1. What decision would make the biggest difference to your business life right now?

Whether you are a start-up entrepreneur or an established business owner, you probably wish there were more hours in the day. Investing money or resources in outsourcing, training or mentoring can be an excellent way to free yourself up to focus on the elements of your business that need your unique skills and vision.

2. If you stay on your current path, where will you end up?

Is your business heading in the direction you want it to? What is making you money? Where are you losing money? What activities contribute to the growth of your business? How can you spend your time most effectively? Take 10 minutes to plan your day first thing in the morning, and make sure you are not busy being busy.

3. What are you tolerating or putting up with?

Most people are ‘putting up with’ something that they feel would be too time-consuming to sort out. It might be your terms of business, an awkward client relationship, a poorly designed website or an underproductive member of staff. Whatever it is, there will come a point where there will be a cost involved in putting off the moment of decision.

4. If you could improve one business relationship who would it be with, and why?

There is a truism in business that 80% of your profits come from 20% of your contacts. Do you know who your most valuable business contacts are? There is another line that goes, keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. Could any of your relationships be causing your business damage? Do you need to make time to build some business bridges?

5. What are you putting off doing and what will it cost you if you don’t do it?

This may be connected to resolution number 3; or it may be connected to a personal skills gap or a lack of knowledge. If you are stuck in your comfort zone, sooner or later there will be a cost involved. Is now the time to grasp the nettle and  plan for change?

6. How different would your life be if you followed through with this goal?

Developing your skills in, for example, public speaking, market research, social media, financial planning, people management, can transform your ability to achieve your dreams. Investing time in you as well as your business will develop your range of skills and turbo-charge your drive and your business.

7. What will you regret not doing with your business life in later years?

Few of us give ourselves enough time to reflect on the whole life picture. A common business coaching exercise invites people to write their own obituary: highlighting past and future achievements. This is ‘starting with the end in mind’ in a very real sense and can wake people up to the time they have to achieve their true goals.

8. What has lack of confidence or self belief stopped you achieving?

Everyone has self-limiting beliefs of some sort. I once had a self-limiting belief about being able to talk to large groups of people; now I am not fazed if I need to speak to 1000 people. If your beliefs are getting in your way, you can choose to make time to take advice and get out of your own way.

9. What is your purpose? What elements of your business are you passionate about?

If you identify your true purpose you can plan every decision to take you closer to achieving your goal. Every choice you make – from actions and reactions to promises and excuses – provides clear clues as to where your true motivation and priorities lie. There is little point in building a business around something you feel is a good idea, if every time you are faced with a time choice you are diverted towards doing something else.

10. What is the one change you could make that would make you feel happier about the way you run your business?

Every change begins with a single step. What one thing would make a difference to the future of your business, now?

‘Get ready to Do It! – and get started, right now.’

Retaining top performers starts on the day they first arrive and continues every day thereafter. In my business we celebrate a new recruit’s first day to let them know they are valued from the outset.

They receive a card signed with messages from the whole team and will find flowers or champagne to welcome them on their desk. We go out for a team meal to celebrate our success and build team spirit.

Tips for retaining top performers

• Wow them, make them feel special, whatever job they are doing within the company.

• Make sure they know what they need to do to be successful.

• Have a planned induction process that ensures new recruits meet everyone in the company and have a contact in every department.

• Develop and train, help them to consistently exceed their personal best.

• Make sure they are in the right role to match their skills and values.

• Ensure you have a balance between support and challenge.

• Be honest, open and respectfully direct.

Develop an owner mentality in every employee

When an employee has an ownership mentality they never come to you with a problem without delivering a solution too. They are less likely to forget to turn off the lights or the air conditioning at the end of the day; they will be polite to all customers and will be more likely to return a sales enquiry.

When a member of staff has an owner mentality they are creative and move with purpose. They speak about the business with passion and commitment. They are driven by results and take great pleasure in achieving success for the business.

Steps to creating an ownership mentality

• Have belief in your team and demonstrate by giving them projects to champion.

• Manage your mood and choose the appropriate response.

• Be honest about your financial goals and set up charts to monitor progress.

