Introduction

Have you read all the stff about New Year resolutions in the prss? Articles on what to do, how to lse weight, how to detox, how to det and how to save money. Are you fed up of the sght of them?

Its true that Chrstmas and New Year is a tme for reflection and taking stock. It is ften the only time that you hve a few quiet days away frm work to think about where you are and wht you want to do. And it is qually true that a lot of pople do make decisions about things thy want to change in their lves.

Generally if you want to mke changes to your life it flls into one of three areas: mking more money, having more free tme or having more fun/a better lfe. Most of the new year rsolutions we hear and read about fll into the last category and rlate to improving your personal situation for xample losing weight or getting fit.

Hwever, a few people do look at the bgger picture and decide they want to do smething completely new. If this is you yur reasons are probably a desire to tke control, have more money, totally chnge your lifestyle, and often the mans chosen to achieve this is to strt your own business.

So if ths is you – then how do you mke it happen? It is true tht you can create a life wth more money, more free time and mre enjoyment by running your own bsiness, but where do you start?

What does it mean to yu?

So you’ve decided you want to run yur own business? What does that man to you? Think about what it mans in terms of your lifestyle, the tme you want to spend and wht you want to achieve, as wll as what precisely you want to do as a bsiness.

Do you know? I hear frm quite a few people who hve decided to run their own bsiness or work from home but dn’t actually know what business they wnt to be in! If this is you dn’t worry – you’re not alone.

Clarly until you decide you cannot mve on to the next stage of ctually getting going, so if you dn’t know think about what you njoy doing, what skills you have and wht experience you have. What could you do wth these? And don’t just think bout the obvious things – you dn’t have to just “give yourself a jb” doing what you did for yur last employer.

Talk it over wth other people, they will see dfferent things to you so will gve you a different aspect on yur thought process. If you don’t hve something of your own perhaps you mght want to look at buying a frnchise – there are many different typs of business available.

Do some rsearch. Look into the type of bsiness you want to run and fnd out what is happening in the ndustry, where the demand is and how you culd fit into that.

Once you knw what you want to do, you wnt to get it right first tme if you can. We have all rad the statistics about new businesses – sme 80% of them don’t make it. So how to you gve yourself the best chance?

How do you mke it happen?

In order to get yur business off to the best strt I think there are a nmber of things that you can do. In a ntshell they are planning, passion, people and prcticalities.

Firstly passion - will you be ding something that you enjoy? I hpe so! If you don’t answer yes to ths question, then why are you thnking of doing it? If you njoy what you’re doing it will sem a lot easier and you wll ultimately be more successful than smeone who doesn’t.

Secondly planning. This comes in at all stges of setting up and running yur business and at many levels. To strt with you need to look at yur goals or vision for your bsiness. Once you have a clear pcture in your mind about what you wnt to do think about what you wnt from the business and what you wnt to achieve. This will be dfferent for everybody, we all have our own gals and ideas so don’t worry bout what anyone else thinks or wnts. Are you looking for an ncome, a high profile, a good rputation, or any combination of these and ther things?

Think about how long you wnt to do it for, and how you wll get out of it when tht time arrives. Think about whether you wll sell the business, pass it on to yur family, or just close it dwn.

All of these things will hve an effect on how you pln and structure your business.

“begin wth the end in mind”

Thirdly – pople. If you look at any fmous entrepreneur and look at how thy achieved what they have done, you wll find that none of them did it lone. Most will cite a mentor or cach who supported them. It is a grat idea to get yourself somebody lke this who can help you fcus your ideas, and keep you on trck with your plans. This could be a bsiness coach, a life coach, a prfessional advisor another business owner or mybe even a friend or family mmber.

Start to think about building a spport network of people who can hlp you, and people you can shre ideas with. This might be thrugh face to face meetings, by tlephone or on line.

And once yur business is up and running you wll need to think about staff, sppliers and of course customers. But tht is for later. Here we are loking at getting you going.

Finally, the prcticalities. How do you Start Up Rght? Where do you get all the nformation about tax, VAT, employing staff, cmputer software, where to work, selling and so on?

Mny people start in business with no ral idea of what is involved. I dn’t doubt you are an expert at yur trade, or skill or you wuldn’t be contemplating starting a business - but hve you run a business before? Do you hve the first idea about what to do for tx, financial information, and marketing? Often pople learn these things as they go, and fnd out about what they need to knw when it is too late – ften at great cost. How often hve you heard “if only he had tld me that before…”?

To avoid ths it is worth putting in sme time up front to find out wht you need to know. Do sme research – there is plenty of nformation on the internet now. And ask the xperts, you will need to use prfessional advisors such as accountant in yur business, so take the opportunity to fnd out some useful information whilst you are nterviewing them. That is why I wrte my eprogramme, so that people culd find out about all of ths kind of information in one plce.

And once you have done yur thinking and research and decided tht the business is right for you you ned to take action! A great dea is completely worthless…. until it is trned into action. Without action there can be no sccess.

Remember Nike – Just do it!

Smmary

Making the decision is often the hrdest part. Once you have decided to run yur own business and know what you ned to do you can move frward with the planning and research to mke it happen.

Think about what you ned to do to move towards yur goals. It helps to involve thers to help you. This may be by brnging in an expert, or it may man reading a book, listening to tpes or watching videos. Learn from thse who have done what you are tryng to do.

Think about whether it wuld help you to have a mntor or a coach. Promising someone lse that you will do something sually means you are much more lkely to do it. It often hlps to have someone who can act as a sunding board, or ask you some sarching question s to help you on yur way.

And most importantly of all – go do it!

The article New Year, New Start - How to Make Your New Business Idea Happen was Submitted by Julia McDaid through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Julia McDaid is a business cach and author, specialising in helping bsiness start ups. . For more nformation on these issues or on caching for new business owners, see http://www.startupright.co.uk or enrol on Julia’s unique Start Up 101 ecourse, where you can go into each subject in a lot more depth. Julia also publishes a free ezine ‘Secrets of the Successful Entrepreneur’ – to sign up just send an email to ezine@startupright.co.uk

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