Starting a business from home

Starting a Business from Home THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK ii Starting a Business from Home Choosing a business, getting online, reaching your market and making a profit Colin Barrow London and Philadelphia Publisher’s note Every possible effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this book is accurate at the time of going to press, and the publishers and authors cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, however caused No responsibility for loss or damage occasioned to any person acting, or refraining from action, as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by the editor, the publisher or any of the authors First published in Great Britain and the United States in 2008 by Kogan Page Limited Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licences issued by the CLA Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned addresses: 120 Pentonville Road London N1 9JN United Kingdom www.koganpage.com 525 South 4th Street, #241 Philadelphia PA 19147 USA © Colin Barrow, 2008 The right of Colin Barrow to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 The views expressed in this book are those of the author, and are not necessarily the same as those of Times Newspapers Ltd ISBN 978 7494 5194 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Barrow, Colin Starting a business from home : choosing a business, getting online, reaching your market and making a profit / Colin Barrow p cm Includes index ISBN 978-9-7494-5194-3 Home-based businesses– –Management New business enterprises– –Management Small business– –Marketing Success in business I Title HD62.38.B375 2008 658.181412– –dc22 2007048614 Typeset by JS Typesetting Ltd, Porthcawl, Mid Glamorgan Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall Contents Introduction Part Preparing for business Finding the right business opportunity Product or service 13; Classic ways into business 15; Employing other people’s ideas 17; Buying a business 20 13 Picking the right business for you Do you have what it takes? 25; Is the business right for you? 29 24 Researching the market Understanding customers 32; Segmenting markets 37; Analysing competitors 38; Carrying out DIY research 42 32 Business ownership and title issues Deciding on ownership 51; Naming your venture 55; Intellectual property matters 58 51 Part Getting up and running Operating from home Sizing up your space needs 67; Checking out the rules 73; Equipping for work 76; Finding suppliers 78; Insuring essentials 79; Planning your daily life 80 67 vi Contents Keeping the communication lines open Telephone systems 87; Mailroom matters 92; Computers: the vital tool 94; Security and back-up systems 96 87 Bringing your product to market Deciding on your product or service range 101; Promotion and advertising 104; Pricing 115; Distribution and selling 118; Marketing legals 124 101 Building and using your website Website basics 128; Getting seen 133; Designing your website 137 128 Doing the numbers Keeping the books 140; The business accounting reports 146; Understanding the numbers 155; Computing taxes 162 140 10 Raising the money 167 Estimating financing needs 167; Using your own resources 169; Borrowing money 172; Getting an investor 180; Free money 182 11 Preparing a business plan Why you need a business plan 185; Contents of the plan 186; Tips on communicating the plan 188 184 Part Growing the business 12 Taking on employees Recruitment and selection 195; Managing employees 202; Legal issues in employing people 204 195 13 Growing profitably Optimising resources 208; Improving profit margins 212; Bumping up sales 215 208 Contents vii 14 Starting up overseas Choosing a business-friendly country 222; Researching international markets 226; Money matters 229 221 Appendix 1: Home business help and advice Appendix 2: Directory of proven home businesses Index 238 245 257 THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK viii Introduction Running your own business may seem a daunting task when you first start to gather ideas together and make tentative plans Many would-be entrepreneurs after putting a toe in the water quickly pull back, reckoning that they don’t have the skills, that their business concept is not all that compelling or that raising the money is going to be challenging, expensive and altogether too risky a proposition Certainly most of the people you talk to will be only too ready to pour cold water in liberal doses all over your proposed product or service Your friends and loved ones through a sense of responsibility and perhaps even self-interest will naturally urge caution, preferring a safe regular salary to the apparent lottery of enterprise After all, everyone knows that most new businesses fail, often causing misery and penury to founders, family, partners and anyone foolhardy enough to