A positive plan?

businessPlanning

I regularly write about how many people start the new year with a set of new goals, or resolutions. By the end of March many of these goals are a dim and distant memory.

The reason for this is that January is often not a very positive time of year. With its dark days and long nights, contrasting with the gaiety surrounding Christmas, January can also be the darkest month of the year physiologically. Not the time to create new plans and start to change your outlook.

Three months on it’s a completely different story.

The clocks have just changed so we have longer evenings. The sun is shining, the buds are appearing and the world seems fresh and new.

What a fab time to be thinking about the future.

In my opinion creative juices flow better when we have the opportunity to get out of our offices and enjoy the sunshine. We are more positive and open to opportunity. We are less likely to dismiss ideas out of hand or procrastinate.

Others must be thinking this too as over the last month or so four owners have come to me for assistance in putting together plans for their businesses. One is for a completely new business, but the other three are established businesses looking for a change in direction.

So if you need to change your business plan or set goals for yourself and your business, NOW IS THE TIME TO DO IT!

Fiona 🙂

Taking the plunge!

Jenny and Michael thumbs up

Small businesses are the mainstay of the UK economy. Forget the large companies – small businesses are where it is at!

The UK is a nation of entrepreneurs and we brits are great at taking the plunge into business ownership – whether it is a self employed professionals or as small business owners employing staff.

However, for many entrepreneurs taking the plunge is not the hardest part – it is running a successful company in the longer term that provides the stress.

The problem here is that the prospective entrepreneur has often not done their homework.

In particular:

  1. They have an idea they are sure is going to work, but have not done a full business plan to explore whether it can be converted into a successful business.
  2. They have not consulted appropriate professionals to ensure their company is set up in the best way.
  3. They don’t align their personal and business goals. They soon find their business running their lives rather than them running their businesses.
  4. They don’t finance their business sufficiently from the outset, which means they can never afford to do jobs properly. Marketing in particular often suffers in this scenario.
  5. Because they haven’t planned properly they don’t fully appreciate the risks involved in setting up their business until it is too late.

Starting your own business is a BIG step. If it fails you may not just lose your livelihood but also your house (and your family if you have had to work very long hours).

It makes sense to give your business the best possible chance of succeeding.

To help I have written a guide on starting your own business which can be downloaded for free from my website www.fionabevanfinancialmanagement.co.uk

I have tried to cover all the issues you will need to think about before taking the plunge as well as some of the things which might trip you up.

Enjoy!

Fiona 🙂