Establishing and managing a small business

I often see emails from readers asking for advice on establishing and managing a small business. Although the whole of the Management Skills Courses site is focused on advice for business, I do appreciate that starting a small business is a very different proposition from being part of a large corporation. I have done both, so…

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Establishing a Small Business – The things no one tells you

In the last session, I gave you some statistics about small business failure rates. There will be different rates in different countries, and in different sectors, but clearly survival is not a given. What I want to do here is offer some advice that will lengthen the odds in your favour if you are thinking…

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Financing a Small Business

Many readers write to me to say it is very difficult for them to get funding to start a business in their country. Breaking news: it’s very difficult to get funding to start a business in any country. Investors are usually savvy people, that’s how they got the money to invest in the first place!!…

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Business Failure

Keep overheads low – This is one of the most important rules to follow for most small businesses. Unless you are a Silicon Valley start-up, with masses of funding, money will be tight at first. Most entrepreneurs put their life on the line here -investing in themselves, by using credit cards, or their homes as…

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Cost of professionals

Unless you are operating from your home, with no premises and no staff, you will need to engage some professional services, and these all come with a cost attached. As soon as you are dealing with clients and or have an office, you may need advice, expertise and support from a range of people including;…

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Free advice and mentoring

Cash, as we know, is King. And you may not have spare money for professional advice, or not as much as you would like. There are many organisations that will offer help and advice to small businesses. Again, this will vary from region to region. Places to look for will include; – Chambers of Commerce…

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Staff or contractors?

There is a significant amount of interest in this topic at the moment, in the UK at least. This is because the “gig “economy, as it I known, is very much in the news, along with zero hours contracts. Companies such as Uber and Deliveroo have been pilloried for not employing their workers, choosing instead…

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Preventing Business Failure

We have already looked at the figures and know that there is a high failure rate for new businesses. Let’s take a look at what sets a successful business apart from the failures. We have dealt with all of these issues at length in other modules, so I will just summarise here. The right business…

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Managing a Small Business Quiz

This quiz is designed to test your knowledge of the contents of the Managing a Small Business Course, part of the Management Skills series of courses. These quizzes are designed to improve your Management and Business skills. There are ten questions some of which are “tick all that apply “, and others are True/False. You…

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