supply or in any way get involved The first useful fact to know is that the rumour of calamities awaiting most new ventures is just that – an unfounded and incorrect piece of oftrepeated misinformation An exhaustive study of the eight-year destinations of all 814,000 US firms founded in a particular year revealed that just 18 per cent actually failed, meaning that the entrepreneurs were put out of business by their financial backers, lack of demand or competitive pressures (Bruce A Kirchhoff, 1994, Entrepreneurship and Dynamic Capitalism, Praeger Publishers, Westport, CT) True, some 28 per cent of businesses closed their doors voluntarily, their founders having decided for a variety of reasons that working either for themselves or for this particular type of business was just not for them But the majority of the businesses studied in Kirchhoff’s mammoth and representative study survived and in many cases prospered With a degree Starting a business from home of preparation, a fair amount of perspiration and a modicum of luck you can get started and may even, as in the case examples in this book, become a millionaire to boot The world of the self-employed Working for yourself from home can seem a lonely business Indeed loneliness is one of the most frequently quoted concerns cited to alarm prospective entrepreneurs Paradoxically there are probably more people running their own business than there are members of almost any other profession or trade There are certainly more entrepreneurs than there are doctors, surveyors, airline pilots or engineers So whilst you may feel alone and maybe even that you are held in low esteem the reality is rather different Facts and figures There are over 4.4 million people running their own business in the UK alone That is double the number of just two decades or so ago GEM (www gemconsortium.org), through their Global Entrepreneurship Monitor research programme headed up by Babson College in the United States, collect statistics from 41 countries on business starters and equally importantly would-be starters They rank the UK as being fairly average in terms of numbers GEM’s research indicates that in Europe there are around 30 million ownermanaged businesses and five times that figure across the developed world Research from various organisations including Lloyds Bank, NatWest and the Institute for Small Business Enterprise shed further light on the small business population and demographics No section of the public appears to be excluded from the small business world One in seven businesses are started by people over 50; just over a third of business proprietors are women; in 10 left school early and barely a quarter have a degree; immigrants are as likely to work for themselves as others; and interestingly enough those who start their business in their teens or early 20s are no more likely to fail than those in their 40s and 50s with a career in big business under their belt You can search out these and other related data on the Small Enterprise Research Team website (www.serteam.co.uk) Based at the Open University, SERTeam, as they are known, run both NatWest and Lloyds Bank’s long-standing small business research programmes, amongst other 250 Appendix  Clothes design, dressmaking, alterations, repairs and home sewing Tailor Finder (www.tailorfinder.co.uk > Find Alteration Tailors) will let you research the competition nearby, and reading the Blooming Marvellous story (www.bloomingmarvellous.co.uk) will inspire you with just how far you can take a business starting out with only a pair of scissors and a kitchen table Sewing.com (www.sewing.com) has a range of useful information for the home sewer, and Sew Essential (www.sewessential.co.uk) is a one-stop shop for everything in the sewing and needlecraft fields  Home ironing Whilst launderettes have taken the slog out of heavy washing loads, and incidentally have proved a successful business to live above, ironing is still an undersupplied service L H Ironing (www.lhironing.co.uk), set up in 1998 by two sisters, Jackie and Donna, and named after their two eldest children, Lucy and Harry, proves that there is money in this type of venture They offer a 24hour turnaround, essential for the B & B and holiday let markets, and will collect and deliver if needed They are always on the lookout for ironing assistants, so you could learn the trade before you start Hand Ironing Service (www.handironing.co.uk) is a family-run business that pride themselves on not using machines and offer as a USP that they operate in a 100 per cent smoke-free environment  Soft furnishings, curtains and upholstery Alongside the boom in the buy-to-let market has grown the need for high-quality but competitive home furnishings to make a property stand out from the herd The products have to be durable as well as fashionable The British Interior Design Association