With Your Success in Mind

By Nathan Howard

120 pages of distilled wisdom from 35+ years of starting, managing and growing a number of successful businesses.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nathan Howard
• Release date: Apr 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005918880

Book preview

With Your Success in Mind

By Nathan Howard

Disclaimer and/or Legal Notices

The information presented herein represents the views of the author as of the date of publication. Because of the rate that conditions change, the author reserves the rights to alter or update his opinions based on new conditions.

The information within is not to be held as a source for legal, accounting, business, financial, investment, commercial or entrepreneurial advice and readers are encouraged to seek the services of competent professionals accordingly if that is their interest.

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informational storage or retrieval system without the express written, dated and signed permission from the author.

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment purposes only and may not be sold or given away to other people. If you wish to share this book with others, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are a recipient but it was not purchased for your specific use only, then please visit your favourite e-book retailer and purchase a personal copy. We must thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Nathan Howard

Foreword

This book is written in recognition of the many thousands of enterprising people of all ages and backgrounds, absolutely capable of being in charge of their own directions. It is hoped by producing answers to many unasked questions that have yet to be recognised and considered, that a little courage might be provided to those still holding back with a touch of self-doubt.

In the main, most people contemplating their first step into the world of self-employment will simply be looking to establish a firm and realistic grip on something they can call their own, with enough sound knowledge and available support to avoid the more usual pitfalls while developing their own methods, goals and income rate.

Accordingly, I’ve attempted to keep information down to the more valid ‘core levels’ so you won’t be swamped with information that’s either not yet relevant, or will be something that will develop later as a result of your increasing commercial experience. So, this book is intended to be useful to you now, relevant at this point in your career and not so technical in its detail that you become de-motivated or overloaded. It provides the core fundamentals in fairly easy steps.

So, unlike various other market offerings, you aren't expected to have a degree, take a crash-course in business management, produce accounts, calculate taxes or discover break-even point, as when these needs eventually arise, you'll find there are guides and experienced live support available to help you along. While I have made some references to such items wherever I felt they suited the narrative, you can safely ignore them all until you are up and running.

In the final reality, the essence of owning and managing your own business only requires that you fully commit to being the driving and deciding influence on its daily affairs, where in order to make sound decisions we will provide for you to have clear and current data available to work from At Your Own Pace. Ways to easily control the ‘initially new formalities’ will be provided, as will economical ways to have all your business record obligations produced for you.

These suggestions and systems are all drawn from my own experiences, where I also once began alone and ill prepared. My growth was costly. Yours I trust, will not be.

Understandably I doubt this book will be able to cover all possible permutations for every enterprise that can be conceived, but the core information and steps will certainly provide the fundamentals required to begin any process, as it offers guidance through the most important aspects of planning, establishment, cost-centres, setting up, location, asset-protection, fund-raising, employment, merchandising and generating cash-flow and income safely.

I personally wish you the greatest success in your new venture, as having taken these same steps several times over the last 35+ years I'm confident this information and guidance carries genuine value, as it comes from a pool of very real experience and personal motivation that to this day remains as strong as it ever was. Starting a business that’s your own creation is a real boost, that while somewhat demanding in the early stages, can become ever more absorbing and rewarding as time passes.

As you’ve just kicked off your own ambitions by obtaining this one Major Tool-Set to develop your new business skills, then you will soon know when you are ready to initiate your plans for your bright new future.

Know this: Your Attitude, more than your Aptitude, will largely determine your Altitude.

Nathan

Foreword

Copyright bjb2008-2022

Table of Contents

PART ONE - PERSONAL FOUNDATIONS

Chapter 1: Getting Your Thinking Right.

Chapter 2: Tools You Must Have.

Chapter 3: Prior Knowledge.

Chapter 4: The Psychology Of You In Business.

Chapter 5: Personal Discipline.

Chapter 6: Cementing The Dream.

PART TWO - THE FORMALITIES

Chapter 7: Raising Capital.

Chapter 8: The Paper-Trail.

Chapter 9: Accounts.

PART THREE - BUSINESS FOUNDATIONS

Chapter 10: Personal Asset Protection.

Chapter 11: Your Business Structure.

Chapter 12: Business And Asset Insurance.

Chapter 13: The Importance Of Location.

PART FOUR - GAINING BUSINESS

Chapter 14: Competition.

Chapter 15: Marketing And Promotion.

PART FIVE - THE KNOWLEDGE

Chapter 16: How To Cost Your Business.

Chapter 17: Setting Prices.

Chapter 18: Staff Selection And Employment.

PART SIX - EXPANDING YOUR GOALS

Chapter 19: Money For Growth.

Chapter 20: Partnerships.

Chapter 21: Buying An Existing Business.

PART SEVEN - AVOIDING DANGER

Chapter 22: Build One For Free / Own The Order.

Chapter 23: Why Some Work & Others Fail.

