First things first, never assume anything when trying to start a business.

A great idea is never a great idea if itis financially unviable irrespective of how much you personally like the product or service you are proposing to begin capitalizing from. There is no room for ego or opinion I'm afraid so let's start with step 1.

Step 1 - Do your homework!

Find out if enough people are going to be interested in purchasing your product or service before you spend a single penny more. A lot of people will put off doing market research because they feel it costs too much money or takes to much time to start a business.

When you consider how much time it takes to build a sustainable and profitable business and how much the setup costs and overheads could possibly be then it's honestly well worth the investment. Better to be safe than sorry after all.

Step 2 - Do your sums!

There's a lot of numbers to consider, but our advice from experience is to spend as much money as possible on all of the bits that the customers see, the shiny bits as we call them.

This is everything from uniform, literature, website, branding, shop front/interior if applicable to name a few. Whatever you do, don't underestimate this cost, if you have premises expect to spend a six-figure sum at least and even if the business does not require a premises as its an online business then a fully functional website that looks the business and can be found at the top of Google can easily be a very large five-figure sum with smaller five-figure monthly maintenance costs.

Then there's the cost of stock if needed, legal expenses and usually commitment for a number of months and years for various services to consider. You need to ensure that you can cover the cost of this in full even if the business never turns over a bean. Can you see why step 1 is so important now?

So can you start a business on a shoestring budget? Sure. We did it, but only after 10 years of previous experience running businesses in the same sector and let me tell you that even with that experience and plenty of previous success to draw from it took a LOT of hard work which leads me nicely onto step 3...

Step 3 - Brace yourself! This ain't easy!

Anyone that ever tells you that starting a business is easy is lying to you!

Anyone that ever tells you that they quit their 9-5 to start a business after spending just fifty quid setting it up and one month later they bought their first Porsche is also lying to you!

Sure if you have one million pounds to inject into a well thought out and researched (step 1) business it's probably going to start turning over big bucks from day 1, after all the old saying 'money makes money' is absolutely true.

My guess, however, is that if you're reading this then like most of us you haven't got all of that money in the bank to throw at your idea, so guess what this is going to take to start a business?

Hard work!

Lots of it and relentlessly for a very long time!

You'll be getting up at 5 am and not stopping work until 10 pm for years because if you don't your competition will!

If you're sat at your desk working for the boss, going through the motions each day and going home feeling tired and a bit stressed then please stop reading now because I can tell you categorically that this is not for you.

To start a business presents challenges that you can't even imagine. You have to be customer service, HR, production, sales, an accountant, a lawyer, the cleaner, admin assistant and chief tea maker all at the same time whilst trying to keep cash flowing in the right direction and keeping the dreaded HMRC happy.

Got a partner and/or kids? Cool me too, they are going to have to be very supportive indeed because you're not going to be home a lot and when you are you are going to be distracted, distant and stressed past the point where sanity ends.

Most businesses fail within 3 years and the reason is that people have hugely underestimated how much work, commitment and strength of character it requires.

I personally have totally thrown in the towel once and considered doing it at least a dozen times since but ultimately I make a terrible employee, I'm a born entrepreneur whether I like it or not so I always find myself back at it.

An example

Jack Cohen founded Tesco supermarkets back in 1931 and famously engraved the acronym YCDBSOYA on to the tie pin of each of his managers. This stands for You Can't Do Business Sat On Your Arse! Too true! Get out what you put in simple as that.

Step 4 - Start as you mean to go on!

I have heard so many people comment that they are going to start off with the basics and then grow from there and to some degree, I agree. There will also be some inevitable evolution of your business, think about Apple as an example. They started with a humble old iMac back in the day and have gradually diversified over the years to meet market demands and ever advanceing their technology until the present time iPhones and iPads etc.

However! In regard to their general pricing structure, their branding, their position in the market and crucially the consumer experience has remained barely unchanged. So my advice is to decide what message your company is trying to portray and the tone of voice it uses to speak to its target customers and set it in stone.

Cage in the heart of the business, the bits of that business that set it apart from others and refuse to move away from that mantra even as the product base, service grows bigger and stronger over time. Wondering why this is important? Brand recognition and brand perception are why.

Change the message or the image of the company significantly and you may as well go back and start a business from scratch. So a lot of time should be spent making this decision nice and early and it is vital that all partners agree from the outset. In short, identify your market and figure out how best to communicate with them, get this right and you're much more likely to succeed.

Step 5 - Bureaucracy when you start a business!

Yawn...This bit is the most boring and laborious process which most people are genuinely afraid of but to be honest break it down into chunks and it's not all that bad and most of it can be sorted online in no more than 20 minutes or so.

The total amount of this stuff that you will need to do when you start a business very much depends on the type of business you are starting but here are the basics. First things first you need to name your company and get it registered on companies house, assuming you are going to be limited then you will need to do this first as you will need the registered company number in order to open a business account which incidentally is the second step. Who you go to is up to you but be aware that this is a frustrating process usually with a hundred questions to answer so get on this nice and early.

When we originally set up Train Learn Go it took an almost ridiculous 8 weeks to get a business bank account opened! We nearly had customers on the books and nowhere for them to pay us, not ideal.

Transfer the money

Then you transfer your working capital from your own personal account into the business account. This payment from you to your business is called a Directors Loan which your company has to pay back to you once it is in a position to do so.