have a directory of all the training providers (www.bida.org > Career Information > Known Course Establishments) Elsewhere on the website is a directory of over 130 leading suppliers to the soft furnishings industry Conso (www.conso.com > Products > Work Room and Selling Aids > How to Brochures) is the world’s largest manufacturer of decorative trimmings, producing a full range of products The link is to their ‘do it yourself’ guides Meet customers online The internet is the classic business model for reaching the whole world with an extensive product range without necessarily leaving your home either to buy the products you are selling or to meet the customers face to face It is Appendix 251 also a business format that gives you maximum flexibility in the hours you work For the most part, once established a well-built e-business will run itself, and where work has to be done it makes little difference whether you it at am or pm Business opportunities The internet is a highly competitive arena, and the days when just having a website was a USP are long since past Functionality, design, speed and search engine visibility are all essential features whatever business you start in this sector As well as Chapter 3, ‘Researching the market’, and Chapter ‘Bringing your product to market’, read Chapter 8, ‘Building and using your website’ eBay and other auction houses There are dozens of auction houses you can plug into The list below is indicative rather than exhaustive Remember that all these sites are just windows on various worlds You need unique products and services and competitive prices and attractive and compelling propositions to stand out in these very crowded markets:  Abe Books (www.abebooks.co.uk > Sell Books) claim to be the world- wide number one among new, used and antiquarian book platforms and marketplaces, selling around 25,000 books worldwide They will handle payment and have a free inventory management software package It costs £17 a month to list up to 500 books and £200 for 15,000 and over A fee of per cent is charged on sales via their shopping basket payment and a further 5.5 per cent if Visa or MasterCard is used You have to ship the books yourself  Amazon (www.amazon.com > Marketplace) will list, take payment, insure and if required pick, pack and deliver your products through their distribution system Amazon provide tools to make it easy for you to upload inventory on to the website, and you can have an unlimited number of listings to sell to their millions of customers There is no fixed-term contract, and charges depend on the type of products sold 252 Appendix  eBay University (www.ebay.co.uk/university) You may only know eBay as a place to pick up a bargain and sell on last year’s ski gear when you move on to a snowboard Certainly, that’s one side of the business The other is the 160,000 or so people in the UK, PowerSellers as they are known, who make anything from a few hundred to tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds Enrolling in this university costs £49.99 and should give you a head start Other helpful sites include: the Federation of eBay Businesses (www.foeb.org); and the eBay and PowerSellers’ blog (www.tamebay.com)  GoECart (www.goecart.com), now in its seventh edition, does not charge any listing or transaction fees, and a merchant can open a store for around £900 a year That fee includes all you need to handle up to 1,000 products, a shop front, a trolley buying system, payment acceptance, fraud protection, complete order and stock management, web traffic statistics and claims to have the most search engine-friendly architecture You can view a free demo and receive a free 30-day trial of the GoECart storefront software on their website They are a good bit less expensive than eBay as a platform for selling online and to emphasise their competitiveness they offer seamless migration to eBay defectors  Ibidfree.com (www.ibidfree.com) was set up by Shane McCormack, a former eBay seller, with the proposition that you can have all the features of eBay but free Ibidfree.com was created as a perfect opportunity for people working from home trying to market their products without all of their profits being swallowed up by charges and fees The rules are few, and sellers differ from eBay sellers in that they are encouraged to place a link in their auctions back to their own websites They are also allowed to e-mail each other directly to allow for better communication  uBid.com (www.ubid.com), founded in 1997, went public in 2005 Its online marketplace provides merchants with an efficient and economical channel for selling on their surplus merchandise uBid.com currently carries over 200,000 items for auction or sale each day You have to become a certified merchant to sell on the site, which cuts down on fraud The fees are no sale, no fee, and then from 12.5 per cent