Chapter 24: What To Do If Thing Go Wrong.

Chapter 25: Ongoing Advice And Support.

PART EIGHT - GETTING HELP

Chapter 26: Network, Forum & RSS Feed.

Chapter 27: Conclusion & Summary.

PART ONE - PERSONAL FOUNDATIONS

Chapter 1: Getting Your Thinking Right.

I'm sure it's understood that once we reach the age of ‘self-support’; when we have to input some effort in order to gain funds with which to live; we are in fact all ‘self-employed’ in that we are ultimately in charge of our own efforts and hopefully we should be producing both our own income and a margin of benefit to the business we work within, regardless of who actually owns it.

Full Self Employment, in the sense of owning a business that is all yours, that you have to be responsible for and perhaps also for others and their income, is not for the indolent, greedy or input-free ‘dreamers’, but is more for those with a positive outlook, an ethical foundation and a focused ambition.

When you undertake to work for an employer, your contract is to earn your pay and costs and produce a profit, and if your work is supplied and managed properly this will be the desired outcome. This in return once guaranteed some security for your life plans, but in more recent years these exchanges have become ever less certain as market forces produce pressures to be more and more world competitive, regardless of international living standards, wages, tax disparities or various government adjustments or tariffs.

If you are the sort of person that diligently goes about their job with a pleasant disposition, and even if not particularly fond of your current work you still try to do to the best of your ability what you are being paid to do, then this book can become a starting point for a future able to reward you exceptionally well and more proportionate to your thinking and attitude than your personal labours.

Conversely, if you carry a resentment that your current employer reaps a profit from your efforts to which they ‘should not be entitled’, then you need to adjust your thinking, as at some stage in the planning of your own business you will be forced to recognise profit as not only an important growth tool, but as the only business sustaining tool finally available to your employer, and thus also to you.

Just to prove to yourself that it is your Mindset that will carry you through successfully, try this very small experiment for a day or two:

When you head into work tomorrow morning, I want you to think-as-if the entire business belongs to you. You own it. You love owning it. You live and breathe it entirely. What extra input today will make it even better? What could you change just a little that will produce an improvement somewhere…in effort, space, safety, quality, process time, output or sales?

If you can give your job just these few simple focused thoughts, I believe you will observe much more than you have seen before…in which case you might even realize just how easy it is to make something better. On top of that you will soon recognize that you really do ‘have what it takes’ to consider establishing a business of your own as it is an abundant positive attitude alone that ‘drives the machinery’ for a success story.

Personally, I've produced far greater profit for the companies I've worked for than I ever have in my own enterprises, and I always work as if a business is my own (working for others you don't have to run it all, so you gain the value benefit of just providing a single focus).

Once you do begin your own business, you will have to accept that it will not be good enough to think your staff should receive a pittance while the owner makes a fortune, and I hope by your continued reading you will come to appreciate the realities of staying in business today require that it will be your inherent attitude, motivation and fair play that will help you become the highly respected success you would aspire to, and cause you to become an effective leader of others with whom you can share a portion of their and your own efforts.

Failure, as a business leader, to provide others with adequate work, motivation and interest, so they can accomplish what they too need of life, will either give you a constant change of personnel or little to no profit, yet with a well-set plan and well established and structured contingencies managed by your constant attention, it is in the main but a simple step to develop confidence, enthusiasm and willingness within your co-workers (as that is what they are).

You will find that as you become more commercially experienced you will become more adept at ‘learning to teach’ others. Interestingly, by ‘learning to teach’ you will likewise be ‘teaching to learn’. By this I mean that as your skills at helping your staff and others becomes more enhanced, you will actually become more adept with your interests and in turn be more respected and relied on, such that questions incoming will further develop your knowledge base. Yes, you will have to think for everyone until you learn to train others.

As time passes and your business grows it will be ever more important for your continued commercial development that a major part of your time is given to draft records, forward plans and business sector management, where good earlier groundwork with your employees, who know that their own efforts are genuinely appreciated, will allow them to unlock the potential your dreams have identified. Your goals must become their goals and vice-versa. Keep the team motivated and rewarded is a great policy. In today’s world I can only recommend that your plans encompass regular ‘Productive’ meetings for staff input. This means the subject is ‘production’ and how can it be safely increased and improved. If you wish your staff to produce greater output you first have to work out HOW you plan to help them to achieve this increase and ‘what’s in it for them’ when they provide you with your increased output.

In some ways, owning your own business can be likened to buying a home; you pay the mortgage and interest for years and years and it is only when you sell that you gain the inflation profit and capital return and realise that for twenty-five years you have been under shelter for no cost at all and have held on to a great savings plan as you build a resounding asset of value.

In a business, if you work it correctly, you should build a viable asset as well as earning a nice living, be doing something you want to, manage your own hours and enjoy the challenges presented. If you can lift the aspirations of your employees along with your own, a true sense of personal satisfaction will be achieved along with far greater financial reward, and the comfort we all feel when we know we are genuinely functioning as a whole person.

