The Small Business Start-Up Workbook: A step-by-step guide to starting the business you've dreamed of - Softcover

Rickman, Cheryl D.; Dame Anita Roddick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1845280385 ISBN 13: 9781845280383

Publisher: How To Books, 2005

Synopsis

This practical and comprehensive workbook is packed with real-life case studies and practical exercises, checklists and worksheets, it provides a step-by-step guide to researching and formulating your business ideas, planning the right marketing strategies, and managing a team that will drive your vision forward with you. You'll discover what, with hindsight, well-known entrepreneurs would have done differently, what their biggest mistakes have been and what they've learnt: Dame Anita Roddick, Julie Meyer, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Simon Woodroffe and others reveal their best and worst decisions and contribute their wisdom and tips for succeeding in business. You'll learn how to: develop, research and plan "the idea"; design and create the right products and services; define and understand your customers and target audience; secure finance and manage cash flow and accounts; create a winning brand and marketing message; gain and retain customers; achieve competitive advantage; plan, create, launch and promote your website; and manage your business and time. This fresh approach to small business start-up also includes information and recommendations on making your business ethical and socially responsible, along with exercises to help build self-confidence and visualize success.
Contents: Introduction; 1. Where to Begin - What's the Big Idead; 2. What to Do and Sell - Opportunities, Products and Services; 3. Who and Where? Researching Your Market, Target Audience and Opportunity; 4. Who Are You? Defining Your Brand; 5. How to Plot Your Findings and Map Out Your Future; 6. How Much? Figuring Out the Finance: Costs, Funding, Grants and Loans; 7. How to Sell - Marketing and Selling Your Products and Services; 8. How to Sell - The Importance of Good Customer Service; 9. How to Behave - The Case for Ethical Business and Social Responsibility; 10. Your Website - Planning and Creating a Website that Works; 11. Your Website - Launching and Promoting; 12. How to Manage And Grow - Tips from the Top; 13. Lessons from Leaders in Business; 14. The Ultimate Business Start-Up Checklist; 15. Uaseful Resources for Small Business Start-Ups;

About this title

About the Author

Cheryl D Rickman runs her own group of businesses with her partner James. The first company she started, WebCritique, a web copywriting and marketing consultancy, helps other businesses to improve their online presence and Cheryl provides workshops to local businesses on these issues. Her clients include AnitaRoddick.com, Business Link Wessex, Microsoft and Motorola.

From the Back Cover

In this practical and comprehensive workbook, Cheryl Rickman, offers a modern approach to self-employment and business start-up, with a Foreword written by Dame Anita Roddick.

Packed with real-life case studies and practical exercises; checklists and worksheets, this book provides a step-by-step guide to researching and formulating your business idea; planning the right marketing strategies; sourcing opportunities, markets and finance; and managing a team that will drive your vision forward with you.

You ll discover what well-known entrepreneurs would have done differently with hindsight, what their biggest mistakes have been and what they ve learnt, as Dame Anita Roddick, Julie Meyer, Stelios Haji-Ioannou and Simon Woodroffe (among others) reveal their best and worst decisions and contribute their wisdom and tips for succeeding in business.

You'll learn how to:
DEVELOP, RESEARCH AND PLAN 'THE IDEA'
DESIGN AND CREATE THE RIGHT PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
DEFINE AND UNDERSTAND YOUR CUSTOMERS AND TARGET AUDIENCE
SECURE FINANCE AND MANAGE CASH FLOW AND ACCOUNTS
CREATE A WINNING BRAND AND MARKETING MESSAGE
GAIN AND RETAIN CUSTOMERS
ACHIEVE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
PLAN, CREATE, LAUNCH AND PROMOTE YOUR WEBSITE
MANAGE YOUR BUSINESS AND TIME

This fresh approach to small business start-up also includes information and recommendations on making your business ethical and socially responsible, along with exercises to help build self-confidence and visualize success. All this fits snugly alongside the more traditional business start-up topics such as cash-flow management, competitor intelligence, and how to create a website that works.

From the Inside Flap

Foreword By Dame Anita Roddick

As the Founder of The Body Shop, I often get asked to talk about entrepreneurship even by hallowed institutions like Harvard and Stanford. It makes me smile that the Ivy League is so keen to learn how to be an entrepreneur, because I m not at all convinced it is a subject you can teach. How do you teach obsession, because more often than not it s obsession that drives an entrepreneur s vision? How do you learn to be an outsider, if you are not one already? Why would you march to a different drumbeat if you are instinctively part of the crowd?

One of the great challenges for entrepreneurs is to sit down, reflect and wait to collect information. We all suffer from hurry sickness. We have an abundance of energy and commitments. We can create something out of nothing, but we re not very good at organization and follow through. We are essentially outsiders and that is the best definition of an entrepreneur I have ever come across.

So here s my advice to all you budding entrepreneurs. Be optimistic. Successful entrepreneurs don t work within systems, they hate hierarchies and structures and try to destroy them. They have an inherent creativity and wildness that is very difficult to capture.

Finally, be passionate about ideas. Entrepreneurs want to create a livelihood from an idea that has obsessed them. Not necessarily a business, but a livelihood. Money will grease the wheels, but becoming a millionaire is not the aim of a true entrepreneur. In fact, most entrepreneurs I know don t give a damn about the accumulation of money. They are totally indifferent to it they don t know what they earn and they don t care. They don t care about the nameplate culture. What gets their juices going is seeing how far an idea can go.

So read this book, learn from other people s experiences, take note of all the helpful hints and tips to help you successfully launch your ideas. This book is to guide you through the transition of starting out on your own and you can use it as a handbook through every process.

Dame Anita Roddick

Edition details

• Publisher: How To Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1845280385
• ISBN 13: 9781845280383
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 288