down to 2.5 per cent on sales of over £500 You could consider starting your own online auction house The case study below is a good example, with an interesting twist To lend a bit of extra credibility the products being sold can be seen in the showroom Appendix 253 Founded in 2006 by Allison Earl Woessner, Auction Atrium (www auctionatrium.com) is an auction company for fine art, antiques and collectables in the £30 to £3,000 price bracket Auctions run for 7–10 days and bidders can come and inspect lots downstairs in their Notting Hill showroom Julian Costley, former CEO of E*Trade, joined the company as a non-executive director in September 2007, and the business is gearing up for expansion General online selling businesses There is virtually nothing that can’t be sold online This was amply demonstrated by a frustrated Belgian citizen who, tired of waiting for a government to be formed after their elections in 2007, put the country up for sale Bidding reached €10 million before the auction house pulled the plug and stopped the auction These are some examples of businesses that started out from very humble beginnings in the last three to five years in both the consumer and the industrial business sectors that have proved successful:  Consumer products Cosmetics, fashionable clothes and related products well on the internet However, many of the established players are big so new entrants have to measure up quickly Madeline Mansfield’s Smart Beauty (www.smartbeauty.eu), whilst starting out on the proverbial kitchen table, used the ‘eu’ website address, meaning they could have been located anywhere They have gone in for big stands at the Clothes Show every year to make them look a size or two bigger than they really are and to drive traffic to their online ordering system The Cosmetics Business (www.cosmeticsbusiness.com > market reports) is a good source of information on that industry, and Fashion Net (www fashion.net) is an online guide ‘to all things chic’  Consumer services Price comparison websites such as Moneysupermarket (see case below) and Calum Brannan’s PPLparty.com (www pplparty.com), a UK social networking site, have made their founders millionaires, in one case many times over  Business products Specialist sectors include Black Circles (www blackcircles.com), a tyre company started by Mike Welch when he was just 15 (now with annual turnover in excess of £1 million), and Adam Hildreth’s Crisp Thinking (www.crispthinking.com), which markets 254 Appendix the first internet abuse detection search engine aimed at internet service providers  Business services Robert Leigh’s Devono (www.devono.com) was set up from the outset as an internet business service provider serving the old-fashioned commercial property market Everyone else in his sector worked for the landlord, but he set his online stall out to work exclusively for tenants, offering them a professional standard of service Within four years Leigh had £2 million annual turnover Moneysupermarket (www.moneysupermarket.com), founded in a bedroom by Simon Nixon and Duncan Cameron in 1999, grew to have revenues in excess of £100 million barely a decade later By the summer of 2007, on the eve of its stock market float, it was valued at £1 billion, more than 30 times its previous year’s profits As the name would suggest, the business is an internet-based price comparator that started out in the financial services sector and now covers a myriad of other sectors including utilities, travel and general shopping The value proposition is that Moneysupermarket saves you hours surfing the net yourself But despite some fairly complicated technology the business model is little more than the tried-and-tested role of the intermediary or broker doing the sums for the client Go out to sell – stay home to service This business model keeps customers out of your home, but requires you to make periodic forays outside to drum up business If you need to be on hand to look after children or elderly relatives full time, this may not be a way that will work well for you In this sector you will need to hone your selling and promotional skills and drum up as much free PR as you can Check out Chapter 7, ‘Bringing your product to market’, where these topics are covered Appendix 255 Business sectors  Bookkeeping is a service needed by small businesses With 450,000       new businesses starting up each year, and few owner-managers with either the skills or the inclination to this work, the potential is good The Institute of Certified Bookkeepers (www.book-keepers.org > Where to Study) will point you in the direction of a course, which can be taken part time or by correspondence From a standing start you should be able to the books for a small business in three to six months In Chapter (‘Keeping the books’, page 140), you will see how the job is done and the range of inexpensive