• Be a mentor to them.

When your employees have an ownership mentality they feel empowered to make a difference and care about the bottom line as much as you do. An energised and committed workforce knows that you care about their welfare will focus on delivering the best of their ability – because people work for people – not for organisations.

Planning to set up in business is invigorating; but starting up can be slowed down by concerns about the concept or anxiety about the risks involved.

My work as a leadership coach and business mentor have shown me time and again that if the business plan is sound and the start-up finance is in place (and managed wisely) only 20% of business success is down to having the right concept – the other 80% is to do with personal resilience and developing a mindset for success.

I have worked with a number of Olympic athletes who want to set up their own businesses when their years of competing come to an end. My role is to help them to plan their business strategy and to help them to appreciate their transferable skills. It is easy to see why they have achieved incredible success.

Their motivation is tangible. They don’t just know how to compete in a certain sport, they know why they compete. They are team players whose focus is fixed firmly upon the goal.

Those who have served in the armed forces share similar characteristics. They too display determination and self-discipline. They also the ability to perform under pressure.

Achieving what you set out to do has been a primary motivator. These are the character traits for success and are the ideal skills for adjusting to the world of business and entrepreneurship.

The people who stay ahead of the game and who get the furthest ahead in business are those who allow themselves no room for self-indulgence or excuses. They have a plan, they keep to the plan; they know their strengths and delegate the tasks they are not very good at, or dislike.

They stay focused on doing whatever is needed to achieve and surpass their goals. The best are also team players who know how to direct without dictating – and develop the ability to play to people’s strengths.

But there is another factor to bear in mind when running a small business – the willingness to ask for help and to listen to advice on matters where your skill level may be low. This can be the tougher skill to learn – but is the one that will be the most beneficial to those who are serious about success.

Following are my top tips for getting started – and deciding whether you are ready to DO IT! or DITCH IT.

1 Do it! Do your market research

Too many start-ups spend too much time developing the product or service and not enough time planning how to take it to market and how to sell it. Make sure your business idea is a calculated risk, not a foolhardy gamble. Never make assumptions about your customers, competitors or pricing.

Know your customer profile and make sure everything you do is aligned with targeting that market.

2 Do it! Expect the best – plan for the worst

A commercially sound plan is an essential roadmap for success. A common mistake is to over-estimate the number of customers or level of revenue in the first year of trading. A useful strategy is to start (very) small and grow gradually.

That way you can test results and adapt your approach or pricing if necessary. Test and measure all the way.

3 Do it! Find a business mentor

Working with a professional business mentor to jump-start your skills will put you in a position of strength. It can be hard to ask for advice if you are used to being self-reliant. But if you take good advice in advance, you are less likely to have to learn from expensive mistakes.

4 Do it! Believe in your idea 100%

Only dedicate time and energy to developing your business idea if you feel passionate about it. Belief is what keeps you going when the going gets tough – and inspires others to follow you.

5 Do it! Create a business presence

Having a social media presence via networking sites is now as important as having a professional website or being in the right location. A professional profile that is appropriate for your customer base will help to get you noticed.

Without one you will have to work harder to get recommendations and market your company. But always keep your business and social sites separate. Businesses that provide a confidential service can still create a presence that entertains or focuses on company values, without giving anything away.

6 Do it! Be prepared to sell, sell, sell

Until you have customers you don’t have a business. To build a sustainable business you need to tell as many people as possible that you exist and to keep communicating your business message as clearly as you can – and ask them to be proactive about recommending you too. Selling and success go hand in hand.

Forces personnel have access to a great network of people, so start with who you know – and work out from there.

7 Do it! Set personal goals – and stick to them

Maintaining momentum and self-motivation can be the hardest things to achieve in business – especially if you are a sole trader or used to the camaraderie of a larger team. Set yourself tasks and challenges. Schedule your time. Know your objectives – and follow up promptly.

8 Do it! Get Profit and Loss savvy

Look at your costs; look at your prices; set them properly and view your business as a business. Ask yourself: What are my running costs? How much do I need to earn per year? How much do I need to allow for tax and insurance?

