header graphic

Andrew Halfacre

Welcome to the workshop support site

Hi, I'm Andrew Halfacre, owner of Lighthouse 365™ and I've spent the last five years showing people the quickest most practical and most useful things to do to start their own business.

There is loads of stuff out there and I've spent a lot of time sorting through to find what works and developing products, ideas and services to speed up the process.

I put this site together as a backup to the workshops but if you've stumbled across it then you're also very welcome to have a dig around. See below for How To Use This Site.

Research shows that there are three main things you need to have in place to start a business that works:

Red

You need to understand the mechanics of how it all works - tax, national insurance, expenses, VAT, whether to be a partnership, sole trader, limited company or one of the 4 other business structures you can use. I call this the "Red Stuff" - the lifeblood of any business.

The best guide to the red stuff is The Red Stuff Handbook. Read about it here.

Blue

You need to know how you are going to make sales - your customers, your product or service and how to bring the two together. I call this the "Blue Stuff" - the time you spend doing what you love and getting paid for it.

For blue stuff advice visit the Tools Page and the Knowledge Base

Black

And you need to know some things about yourself - have you got the DNA to start, pursue and run a business? It's very different to working for someone else and needs a different approach. I call this the "Black Stuff" - taking a step back from the mechanics and the day to day activity to take a helicopter view of you and where you are going.

Read the Knowledge Base article on becoming your own boss here.

Join the list

Name:
Email:

Not sure? Check the details here.

Coming To A Workshop?

Take a look at the workshop agenda. Read my briefing note on Becoming Your Own Boss.

How To Use This Site

Below you'll find a brief description of what's on the site and if you want to get started straightaway, please join the post-workshop mailing list using the box on your left. I will send you some free information and you'll get a series of regular Business Start-Up briefing notes twice a month with hints, tips, ideas, recommendations and reminders delivered direct to your e-mail inbox with no annoying advertising and at no charge. For more on what you actually get use this signup page instead.

Workshop Extras

Go here if you've been to a workshop. Describes the next 8 steps you should take.

Links

Go here for a comprehensive links page - insurance, intellectual property, raising money, list of networking groups and much, much more.

Free

Go here to get the free downloads, including electronic copies of the workshop handouts and many free .pdf's

Tools

This page features the best of the tools I've found so far for helping you to get your business off to the right start - some free and some for further investment. The Red Stuff Handbook, The InfoGuru Marketing Manual, The Website Toolkit and others.

Knowledge Base

Go to the Knowledge Base for a comprehensive series of articles and briefing notes covering the most Frequently Asked Questions about Starting Your Own Business.

Blog

Here you'll find photo's and video from the workshops plus a log of interesting business ideas and finds from the web. This is where I put all the lastest information.

Books

Well, books. Most business start-up books are a waste of your money. These are the ones that are worth investing in.

Map

Not surprisingly, a detailed site map.

Explore these suggestions from Google

Throughout the site you'll see these suggestions from Google who do a pretty good job of matching the information on the site. It's always worth seeing if there is anything useful here