software that can make light work of big numbers Business consultancy is a classic start-at-home business, and the range of options is enormous The Institute of Management Consultancy merged with the Institute of Business Advisers in April 2007 to form the Institute of Business Consulting (www.ibconsulting.org.uk), which is the industry professional body for all consultants and business advisers Indexing The Society of Indexers (www.indexers.org.uk) is the professional body that can inform you about training, pricing and finding work, though it has to be said this is not the best-paid work on the block Market research and telephone selling are both sectors that pay on results, and as such measuring performance is relatively easy The Direct Marketing Association (www.dma.org.uk) is the professional body and you can find out about training, competitors and fees from them Online surveys are a way to make pin money, though the advertisements would suggest you could make more Websites such as UK Paid Surveys (www.ukpaidsurveys.co.uk) can bring work to you Property services such as holiday rentals, house hunting and property maintenance are increasingly popular home-start ventures Examples include: Holiday Lets (www.holidaylets.net), which was started in 1996 by two Cranfield students, Ross Hugo and Trevor Barnes, and now has 8,000 private owners signed up to let their holiday cottages anywhere from Australia to Wales; and Elite and VIP (www.eliteandvip com), which finds properties in Canada, New England, France, Italy and Spain Small-scale food preparation can be carried out at home, making soups, jams, cakes and the like One enterprising person decided that, rather 256 Appendix than work downstairs in her father’s Indian restaurant at night, she would use his kitchen by day to make and market a range of sauces to sell to local independent shops in the neighbourhood Intolerable Food Company (www.intolerablefood.com), based in a cottage in Sussex, and G Free (www.gfree.co.uk) are just two of the several hundred niche internet food suppliers Check Foods Matter (www.foodsmatter com/links/Specialist%Food.html) for links to a hundred or so small independent businesses in this space The Food Standards Agency (www.food.gov.uk) have information on all the legal and hygiene aspects of running a food business  Typing, word processing and virtual office support are services in demand from other small businesses Learn Direct (www.learndirect co > Find A Course) and the Institute of Qualified Personal Secretaries (www.iqps.org) are organisations that can help you brush up or acquire the skills and see how to set out your stall and succeed Index abbreviated accounts 165 ACAS 204 accountancy 53, 164–65, 198 bodies 183 accounting packages 145, 211 Accounting Standards Board 140, 155 accounts 4, 8, 35, 52, 54, 75, 103, 115, 120, 124–25, 129, 141, 143, 150–52, 154–55, 163–66 Acquisitions Monthly 218 advertisements 104, 111–12, 125, 198, 245 advertising 32, 109–10, 112, 136 cost 106 effectiveness 106 message 105 strategies 113 Advertising Association 111 Advertising Authority 125 adviser 119, 170 advisory services 243 after-sales service 116 AllConferences.com 210 Alliance & Leicester 169, 246 AltaVista 134 Amazon 17, 77, 91, 128 American Customer Satisfaction Index 134, 217 Angel Capital Association 231 Annual Abstracts 46 antivirus 100 AOL 134, 218 Applegate 78 aptitude tests 200 see also central tests, The British Psychological Society Arbitrators, Chartered Institute of 124 Asian Business Association 238 Asset Based Finance Association 178 Association of Chartered Certified Accountants 146 Association of Directory and Database Publishers 110 Association of Investment and Financial Advisers 170 auditing 54 Australian Competition and Consumer Commission 246 AVG Anti-Virus 100 back-ups 96–97, 121 Backup Direct 97 Bad Website Ideas 138 balance sheets 18, 152, 154–55, 209 bank account 79, 122, 174, 230 Banker, The 230 bank guarantees 174 bank loan 81, 148, 151, 167, 183 bankruptcy 179 Bankruptcy Acts 52 Barclaycard Merchant Service 123 Bartercard 78 258 Index bartering 78 BDO Stoy Hayward 22 benchmarking 239 Bizguides 169, 246 Black Business Association 238 blogs 47, 112 Body Shop 15–16, 19, 34, 56 bookkeeping 18, 32, 41, 68, 140, 145–46 147, 158, 255 brand name 78, 126 break-even analysis 158, 162 British Association of Beauty Therapy and Cosmetology 248 British Association of Women Entrepreneurs 239 British Banking Association 173, 230 British Franchise Association 18 British Psychological Society 200 British Rate and Data 109 British Venture Capital Association 182 Broadband Checker 131 Broadband Finder 131 building regulations 73 business angels 180–81, 186 business banking 19, 173 bank account finder tool 173 business cards 108, 171, 247 business expenses 163 Business Expenses Guide 165 Business Eye 239 Business Finance Directory 