‘How much profit do I need to make – per year, per month, per week – to make this work? Do the figures add up? What is the turnover likely to be? What’s the profit margin? The better organised you can be from the outset – the stronger your business will become.

9 Do it! Manage your cashflow

Manage your finances as if your business life depended on it – because it does. Cashflow problems are a serious threat to all businesses. Ask yourself:

• Do the books balance?

• Are invoices going out promptly?

• Have I factored in all the bills that have to be paid?

• Have I taken account of seasonal variations?

• Am I keeping track of the paperwork and thinking far enough ahead?

10 Do it! Ditch the excuses

Many people talk about their dreams instead of taking action. Ideas lose their momentum while we procrastinate. Ask yourself what first step will take you closer to reaching your goal – and Do it! today.

Georgie Cooper started her business: Pretaportobello due to her love of creative fashion.  She is now an Ambassador for Start-Up Loans along with 11 other young entrepreneurs. Here is Georgie’s Start-Up journey:

What Makes Your Business Unique?

In 2008, Georgie Cooper founded pretaportobello.com, the fashion markets online, promoting and selling clothing and accessories from new, undiscovered design talent with origins at the world famous Portobello, and other fashion markets such as Spitalfields, Camden and Brick Lane.

The website enables customers from all over the world to shop at the market, any time, any day of the week and have purchases delivered straight to their door.
Competition in the online fashion space is really fierce, there’s the established names doing tremendously well plus, as the barriers to entry are so low, there are lots of new entrants selling cheap imports from China.

We feel we are different to the other online boutiques out there, so have more of a niche position – we’re not an online boutique, we’re the markets online. When we set up the company, there was a real gap in the market, there genuinely wasn’t anyone out there providing an online link to these fantastic physical fashion hubs… and so we decided to.

Like these markets, pretaportobello.com also sells vintage clothing and accessories. We recently launched our HaggleTM functionality so we’re now the first website in the world that lets customers interactively barter with the virtual market trader to get instant discounts.

To start a business you need a great idea. You need to fill a gap in the market, or meet a need that is not being met. That’s why pretaportobello.com received such a great response. Everyone loves shopping for fashion at London’s Markets, but pretaportobello was the first to put the market traders’ products online.

Entrepreneurs should note, though… a business idea doesn’t have to be totally unique, it could simply be that your idea can improve upon an existing business model, or serve the market better, more cheaply or in a different way.

Please Tell Us About Your Background

I am 28 years old. I left Bournemouth University with a degree in Fashion Design. I had various internships at fashion houses such as Emma Cook, Betty Jackson and Richard Nicoll, which, although great experiences were unfulfilling. Although I loved the creativity of design, I wasn’t sure if this was my calling.

So, instead of continuing along that path, I decided to turn what I already liked doing (shopping at London’s markets for new design talent and vintage finds) into a viable online business.

I left university in 2007 with a fashion degree and a pitiful bank balance so would often visit Portobello market with my sisters to hunt for bargains. We would always get comments on our Portobello finds – and requests from friends to buy things for them when they couldn’t get to the market themselves.

The majority of designers there did not sell online, so the only way to get their products was to physically visit the market.

What Has Been Your Proudest Moment In Business So Far?

Pretaportobello is an award winning company, but my proudest moment so far would be launching HaggleTM . It’s a totally groundbreaking functionality that changes the way people can shop online.

Rather than shop with standard discounts, our site lets customers Haggle for discounts off the set price of an item….and how well they Haggle dictates how big the discount is!

To be the first website to offer this sort of e-shopping, taking the lead over the big internet retailers worldwide is quite an achievement.

And The Hardest Moment?

Too many to mention! We’ve made many mistakes along the way which have been a real hit to the company. But we’ve had to learn fast and get back up…and avoid making them again.

After graduating, the ‘sensible’ thing would have been to go and find a job for a bit of security. That’s what all my friends did, and now they can enjoy their 9 to 5 jobs, free evenings, weekends off and paid holidays. I don’t have that luxury!!

