Starting a business
Making an informed decision is by far the best option

The true reality is that many people start their own business because they are “forced” to, they have come out of employment and it seems the only option. It goes without saying that this is the worst reason to start up a business.

There are such a wide set of skills and circumstances required to starting a business and everyone will need advice.

• Leadership skills – not forgetting that leadership is very different from management and leading a small business start up team requires a different leadership style than managing large groups in corporate life.
• Strategic Business Planning Skills – not only does applying long term strategy setting enable you to look to the future, it is absolutely vital in making decisions at all stages and formulating your business start up ideas. If you don’t know where you are going, how do you make a decision?
• Marketing Skills – clearly not to be confused with sales skills, we would suggest that marketing is fundamentally about understanding your potential customer needs and responding to that. Without business start up advice many business fail simply because they understand their product but not what the marketplace is actually looking for.
• Sales and Customer Relationships – most people hate being sold to and the days of “features, advantages and benefits” selling have gone. Sales is a relationship and need based process.