177 Business Incubation Centres 242 business insurance 74 Business Link 22, 54, 69, 74, 125, 127, 149, 166, 175, 183, 191, 205, 239 business magazines 183 Business Monitors 46 Business Partner Search 244 business plan 25, 65, 92, 113, 149, 158–59, 168, 174, 181, 183–89, 191, 239, 245 Business Plan Competition Directory 183 planning software 99 business rates 74, 159 business scams 246 Business Start-Up Assistant businessesforsale.com 23 business-to-business 78 directories 78 241 Canadian Federation of Independent Business 241 capital expenditure 153 Capital Gains Tax (CGT) 74 capital register 154 cash flow 147, 164, 176–77 forecast 168–69 projection 149–50 cashbook system 142 Central Tests 200 certified accountant 54 chambers of commerce 46, 183 Chartered Certified Accountants 146 Christie and Co 23 CIA World Factbook 224–25 Citizens Advice Bureau 169 Claim Evaluator 206–07 clients 4, 5, 8, 14, 16, 24, 32, 42, 80, 86, 220, 246–47, 254 commission 120, 216 agents 120 Companies Acts 54, 155 Companies House 52, 164 Companies Registration Office 56 company names 46, 55 competition 8, 13, 38, 101, 105, 115–16, 174, 183, 217, 250 confidentiality agreements 191 consultants 139, 197, 222, 255 consumer credit licence 127 consumers 34, 44, 107, 113, 125, 163, 253 contingency planning 171 contract of employment 196, 201, 205 copyright 59, 61, 228 Corruption Perceptions Index 225 cost of goods 151, 209 council tax 74 Course Plus 203 courts 59, 61, 123, 161 covenants 70, 74 Index Cranfield School of Management 184 credit cards 79, 120, 122, 171 credit control 240 Credit Management Research Centre 121 credit reference agency 179 Credit Service Agency 123 credit status 121 Credit Unions Online 176 creditors 52–53, 153, 209 creditworthiness 121–22, 178–79 current assets 152–53, 156, 209 current liabilities 152–53, 156, 209 customer base 216 customer loyalty 213 customer retention 213 customers 5, 6, 13–15, 32–33, 35–39, 41–43, 87–89, 102–03, 105–06, 121–22, 126–28, 131–32, 168, 177–78, 211–13, 216–19, 246–50 Cyprus: Ministry of Commerce 242 Daily Telegraph 22 Daltons Business 218 Data Protection Act 127, 206 Data Publishers Association 110 debit cards 132 debt collection agency 123 debtor control 211 Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform 175 depreciation 153–55, 165 design 4, 17, 25, 45, 51, 58, 61, 63, 94, 116, 228, 251 Direct Marketing Association 19 direct sales model 35 Direct Selling Association 19 Directory of British Associations 46 Directory of Design Consultants 139 Directory of IP Offices 228 disputes 81, 206 distance selling 126 distribution 18, 118, 121, 130 diversification 220 dividends 176, 180, 211 domain names 55-57 application 57 double-entry bookkeeping system double taxation agreements 233 due diligence 181 259 143 Easy Shop Maker 132 EasyJet 118 Easy Searcher 2, 40 eBay 130, 251 e-business 251 eBusiness Clubs 239 e-mail 13, 18–19, 48, 58, 87, 90–92, 95, 97, 104, 126, 186, 201 employee records 206 employees 7, 56, 108, 118, 127, 162, 165, 193, 195–97, 199, 201–03, 205–07, 213–14, 240 Employer Pack 165 employment law 124, 195, 207 see also Monster’s Employment Law enterprise agencies 240–41 equipment 18, 20, 67–68, 76–77, 79, 98, 163, 176–77, 201, 212, 245 equity 170, 180, 231, 242 providers 231 e-tail platforms 130 European Association of Database Publishers 110 European Business Angels Network 181, 231 European Commission Portal for SMEs 242 European Union Grant Advisor 183 European Venture Capital Association 182 Euro Info Centres 227 Every Woman 239 exchange rates 229 exhibitions 26, 113 expanding overseas 231 expenditure 4, 43, 140, 150, 163, 168 expenses 120, 141, 143–44, 147, 154, 165, 214 Experian 121, 179 export markets 227 failure 53, 202 failure rate 218 260 Index fair pricing 115 family pressures 28 fax machines 91, 98 Federation of European Direct and Interactive Marketing 19 Federation of Small Businesses 239 field research 44–45, 48 Finance and Leasing Association 177 financial advisers 18, 170 Financial Markets Association 232 Financial Reporting Standards for Smaller Entities 140 financial year 164 financing 149, 169, 174, 180, 209 methods 167–68 FindArticles.com 210 First Tuesday 240 fixed assets 153–54, 160, 168, 209 fixed costs 159–62 Food Standards Agency 256 Forum of Private Business 240 France: L’Agence pour la Création d’Entreprises 242 franchising 18–20, 227 fraud 245 freelancers 139 furniture 4, 77, 79 Gateway2investment 240 gearing 157, 253 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Global Office Search 72 goods 38, 42, 56, 62, 105, 122, 126, 129–30, 147, 150–51, 163, 177–78, 209, 212, 214 Google 28, 100, 112, 134–35, 218 Google AdWords 136 Google Finance 218 GoToMyPC 96 gross profit 150–51, 161–62, 209, 212 gross profit margin 212 growth strategies 208, 213, 220 Hairdressing and Beauty Suppliers Association 248 hardware 90, 98 Harvard Business School 