It's been said that if you find a job you love to do, then you never need work another day of your life, because it becomes a pleasure.

While I can’t say that everybody should own their own business it is obvious that there is a far greater number that have the personality required to do so, but don’t yet have a firm grasp of where to start, what to do next, where to locate, how much to invest, where to gain funds, how to not lose and so on.

Having been through this same soul searching and hesitation quite often in my earlier days, and admitting that without expert help or a preparedness to learn through experience (a slow and wasteful process) the detail required to actually get going with any foreseeable hope can initially look quite daunting. However, there is help at hand, and more at this early stage than you might appreciate, as this book has been designed to give you every assistance at every level, I can think will be of value to you, and I and others will remain available as you learn and grow.

I’ll mention at this early stage that my own thinking has allowed me to help and motivate more than a dozen others into their own businesses. It is but a process and can be readily mastered with just a little attention to the details. Setting up your own business is relatively straight-forward, and my hope is that you will take this very exciting step, not only for the financial rewards but because I believe it to be a fundamental requirement of fulfilled human nature to chase your own dreams and uncover your own potential through enactment.

This needn't even be a daunting experience, but just a very simple process of supply and demand that takes some getting used to, and if by nature you are decent, honest (and attentive) and prepared to nurse your ‘new baby’ through its teething period, the impact this could have on your finances, emotions and personal confidence might astonish you and those around you.

My intention here is to map out core information accumulated over many years of focused commercial experience. These can help improve your chances to achieve commercial success from the current statistical 10-20% up closer to 80%. However, I must also admit that in my earlier years I followed none of the things I suggest here, as I wasn't only young and naïve but information of this nature wasn’t so readily available. I do know that a lot of opportunity passed by my door unseen, costing me dearly, but also providing a massive amount of information.

With my own ‘stick at it’ mentality and a stubborn refusal to acknowledge negative opinions or unsupported criticism I believed in myself, and if you can develop this attitude, then you too can accomplish any goal. While it took me some years to learn to work smarter, not harder, I can only hope as you read on that your success will be greater, faster and more secure than the results of many before you. I dug my hole slowly with my fingers, but with this 'shovel' you should be a lot more effective.

As you may have read earlier, my background taught me to 'do it as it needs to be done', persistence can achieve anything, and 'that little bit extra' pays off. You will need to develop these same attributes if you are to become fully successful. My first business years taught me the value of good working relations, many of the dos and don’ts of business, efficient costing, operational planning and the value of a good client or customer. These things are all available here for you.

You will soon find that mastering your own business activities can be stimulating and exciting and will lead you into all sorts of fresh interests and duties entirely relevant to your specific undertakings. If you take your time with this guide and ensure you are attentive to the data, your own commercial life could well be highly rewarding.

In taking your first steps, I suggest you work over a number of periods spread over perhaps a month, where your new thoughts and ideas should be committed to paper. At this early stage please don't concern yourself about how it will all happen, but just write out the core of your ideas. The bricks. Perhaps you could pencil in some of the forms supplied on our website (once set up), entitled ‘The Value of a Business Plan’. These will readily be built up and cemented later. In simple point form take some time to note out all you can think of that may be a part of the whole of your dream, and I assure you that developed slowly over a couple of weeks you will be able to ‘grow’ many of the missing pieces. Once you have a comprehensive list that you think is about enough, take a few days break and then see what you can do to set your list out in some form of sequential order of application. Interesting how many more ideas will arrive too.

One of the better things I can advise you to practice is to ‘sleep on it’. Regardless of the size of any issue that comes along I assure you, if you make a diary note with an intent to ‘deal with it tomorrow’, it will most certainly look a lot less daunting by the next day. Plan your new business with this system. Diarise any issues. Sleep on it. It could well resolve overnight. Tick as dealt with.

Another exercise you should take notes on is you. Take stock of yourself, your knowledge, interests, aspirations. You may just have a nag in the background that you wish life would improve for you, but don’t yet know how to make it happen. Stick at the reading, dreaming and noting down and it will begin to take shape and cement as you go. Just remember this; Every business in this world began as the dream of only one person. Maybe this is now your turn.

If you can create an idea of what it is you would really enjoy doing, what you believe you are or will be good at, what the public has an appetite for, what they may buy from you. If you believe you could run a shop, a factory or an office, (or even an airline) then this book is designed with you in mind, because it’s all totally possible. You only need make the decision to do it, use your initiative to put some solid thought into your early plans to help uncover the required steps. The exact same way as we all have to.

There needn't be limitation to your aspirations, as even substantial businesses can be established with correct planning, and often, money of your own or specific knowledge are not crucial factors to ownership. However, for you to achieve anything at any level you will have to ensure that you can cause others to have faith in you at the same level. This is how all business ultimately functions.

However, I don’t intend to get into this area quite yet and