Five Reasons Why 2012 Is A Good Year To Start A New Business

03. May 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: The Happy Entrepreneur · Tags: , , ,

It seems a long time now since anyone had a job for life. First of all there were job opportunities that tempted us away from the mundane and secure. Technology was going to save the world. Older entrepreneurs will remember the early 60s when there were actually programmes on TV which suggested ways we could amuse ourselves in our leisure time. The near future would involve a working week of four days at the most. The cost of living would be right down as electricity would be free, food inexpensive and our only worry would be what to do with our free time.

I’m not imagining it. I was there struggling with not much of a weekly income and two young children. I could hardly wait for the glorious future. Then it arrived and it turned out to be a great and expensive disaster.

Nuclear power wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Electricity got dearer. So did food.

Everything continues to go downhill on the jobs front. Full employment is a distant dream and people are wising up to the fact that keeping young people in full time education for longer and longer periods is a fancy device to keep down the unemployment figures. Now they can’t go any further with that idea. These highly educated university leavers are facing a jobless future burdened by debt.

So what’s the answer?

1.      Now that all public and private enterprises are having to make drastic cuts in their spending the only way you can be sure that you won’t be ‘let go’ (which is a polite way of saying ‘sacked’) is to become your own boss.

2.    When the country is in an economic downturn anyone wanting to establish a new business has to make sure that every penny that he or she can lay hands on counts. The new entrepreneur will maximise every opportunity. The result is that the business will have a far more stable foundation than those that were started hopefully and inefficiently by people who didn’t really understand business principles. In the past they borrowed money when they wanted to expand. The Banks were almost falling over themselves to lend you money. Building Societies were only too happy to increase mortgages along far too optimistic lines. Like a pack of cards business after business tumbled into insolvency when the good times came to an end. Businesses begun during a downturn are far more stable when Bank loans are rarer than hens’ teeth. The only way for a business started in a downturn to go is up.

3.     In the current economic conditions the new entrepreneur must start small. Each upward step can only be taken when it is financially wise to take it. Even a small, possibly only a one person business, can develop rapidly into a large and very successful concern when the economy improves. Weak businesses have gone to the wall. Businesses which have managed to survive have been struggling to keep up with the overheads the needed to keep going. Like recovering invalids, they are still weak and struggling but at least they are still there. If they have kept going during the down times they will flourish as things improve.

4.     Your business idea needn’t be earth shattering, brilliant or unique. All you need as to provide a service or information that people need and want. With imagination the most unlikely start can be built into a successful business. Was it Marks and Spencer that originated in a market stall? Tesco was a small shop. Steam engines started as an idea in someone’s kitchen. Cleaning companies, catering chains, delivery and courier services all started from an idea the someone thought of and developed.

5.     In times of national and global near recession Governments can’t give you much financially but they are desperate to give small businesses every opportunity to grow. They know that the private sector in the shape of new businesses are their only chance of recovery. They may need chivvying at times to persuade them to get rid of unnecessary red tape which sometimes takes effort. But don’t give up. You can do it.

Email your name and address to freedom@percydale.com to find out how Prospecting For Gold can help you along the path to success.

Stop Whinging, Get A Life And Start Living

25. April 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: The Happy Entrepreneur

If I hear one more whinge on TV I shall be very tempted to put it out to be recycled.

We, as a nation, have got so soft and mollycoddled that as soon as anything goes wrong we start to whinge and whine and demand that the Government ‘Do something about it’.

It’s about time people got real. There is a global economic downturn which is teetering into a recession at any moment so we all have to economise. So far everyone is agreed that there have to be drastic cuts – as long as they are made by someone else. Everyone thinks that their particular interest is too important and should be the exception that doesn’t suffer any cut backs.

No-one and nothing should be exempt. If we can’t afford it we can’t have it. It’s the only way we can get back on a sound economic footing and able to spend a bit more.

But what do you expect from a society that expects its young to stay in education for at least a third of its pre-pension life.
The young are full of energy and joie de vivre and should be out in the real world getting to grips with life. As it is the only excitement some of them can generate is through vandalism, gangs and bullying. If they were earning a living they wouldn’t have time for all that.
What’s all this got to do with being your own boss?

Until we expect our young and ourselves to take responsibility for our own lives we will only be living a half-life. When you are your own boss you have responsibility but the triumph and excitement you feel when you’ve cracked a problem and won through is exquisite.

So if times are tight get out there and start your own business and encourage your children to do the same instead of aiming at being wage slaves – no matter how well off that may make them.

It isn’t the easiest thing to do but everyone has some skill, knowledge or service that other people will pay for.

In the next few weeks I’m going to develop some ideas that should spur you to some sort of action.

They’re not get rich quick ideas but they can all be developed to any extent you want. Stay as a one person small business or go multinational. The choice is yours.

 

The Business Opportunity Blog (THE BOB for short!)

18. February 2012 · 6 comments · Categories: The Happy Entrepreneur

At present the Business Opportunity scene is expanding rapidly.

Seems like everyone is only a step away from becoming a millioionaire!

Fantastically successful marketers send out their promotions. It usually runs like –‘Ten years ago I owed thousands to the Bank, I couldn’t pay the mortgage so I lost my house, I had to make do with an old unreliable car and my wife left me.

Now I have a Swiss Bank account, a villa in Spain and I spend six months of the year in Bermuda. I drive a Ferrari when I’m not using the Porsche and I also have my own private plane.’

Of course we’re very happy for them. We’d love to believe the next bit.

‘I can show you how you can enjoy the same lifestyle. This time next year you could be buying your own million dollar home FOR CASH! If you buy my Business Opportunity for £99. ‘

They even offer you a guarantee that if you don’t think the package is any good you can send it back and get a complete refund.

It must be good, you tell yourself, or they wouldn’t offer the guarantee.

The people who make these claims are not lying. Their claims are true. They did get all the success they claim. And anyone could have the same success.

BUT -

Let’s look at the facts.

Marks and Spencers, Woolworths, Tescos, to mention just three large organisations, all started small as market stalls, cut price shops, etc. selling food products clothing or low cost items of all sorts. They all created millionaires.

But that doesn’t mean that everyone starting that way will be as successful! Anyone might – with hard work, good business brains, and an element of being in the right place at the right time – end up as a business tycoon with a large empire. Most people won’t.

Having said that, most entrepreneurs could get themselves a very respectable income.

When they promote the dream world of pie in the sky they show you where you hope to be but they don’t say very much about what you need to get there and just how difficult it was at the beginning. They aren’t trying to fool you. When you’re successful it’s easy to forget just how hard it was at the start.

So you’ll get suggestions for the promotional material and all the information about marketing that you need –

BUT

They don’t tell you how to get the number of customers you will need to sell to.

Only they don’t call them customers, they call them lists.

For example. If you have a gift shop and only a few people come in to look round you might not sell anything. If lots of people come in you will probably make quite a good living.

If you have a shop selling an essential such as food more visitors to your shop will buy from you. But you still need a lot of customers to make a lot of money.

If all this sounds like being a bath full of cold water being tipped on your hopes, fear not.!

The next instalment will start you off on the first rung of the ladder.