158 Health and Safety Executive 73, 206 hiring equipment 176 HM Revenue & Customs 36, 75, 163, 165–66 holidays 34, 44, 86, 129, 201, 206 Hollis Press and Public Relations Annual 115 homeworking.com 240, 246 Hong Kong Trade Development Council 242 Hotmail 91 Human Development Index 226 Iambeingfired.co.uk 206 import/export clubs 227 import/export markets 46 income 6, 44, 140, 150, 232–34, 249 incorporation 241 Indian Government National Portal 242 Innovation Relay Centres 242 innovations 3, 16, 58–59, 63, 101, 183, 243 Institute for Public Policy Research 221 Institute for Small Business Enterprise Institute of Certified Bookkeepers 146 Institute of Chartered Accountants 146 Institute of Credit Management 121 Institute of Directors 240 Institute of Patentees and Inventors 63 insurance 73–74, 79, 80, 95, 135, 177 intellectual property 17, 58, 62, 124, 191, 228, 244 International Association of Bookkeepers 146 International Business Owners Survey 225 International Finance Corporation 242 internet 4, 17, 36, 44, 46, 49, 56–57, 87–88, 95–96, 110, 112–13, 126, 128–33, 137, 139, 250–51 access 92 businesses 17 cafés 90, 92 internet service provider 4, 57, 91, 97, 131, 254 Index Internet Advertising Bureau 113 internet banking 173 investors 45, 168, 180, 187, 189, 231, 240 invoice discounter 168, 178 invoices 56, 108, 141, 143–44, 163, 177–78 Irish Small and Medium Enterprise Association 243 Italian Institute for Foreign Trade 243 job advertisements 198 Jobcentre Plus 197 journals 44, 109, 143, 145 Kelly’s directories 46 key patent databases 63 keynote 40, 226 keywords 112, 135, 137, 174 Kompass 46, 78 late payers 123 law 8, 53, 59–61, 123–24, 126, 205, 215, 240 Lawyer Locator 229 lawyers 61, 181, 214, 228, 240 leaflets 9, 41, 85, 107–08 Learn Direct 84 leases 177 leasing association 177 ledgers 140–41, 143–44 liabilities 53–54, 75, 143, 147, 152–54 libraries 44–45, 63, 165 licences 59, 61, 125, 222–23, 249 limited companies 53, 56, 146, 164–65, 174, 180, 240 limited partnership 53, 180 listbroker.com 109 List-Link International 227 loans 52, 79, 158, 172, 174–76, 242 terms 179 Local Exchange Trading Scheme 171 logos 34, 56, 58, 62, 228 long-term loan 153, 168 lost orders 217 MacReviewZone 95 261 magazines 36–38, 109–10, 114, 182, 198, 241 mail forwarding 93 mail order 126 catalogues 25 maintenance 6, 27, 177 Malta Enterprise 243 management 35, 172, 184, 202 accounts 154 team managers 172, 202 Manufacturers’ Agents’ Association 120 margin of safety 147, 161 margins 212 market data 46 market niches 9, 41 market research 24, 36, 42–45, 50, 103, 105, 226–27, 239 market segments 37–38, 101, 111, 116, 219 Merchant Account Forum 133 Money Supermarket 88 Monster’s Employment Law 206 Mortgage Sorter 170 Multi-Level Marketing International Association 19 mystery shopping 213 National Federation of Enterprise Agencies 240 National Insurance 165–56 National Readership Survey 109 National Venture Capital Association 182 NationMaster 225 neighbours 15, 67, 69, 70, 73, 75, 86, 201 Neilson NetRatings 113 network marketing 19, 20 networking 83, 239 new businesses 3, 4, 24, 35–36, 43, 76, 102, 108–09, 117, 121, 136, 147, 177, 221 new employees 201–02, 205 New Zealand: Ministry of Economic Development 243 newspapers 37, 109, 126, 182, 198 noise 28, 72–73, 85 262 Index non-disclosure agreements 191 non-executive director 253 office equipment 44, 176 Office of Fair Trading 122, 127 online auction house 252 online brochures 128 online directories 146, 181–82 online forums 242 online surveys 45 Online Ad Networks 131 operating profit 151, 157, 209 order tracking 15 orders 4, 27, 50, 56, 58, 90, 104–06, 132, 147, 149, 151, 157, 168, 217–18, 224 Outdoor Advertising Association of Great Britain 111 overdrafts 26, 149, 151–53, 158, 174–75, 178, 209, 211 overtrading 149 owner 21, 55–56, 62, 81, 140, 152, 158, 174, 177, 181, 186 owner-managed businesses 2, 3, 240 paperwork 8, 205, 223 part-timers 196, 205 partners 52–53, 58, 65, 84, 105, 118–19, 189, 200, 243–44 Partnership Act 52–53 partnership agreement 53 patent agents 61–62 Patent Office 60, 62 patents 16–17, 27, 59, 60, 117, 228 PAYE 165 payment methods 136, 164 PayScale.com 229 PayPal 132 payroll 54, 105, 146, 166 pensions 205, 241 calculator 170 performance clause 61 personal guarantee 54 petty cash book 143 Planning Doctor 73 planning permission 71, 73 Portugal: Agencia de Inovaçao 243 powerline networks 98 presentation skills 190 press release 114–15, 135, 230 price lists 91, 100, 108 pricing 115–16, 224 PRIME Initiative 241 Prince’s Trust 241 Private Company Price Index 22 Private Equity and Venture Capital Directory 231 PR Made Easy 115 productivity 6, 7, 100, 223 products 13–19, 32–35, 38–39, 43, 50, 60–62, 77–78, 99–105, 107, 109–13, 115–23, 125–31, 134–35, 159, 161, 216–19 product/service mix 14, 213 professional advice 75, 215, 228 profitability 38, 147, 213 profit margins 104, 