It’s true, if you start up your own company you have to be prepared to give up a lot to establish your company and make it grow. My social life has taken a hit, I’ve invested all my time and money, and I live off a nominal salary (everything goes back into the business), working long hard hours.

Real holidays are no more – even when I’m away from the office, I’m working. But before, we get the violins out, I can honestly say that it’s all worth it.

I am immensely proud of pretaportobello, and the recognition it has received so far and the fact that despite the UK economic downturn, we’re still here competing with the big boys!

Have You Adapted Your Business Model To Cope With The Economic Downturn?

Starting a business, especially during a recession means it’s important to keep a hold on your costs. We didn’t have a lot of money to spend so everything was done on a shoestring – where we could save money, we did and we called in favours from EVERYONE we knew.

This hasn’t changed; in fact we’re more aware of keeping our costs down than we ever were.

I did (and still do) all the design and illustrations and I design all branding and marketing collateral. My sisters (who were avid internet shoppers) worked on the website layout, navigation and shopping process.

We’ve been conscious not to grow the business too fast, so our cost base becomes unmanageable and as such, we’ve outsourced a lot of our business functions to avoid full time personnel until things stabilise

Times are still tough, people are thinking twice before they purchase, so we need to work hard to convince them to spend their money with us. The way to do this is by ensuring our product is good, our prices are attractive and we get our name out there.

What Advice Would You Give To A Budding Entrepreneur?

I get asked a lot about the criteria to be an entrepreneur – I think you need drive, stamina and confidence in yourself and your idea. If you’re starting up yourself, most likely you will be making up a lot of the rules as you go along.

Bear in mind that you still need to have a clear strategy and direction for your company, and don’t allow yourself to get sidetracked. Most importantly, you need to be prepared for the hard slog.

Not everyone wants to be fully responsible for their career or livelihood, and prefer to have a more stable job. Stability is one thing I do envy, but for me the freedom and excitement more than makes up for that.

My key bit of advice to anyone wanting to start up their own business is ‘do your research and build a plan’. In doing so, talk to as many people as you can – don’t underestimate the benefit of a business mentor to guide you through your entrepreneurial journey.

That’s why the new government-backed initiative, StartUp Loans is critical for budding entrepreneurs. Not only do they lend up to £2,500 to young people wanting to start a business, but they provide mentoring and advice from people who have launched their own businesses, been there and got the T-shirt.

I’m one of twelve young ambassadors for StartUp Loans, all of whom have started their own companies across a wide range of industries, here to give support to those that need it.

Visit www.facebook.com/StartUpLoansUK for more information.

Identify a need or a want; find a way to fulfil it and you have the kernel of an idea for a sound business. But only consider developing the idea further if you feel passionate about the idea.

I have been asked to get involved with setting up many excellent business opportunities over the years – but I know that I could only remain enthusiastic if the whole concept fired me with enthusiasm. There is little point in buying a tool-hire franchise if the thought of doing DIY leaves you cold; or opening a florist if you are allergic to pollen.

Many ideas are good ideas. Whether or not they turn out to be successful depends on your passion for the concept, your belief in yourself, and the steps you put in place to plan your business journey in advance.

Setting up a new business is like planning an adventure holiday, with finite time and resources. To get the most out of your journey you will budget for your costs; your choice of route will match the time you have available; and your choice of activity will depend upon your interests, skills and passions. If you want to embark on something that needs specialist expertise, you will make sure you are trained or supported by those who know what you are doing.

Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro might seem a good idea: but it is only a good idea if you take people with you who know the way and have reached the summit before. It becomes a very bad idea, liable to end in failure (or worse) if you attempt it solo, especially if you have no experience of the climatic conditions.

It is wise to make sure you have taken good advice before you spend a single coin of your money – or an investor’s money. Whether you are a sole trader, a limited company or a partnership, there are certain business essentials to be stamped in your passport before you enter new territory:

Having belief in your idea

Whatever led you to your business idea, your chances of success will increase many times over if you have genuine belief in your idea and a passion for your business plan.

• Self-belief: Belief is what keeps you going when others knock you back; it’s what helps keep you going when you are tired; it’s what helps you to overcome unexpected obstacles and to see challenges as surmountable rather than a reason to quit.

