Welcome to the Knowledge Base
Frequently Asked Questions about Becoming Your Own Boss
You’ve Got Three Balls To Juggle
To start a business you have to answer three basic questions:
- Do I understand all the MECHANICS?
- Does my product or service have a MARKET?
- Is it right for ME?
Explore the articles below to help you answer these questions.
Print and read these briefing notes
These briefing notes may help you. They are not the whole thing but they will get you a long way towards it. Return to this page soon because I’m adding to it regularly.
Start with this one:
Mechanics
- Your First Decision
- Sole Trader or Limited Company?
- What Records Do I Need To Keep?
- Partnership or Not?
- Do I Need An Accountant?
- Do I Need A Business Bank Account?
- Should I Register For VAT?
- Understanding The Cash Funnel
- How Do I Raise Money?
- What Price Should I Charge?
- How Do I Work Out My Business Expenses?
- What Insurance Do I Need?
- Should I Buy A Company Car?
- What Will It Cost To Get Business
- How Do I Manage and Forecast Cash Flow?
- How Do I Pay A Dividend?
- How Do I Format My Invoices?
- How Do I Make Sure I Get Paid?
- How Do I Write A Business Plan?
- How Do I Write A Proposal
- Six Ways To Make More Money
- Do I Need A Website?
- Should I Buy A Franchise?
- Should I Employ Others?
- How Will IR35 Affect You?
- The Complete Red Stuff Checklist
Buy the book. Get these briefings in a nicely formatted PDF along with The Complete Red Stuff Checklist - a comprehensive action list and guide to making sure you have got all your mechanics in place. Accountants charge a fortune for this information.
Other - Mechanics
Marketing
- What Is A Hot Starving Crowd?
- How Do I Choose A Name?
- How Do I Tell People What I Do?
- How Do I Get More Ideas?
- How Do I Find My USP?
- How Do I Sell Services or Consultancy?
- What Makes A Good Business Card?
- How Do I Increase My Sales?
- What Questions Do I Need To Ask About My Website?
- How Do I Get Me And My Busines Online?
- How Do I Really Make Money Using The Internet?
- Download the Blue Stuff Checklist
Other - Marketing
Questions about marketing yourself? I recommend Robert Middleton at Action Plan Marketing
Me
- Is It Right For Me?
- Better Than Free
- 7 Tips For Startups In A Down Market
- 12 Reasons You SHOULDN’T Freelance
- Download the Black Stuff Checklist
Other - Me
If you’re visiting this page looking for specific answers to the puzzle of starting a business you are in the right place. Let me warn you though that there are some basic things you can do first to get a lot of this sorted out. You can, and should, read the articles on my blog. Join my mailing list if you haven’t already. Buy yourself a copy of The Red Stuff Handbook to get the Mechanics. Buy yourself a copy of Robert Middleton’s Info Guru Marketing Manual to give yourself a structured approach to finding customers. Then there are other places where you can get free advice and help - your local business link or their telephone helpline, Accounting Web is very good but can be confusing and LeaveThemInTheDust has lots of free, practical advice about gaining customers. And if you can’t find something you can always Mail me a question.
That’s a lot isn’t it? But it will probably get you 90% of what you are looking for.
Use A Checklist
Using a checklist to guide you can be a good idea. You can get one by joining my mailing list and on the BusinessLink website you will find a business start-up organiser so you can make one specific to your business. Between them, these two should cover most of the basics.
Knowledge Base articles elsewhere:
- Best place to go for this is the Links page where you‘ll find links to loads of useful information
- You should also visit the Downloads page where you‘ll find a lot of free articles, booklets and video
- There is a fantastic set of practical marketing advice at LeaveThemInTheDust by Paul Gorman
- Look through the blog of Robert Middleton for useful and free marketing advice, look for the blog link on his site
- Read Seth Godin’s blog an interesting and stimulating view on marketing online. I read this every day.
- Similar to Robert Middleton but with a more UK bias - Bernadette Doyle at ClientMagnets.com - lots of good articles on her blog.