130, 132, 208–09, 213 projections 147, 149, 189 promotion 45, 101, 104, 112, 118 prospective customers 104–05 public liability 79 qualifications 198, 201, 205 quality 56, 77, 99, 102, 111, 115, 128, 224, 226 standards 239 radio 106, 111, 126 Radio Joint Audience Research Ltd 112 rates 28, 34, 54, 68, 132, 148, 163–65, 182, 220, 245 recommendation 119 record-keeping system 206 recruitment 18, 19, 195, 199, 205, 210, 238 Recruitment and Employment Confederation 197 redundancy 169 referrals 216–17 refunds 122, 126 rejection rate 202 re-mortgaging 170 rent 4, 7, 20, 70, 144, 159, 209, 220 Index reorder stock level 211 researching the market 246, 251 reseller partners 119 restrictions 52, 70, 131, 223 revenues 137, 254 Royal Bank of Scotland plc 19 Royal Mail 94, 121 safety 34, 73–74, 147, 161, 206, 240, 247, 249 hazards 206 Safety Executive 73, 206 salary 120, 165–66, 201 vs dividends 166 sale of goods 38, 126 Sale and Supply of Goods and Services 126 sales calls 105 sales invoice 144 sales tax satisfaction questionnaire 217 scam businesses 240 Scambusters 246 Scottish Enterprise 239 search engines 56, 107, 112, 133–36 marketing 136 optimisation 133 rankings 133, 136 Search Engine Guide 134, 136 Search Engine Watch 134 selling online 129, 253–54 selling skills 120, 195 service charges 220 service costs 97 set-up costs 90, 123, 131 share capital 53 shareholders 53–54, 140, 223 shares 22, 52–53, 58, 103, 129, 180, 191, 220 short-term money 168 single annual return 164 skills 9, 30, 52, 60, 84, 126, 171, 195–98, 202, 226, 247 sleeping partner 53 Small Business Administration 3, 9, 244 Small Business Directory 84 263 Small Business Rate Relief 74 Small Claims Court 124 Small Enterprise Development Agency 243 Small Enterprise Research Team Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme 175 Snoop4Companies 179 software 45, 68, 79, 88, 94, 99, 100, 129, 138, 147, 206 sole trader 52, 56, 164 South Africa: The Small Enterprise Development Agency 243 Spain: Invest in Spain 243 space needs 68 Standards 102, 125, 158 Star Office 100 start-up costs finance 65 statutory minimum wage 205 stock 4, 18–19, 21–22, 79, 142, 147, 149– 50, 152–53, 156–57, 159–60, 167–68, 172, 193, 208–09, 211–12, 222 stock management 211 supplier credit 168, 178 suppliers 5, 14, 39, 70, 72, 78, 80, 87, 89, 107, 131, 144, 178–79, 217–18, 222, 226 surge protection 97–98 surveys 49, 217, 225, 230 sweat equity 171 tax 3, 54, 74, 111, 146, 148, 150–52, 157, 162–66, 209, 212, 214–15, 232–33, 235, 237, 240 authorities 154, 163 inspectors 140 rates 164 reducing 214–15 return 52, 142, 164 Taxation Web 215 technical support 100 telebusinesses 241 telemarketing 87 telesales 120 Telework Association 241 term loans 175 264 Index Thomas Global Register 227 time management 83 trade associations 46 Trade Associations Forum 47 Trade Marks Journal 62 trade shows 113 trademark 55, 57, 62, 228 agent 55 registration 59 Trading Standards 126 Training 18, 84, 129, 206, 239–40, 243 TranslatorsCafe 228 Transparency International (TI) 225 Turkey: Turkish British Chamber of Commerce and Industry 244 turnover 18, 22, 39, 162, 165, 178, 211 UK Domicile Status 236 UK Trade & Investment 113, 241 unfair dismissal 206–07 unit variable costs 160–61 United States: Small Business Administration 244 utilities 79, 209, 214, 254 Valuation Office Agency 74 valuing a business 21–22 variable costs 159–61 Value Added Tax (VAT) 3, 52, 120, 141, 145–46, 148, 152, 163–64, 166 venture capital 181–82 Virtual Learning Arcade 162 viruses 96, 100 visibility 110, 136 VoIP 88, 91 wages 147–48, 150, 167 warehousing 15 Web Design Directory 139 Web Guide 132 Web Marketing Association’s WebAwards 132 Webrecruit.com 199 websites 5, 10, 19, 35, 37, 78, 90, 93, 97, 112, 127–39, 146, 167–68, 181–82, 219–20, 238–44 website creation 138 building tool 139 see also Bad Website Ideas What if projections 149 WiFi 72, 92 Wordtracker 136 Work-at-Home Scams 246 working capital 18, 152–53, 156–57, 168, 170, 209–10 workload 203 workspace 72, 77, 81 World Factbook 224 World Franchise Council 227 World Intellectual Property Organization 244 World Leasing Yearbook, annual 177 World Market Research Associations 228 WorldPay 133 Worldwide-Tax 229, 230 writing down allowance 154 Yahoo 91, 134–35 Yellow Pages 107, 111, 228 Zoomerang 45 ... can get into business taking fewer market risks and keep all the gains if and when they arise Advantages and disadvantages of buying a business Buying a business has a number of advantages and... that is valuable rather than just having a wage whilst making someone else’s business valuable The disadvantages Starting a business whether from home or elsewhere is not a one-way bet There are... degree Starting a business from home of preparation, a fair amount of perspiration and a modicum of luck you can get started and may even, as in the case examples in this book, become a millionaire