Ducks need to be in a row!

Starting a business ? Get your ducks in a row…..

So you have an idea, a skill, a need…..

Then you set up a business

Welcome to the world of self employment.

Being self employed for the best part of my entire career - I personally told both my children to work for the ‘man’ or indeed the woman as the case may be.

It’s just that being self employed is TOUGH.

And as a mother you want to protect your children and create the best opportunities for them possible. So you reflect on your challenges and your battles and you want them to avoid these pitfalls. Its kinda like when they first walk - you want to save them from every fall until you learn that they need to fall to enable them to learn their boundaries and most of all to discover their achilles heel.

And so it is in your business - the great idea permeates into a shop, a factory, a van, an online site.

Now its time to get those ducks in a row.

• Get advice - engage an accountant who understands business and who you relate to. Not all accountants were born equal Engaging an accountant is like speed dating. The date doesn't have to be love at first sight but it needs to have relationship potential - you need to know when the bell rings that you can know that you WANT to have coffee with that accountant. Why? Because you want to marry their brain!
  

• Be attentive to details - and if you are not - engage a bookkeeper - they are PEDANTIC about 2 things - DETAILS and DETAILS - they are determined that the numbers need to balance and make sense. They are the absolute go to for a great number 1. They work together to ensure your figures are accurate and complete. Get this speed date right and you will be in heaven. Number 1 will thank you too !
  

• Fail - most of all be prepared to SUCK at something - have a crap product, an awkward customer, a nasty review - this will teach you so much more about yourself and your business than surrounding your self with people who tell you how great your idea is. If in doubt consult 1 and perhaps 2 - they will tell you the UGLY TRUTH - that's their job!

• Be brave - know that not everyone has the sheer guts to put themselves on the line to do this - its takes a special person to risk.
  

• Embrace tech to do the ‘heavy lifting’ - engage number 1 and 2 to ensure you take the ‘heavy lifting’ out of the grunt work in small business. They have endless ideas on how to make your business efficient. Buzz words - Xero Receipt Bank Bank feeds - you name it - they know it
  

Its all about process, structure and relationships - this leaves you to create and foster those great ideas.