and being who you love to be. You would no…
read more“What They Don’t Tell You About Starting a Business” Chapter 6 What are your Options? There are just two ways to start a business of your own: You can create one You can buy one You might create your own Personal Business, if: You have a great idea you want to put into practice as a business You have specialist knowledge or skills You spot what you believe is a market opportunity You have a passion about something Or you…
read more“What They Don’t Tell You About Starting a Business” Chapter 7 Making your Choice The choice may be easy, particularly if you have a Great Idea you want to exploit or are highly skilled in a particular area that you want to turn into a business. Once you know what you want to do and why you want to do it, and provided those are consistent, then your choice is straight forward. But regardless of whether you want to turn…
read more“What They Don’t Tell You About Starting a Business” Chapter 8 Making Your ‘Plan’ This is included here as an introduction to planning and getting your business started – there is more detail in ‘How to Create Your Own Personal Business’ Start with Why As a reminder of what I covered in Chapter 3, if you’re going to start your own business, there has to be a reason. You have to be very clear in your own mind WHY you…
read more“What They Don’t Tell You About Starting a Business” Chapter 9 Avoiding the Mistakes The 7 BIG Mistakes 1. Going it alone Many people think that they can just start a business, that they don’t need any help or advice, that they know all they need to know. I know, I was one of them once! You can succeed in business on your own like this but you have to be very clever and very lucky. Always get advice, always…
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