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Preparation Is Key to a Successful Start-Up Business
Written by: Ellisa BrennemanArticle Overview: Most new small business owners and entrepreneurs discover that getting starting is often the most difficult task. Inundated with often contradictory advice from the internet or friend and family they’re left more confused and frustrated than ever.
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Free Download - Part 4: Turning Complaints Into Growth Opportunities By Ellisa Brenneman |
Preparation Is Key to a Successful Start-Up Business
There are many questions that entrepreneurs have when starting their own business. Some of these questions involve capital raising, some involve start-up costs and some just involve naming the company. Taking on any new project can be daunting, but keeping all of your questions organized and concise is the first step towards laying the groundwork and properly getting started.
Let's say that you're planning on starting your own graphic design team. You're an artist, but you work for a local restaurant as your day job. You notice that the restaurant has a very diverse dessert menu and it is not advertising this to the fullest extent. You decide to propose a pitch to your employers about such a project.
What is the first step? Obviously, you've noticed the opportunity and are acting upon it by seeing a need that your skill set can fill. After crafting a simple presentation and successfully pitching it, you've sold, essentially your first client on your work. Now what? The first step is not letting this idea go to your head. You got a break and you can parlay this into success if you're able to be tactical about it.
Develop a strategy. How long did this project take you? How much did you sell it for? What about the pitch went well? What could you work on for next time? If this was to be a business, what would be the start-up expenses involved? Do you really need a staff or could you do this with minimum overhead? Do you want to start a business or just continue as an independent contractor? There are a lot of questions to be answered and you've never done this before. Where do you turn for assistance?
It pays to look for experts for advice in this sort of planning. Do you know anyone who has worked in this industry before? Do you have anyone that can help in the basic planning and building of such a business? What's the best way to start and what are the steps you should to playing it smart?
The best solution is to find a mentor and business coach who can provide objective guidance based upon their past experiences and who has your best interests in mind. The lessons learned can be quite valuable saving you time and valuable financial resources in the process too. They will act as your guide as you hike the mountain of success.
There are many different ways to approach all of these questions. Some are avenues that can be taken by just making some notes and investigating. Pursuing the services of a firm that has experience answering these questions and consulting with a variety business segments can be the first step towards getting your business started right. Food for thought as you start your journey towards entrepreneurship.
Passive-Aggressive Behavior Is Useless In A Startup
StartUp Costs
Five Steps to Startup Success
Finance Start-Up
Fantastic Post By Calacanis On How To Get PR
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About the Author: Ellisa Brenneman RSS for Ellisa's articles - Visit Ellisa's website  Ellisa Brenneman started her career, after receiving her Bachelor Degree from the University of British Columbia, with the Canadian government merging academic rigor and business savvy to produce and disseminate research findings. She has been published multiple times in scientific journals for her research findings. A born entrepreneur; her zeal for entrepreneurism soon took hold. She's started green businesses and has vast experience managing public, media and investor relations for small-cap public companies. Ellisa is the President of Ethos 360. Ethos 360 provides entrepreneurs with affordable one-on-one coaching, business growth consulting, custom business plan writing, branding and capital raising services so they can launch and grow their businesses. Visit www.Ethos360.com for additional information, email info@Ethos360.com or phone 503-501-2444 to schedule a free consultation. Click here to visit Ellisa's website   Memorandum Template 1 Memorandum Template 2 |
Related Forum Posts
Books for Women Entrepreneurs
- There's a thread for good books in the Resources folder, but it doesn't target books for businesswomen particularly, so I figured I'd start such a thread here.
It doesn't matter how successful you are in your business - it's always possible to learn something new.
In subsequent posts I give Table of Contents and brief descriptions for various titles - most of them devoted to the businesswoman - and sometimes a review. If anyone else has read a review, or has read the book and found it useful, please comment!
1. The Old Girl's Network
2. Mother's Work
3. The 7 Greatest Truths About Successful Women
4. Pitch Like A Girl
5. Workplace Warrior
6. Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the Modern Consumer
7. Contingency Planning & Disaster Recovery
8. She Wins, You Win
9. Napoleon On Project Management
10. Why Good Girls Dont' Get Ahead, But Gutsy Girls Do
11. Comeback Moms: How to Leave Work, Raise Children, and Restart your Career even If you Haven't Had a Job in Years
12. The One Minute Millionaire
13. Talking From 9 to 5
14. Soloing: Realizing Your Life's Ambitions
15. 101 Best Home Based Businesses for Women: Everything You Need to Know About Getting Started on the Road To Success
16. Work With Passion: How to Do What You Love for a Living. Revised and Expanded
17. Fail-Proof Your Business: Beat the Odds and be Successful
18. Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End
19. Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide
20. Millionaire Women Next Door: The Many Journeys of Successful American Businesswomen
21. Start Small, Finish Big: Fifteen Key Lessons to Start - and Run - Your Own Successful Business
22. Rewired, Rehired or Retired: A Global Guide for the Experienced Worker
23. The Martha Rules: 10 essentials for achieving success as you start, build or manage a business
24. The Essentials of Entrepreneurship: What it takes to create Successful Enterprises
25. Net Ready: Strategies for Success in the E-conomy
26. The Promotable Woman
27. Leave The Office Earlier: The Productivity Pro shows you how to do more in less time and feel great about it
28. The Work At Home Balancing Act: The professional resource guide for managing yourself, your work, and your family at home
29. Secrets of Six-Figure Women
My entry
- 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read
- this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody.
2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto.
3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book
Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Re: What's 1 word to describe what your business will be in 2012
- Successful.
Contingency Planning and Disaster Recovery: A Small Business
- Contingency Planning and Disaster Recovery: A Small Business Guide
Donna R. Childs, Stefan Dietrich
2002
"Among the countless tragic lessons of 9/11, an overlooked but important discovery was the lack of preparedness among small and midsized businesses for responding to disaster. While most of the media attention was naturally devoted to...., the very existence of thousands of small businesses was determined by whether or not they had adequate insurance, sufficient technological support, and viable disaster contingency plans."
(People who live in hurricane prone areas need this as well...and who knows when a fire might not strike...)
Table of Contents
1. Preparation
2. Response
3. Recovery
4. SAmple IT Solutions
Basic safety practices
Okay, the TOC isn't [i:2fu76idt]too [/i:2fu76idt]helpful, but there's lots of valuable info in this book, as to ensure that [i:2fu76idt]your [/i:2fu76idt]losses won't be catastrophic. How people cope with suddenly seeing their homes and all their possessions gone, what kinds of insurance to get, etc. etc.
Exclusive: Interview with Results
- Hi Forum Members,
I'm helping start up a Business Coaching and Consulting company here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a Subsidiary of RSC Business in Los Angeles).
As a Research and Development Intern I am required to practice my listening and interview skills by surveying Small and Medium Businesses on thier Business.
This Survey is designed by RSC Business to also assist the Business being interviewed more insight into their own business.
I am looking to interview about 30 businesses across North America over the span of 3 months.
At the end of these interviews I will be publishing a report of the results and they will be made available for free to the Interviewees. The Report data will include responses from a minimum of 100 interviews.
I would like to extend this opportunity to members of the Forum.
If you would like to have this short 20-30 minute interview conducted on your Business and you reside in North America please send me an email or PM.
Please contact me at andy[at]jvprosperity[dot]com to arrange our interview and to get free access to the results when they are published.
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