Once this is done the spending begins. Buy all the stuff you need to buy for your business from your business account and I do mean everything! From Business cards, stock and legal fees to utilities and shop refits. Once there is something for the customer to see, usually either a website or a shop front you move on to step 6...

Step 6 - Marketing!

Set aside a decent budget for this as otherwise how else do you expect customers to find you?

You can't complain that you haven't made any money when you have essentially done nothing apart from start a business. If budgets are low then you are pounding the streets delivering flyers morning till night and attending networking events.

When it comes to social media and Google Adwords everyone will claim to be a guru but the truth is that the only people that really know how this works are Facebook and Google and all the other similar platforms.

Make use of mentoring

However, here's the good news they pretty much all offer totally free mentoring where they learn about your business and teach you how to use their tools to your advantage. Free and totally current with their development so rather than some of your vital budget going to someone who probably couldn't care less about whether you make any money or not, do your research, book in for the free mentoring and start learning how to do this yourself. After all, if you did Step 2 correctly then you will have already spent money on sexy design work to use for such adverts anyway so it is literally a case of learning how to use software and how to place your budget.

Remember step 3 when I said you have to be everything the business needs? This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Step 7 - Open the doors!

Everything looks brand new and exciting, the marketing is out on time and you've got your uniform on, so now you throw open the doors (either literally or figuratively) and officially start trading.

Whatever your reason to start a business, you need to own it! You need to focus on your skill or product and perfect it over time. Learn everything there is to know about it and become a true expert because the chances are that you are not a pioneer and you are doing something that other people are already doing so don't get left behind. 'Anything you can do I can do better' needs to become your new mantra.

Listen to your customers, analyse sales and marketing data from your business and make real-time changes until you have the whole sales process and operations down to a fine art. You'll know when you're getting it right because your competition will start complaining that they are losing out to you, nothing like a bit of jealousy to put a smile on my face in the mornings.

Step 8 - Become really, really selfish!

There is no room for sentiment when you start a business, especially where terms, conditions and contracts are concerned. The fact is there really are no friends in business and a contract is a contract so don't let people walk all over you because let me tell you they wouldn't let you!

One favour here and another favour there can easily see you out of business. Would you not feed your family so someone else can feed there's? No, Of course not and this describes business perfectly.

If someone owes you money then regardless of the situation they are in they DO still owe you.

They are big boys and girls and they knew what they were signing so hold them to term. You will of had to sign various bits and pieces which I am sure you intend to honour so so should they, because if they don't honour their commitments then where is the money coming from for you to honour yours?

Stick to your guns

If you offer 30 days money back then stick to it, chase every invoice relentlessly, don't do discounts if that's your policy, don't offer credit or if you do then demand payment on time, if someone signs up to your service for a year and wants to stop after 4 months then tough!

I might sound like a grumpy old man (I'm 34 by the way) but I have had to learn this lesson the hard way a good few times so please learn from my mistakes and stand your ground!

I'm the nicest guy in the world to everyone I meet but I do expect people to pay what they owe and do what we agreed, I always do so, and so should they. Both you and your family will thank me for this approach in the end I promise.

Step 9 - Profit is not a dirty word!

Too true!

What would you consider to be a realistic living? We're not talking about being rich at this point but just a normal living? 30K per year? 40K per year? I would say that if someone is earning that kind of salary working for the boss then they are doing ok.

So in order for you to earn that kind of cash when you start a business then you need to turnover your core outgoings for the business plus at very least this amount on top right? Wrong!

Oh no, Taxes!

Unfortunately corporation tax is calculated at 20% of net profit so in very basic terms once your accountant has worked his magic and you hopefully have the 40k target left after all is said and done, the HMRC are going to want 8k of that thank you very much and if in order to achieve this number you happened to slip over the £82k VAT threshold then they are going to want a further 20% (minus offsets) of your turnover figure too. So in the worst case scenario is another 16k!

These are very basic numbers admittedly and very much worst case but you see my point? If you want a 40k salary in your own personal bank account then you need to of made an awful lot more than that in the first place. So next time you go in a shop and buy something and you think the item is a little bit expensive then maybe now you'll look at it in a different light especially if it is a smaller more independent establishment.

The moral of the story is to never be afraid to charge as much as you can for whatever it is you are offering. Do your market research and set your profits at a healthy level, your family depends on it and so does your business going into the future.

Step 10 - Enjoy yourself!

I have tried to be very honest in this blog, it's not all romance and fairy tales when you start a business, but sometimes it can be. You meet some incredible people, some inspirational people and learn a lot about yourself along the way. Get this recipe right and there is a lot of money to be made out there. Getting up in the morning will of never been so easy when you are doing something you love with nobody to answer to but yourself.

As time goes by...

Less and less time needs to be injected so the scales of work/life balance dip in favor of your personal life and you'll have the money to enjoy it too. Lots of people will tell you that you're crazy and you should give up blah blah blah...yawn. They can just see that you are on the brink of making it and are trying to hold you back.

You might lose some time with your loved ones at first but you'll more than make it back in the end. Keep your foot on the accelerator, let nothing and nobody stand in your path and fight your way to the top because let me tell you there is no richer taste than the taste of success!

You CAN do this!