• Plan ahead: Having a strong belief that something can work is not the same as blind optimism or letting your heart rule your head. Pour your belief into the practical structure of a business plan: stating your objectives, your financial plan and including a strategy and a timeframe for achieving your goals.

• Take good advice: Share the information with a business expert: such as your accountant or a business mentor – so that you have objective advice. Once the plan is realistic and healthy in its aims, it will become your anchor: your benchmark for testing whether something is right or wrong for your business strategy.

• Commit to your plan. The plan is an active document that will keep you on track and prevent you from spending too much money upfront on non-essentials, choosing a poor location, or changing direction in a way that is incongruent with your core idea.

• Manage your cash-flow: Money is important in business. You need to manage your finances as is if your life depended on it – because it does. If you are unfamiliar with how a profit and loss sheet works; or you find yourself procrastinating rather than monitoring your cash flow on a regular basis. Hire. Help. Now. Cash-flow problems are a serious threat to businesses of any size: especially during the start-up phase.

• ‘Get real’ about your strengths and weaknesses so that you plan, prepare and put things right before you get started. Knowing where your weak spots lie and seeking professional expertise to balance your skills, will put you in a position of strength.

• Be an expert. Don’t be tempted to set up in business in an area you know nothing about. Refurbishing your own home doesn’t give you the skills to be a property developer. Knowing all the best beers won’t help you to run a country pub.

• Test the market: Never make assumptions about your market, your competitors, or pricing.

Testing the market

Just as wise travellers will ensure they have been inoculated against potentially fatal diseases before they leave home; so too it is important to test your idea and plan ahead for important contingencies: to protect your future business health and give your good idea the best chance of start-up success.

In the musical, Oliver, a rose seller sings as she walks along a London street to sell her wares: “Who will buy my sweet red roses? Two for a penny.” Does she know what her customer needs? Yes: good value for money. Does she know what her customer wants? Yes she does. No-one needs roses for survival – but many people want them and love to receive them; even today they are one of the most popular flowers. Her customers decide that they need their beauty and scent and all that they represent; which is why roses are the only option in her basket. The good value just helps to seal the deal.

Asking yourself key questions about the market for your product or service is useful. Asking potential customers the same questions, and assessing what the competition is doing, is even better – because it will help to build a clearer picture and help you to avoid making expensive assumptions in your business plan. Ask yourself and others:

• Who will buy your product or service?

• At what price will they buy it?

• How will they buy it? (Online, in-store, mail order etc)

• How often will they buy it?

• Who else can they buy it from?

• Where can they get it cheaper?

• What else will they buy?

If you are a retailer:

• What is the average spend that you will need per customer?

• What is the average daily footfall in your location?

• Do the potential customers match your customer profile?

Knowing how many customers you need, on a daily, weekly, monthly basis – in order to make the business profitable – is essential. A common mistake is to over-estimate the number of clients, projects or footfall that you will experience in the first year of trading: or to invest in premises before you really need them. Testing the market before you begin will help you to make adjustments along the way. A useful strategy is to start (very) small and grow gradually. Many a successful start-up has begun at home.

Doing a value check

The early stages of starting up a business are full of excitement and potential. You may feel energised and possibly anxious in equal measure. You are likely to have high expectations for the future. This is also the stage at which you are most vulnerable and liable to make expensive mistakes.

• Doing a value check in the form of a SWOT analysis is a useful way to take stock of the Strengths and Weaknesses of your business idea; the Opportunities to improve and hone it, and the Threats to its success and survival.

• Check that your price point is aligned with your level of service and the quality of your product. If you are focusing on mass market sales of low price items, keep your customer service polite, but fast moving. If you are selling a specialist service to a niche market, you need to provide excellent client care. You will have fewer customers than a mass market business – but the ones you have will want to feel cared for and remembered. It is vital for repeat business.

Whatever your business model – it is important to know what differentiates you from your competitors. Your USP (your Unique Selling Point) will get you noticed. It will set you apart and ensure you are remembered. If you create something so essential or desirable that everyone wants it – they will find a reason to need it too.